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Thread: Early 515 woofers with leather surrounds???

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    Senior Hostboard Member Elitopus1's Avatar
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    Early 515 woofers with leather surrounds???

    These are on ebay for 3,600 each. Did the paper surround fail, and someone replaced it with leather? Or did these actually come this way from the factory?

    I have never heard a pair of the older phenolic spider, paper surround 515 but I hope to some day

    Altec Lansing 515 Hollywood | eBay

    No affilation

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    Senior Hostboard Member bowtie427ss's Avatar
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    Re: Early 515 woofers with leather surrounds???

    Ridiculous cob job. Factory leather surrounds were done much more neatly than that. RCA did quite a few with leather surrounds, i'll snap a pic of a factory leather surround in a few and post it here later.
    Not all vegetables make good leaders.

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    Senior Hostboard Member Elitopus1's Avatar
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    Re: Early 515 woofers with leather surrounds???

    So I take it 515's were never made with factory leather surrounds? I have seen it on other speakers but never on an Altec.

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    Senior Hostboard Member bowtie427ss's Avatar
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    Re: Early 515 woofers with leather surrounds???

    Quote Originally Posted by Elitopus1 View Post
    So I take it 515's were never made with factory leather surrounds? I have seen it on other speakers but never on an Altec.
    I'm hesitant to say "never", it's Altec after all. But IMO, if Altec did use leather surrounds on anything it would have been on some of the very early field coil stuff.

    The RCA driver i'm going to show you is from the mid/late 20's, OEM to a top of the line Stromberg Carlson console radio, model 12 i think. You'll like the spider, it's similar in shape to the altec phenolic spider(well sorta), but much smaller, mounted internally to the voice coil former, and made of fairly thin gun blued spring steel.

    [IMG]rca20fc20sc zpszpwsw6az[/IMG]
    Last edited by bowtie427ss; July 16th, 2016 at 02:49 PM.
    Not all vegetables make good leaders.

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    Senior Hostboard Member Elitopus1's Avatar
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    Re: Early 515 woofers with leather surrounds???

    Quote Originally Posted by bowtie427ss View Post
    I'm hesitant to say "never", it's Altec after all. But IMO, if Altec did use leather surrounds on anything it would have been on some of the very early field coil stuff.

    The RCA driver i'm going to show you is from the mid/late 20's, OEM to a top of the line Stromberg Carlson console radio, model 12 i think. You'll like the spider, it's similar in shape to the altec phenolic spider(well sorta), but much smaller, mounted internally to the voice coil former, and made of fairly thin gun blued spring steel.

    forums[/IMG]

    That is cool how the spider is mounted. Is that like a 1" VC on that woofer? I notice that a lot of the really old WE drivers have really small VC's also. Were they unable to build bigger magnets at that time or was it harder to make a bigger coil that would keep its round?

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    Senior Hostboard Member bowtie427ss's Avatar
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    Re: Early 515 woofers with leather surrounds???

    Without measuring i'd say it's about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inches in diameter.

    When it comes to the magnet, think "field coil".

    Remember, this is an early speaker, 1920's, maybe into the early 30's at best. They could not yet make a uniform paper cone without a seam.

    [IMG]rca20fc20sc202 zps39hj0xfh[/IMG]
    Not all vegetables make good leaders.

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    Senior Hostboard Member analog addict's Avatar
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    Re: Early 515 woofers with leather surrounds???

    Quote Originally Posted by Elitopus1 View Post
    These are on ebay for 3,600 each. Did the paper surround fail, and someone replaced it with leather? Or did these actually come this way from the factory?

    I have never heard a pair of the older phenolic spider, paper surround 515 but I hope to some day

    Altec Lansing 515 Hollywood | eBay

    No affilation
    You ever passing thru Raleigh. NC, I can accommodate that wish...
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Analog Addict - Jack of all Trades, Master of None
    Searching for Sonic Nirvana...

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    Senior Hostboard Member Elitopus1's Avatar
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    Re: Early 515 woofers with leather surrounds???

    Quote Originally Posted by analog addict View Post
    You ever passing thru Raleigh. NC, I can accommodate that wish...
    Thank you for the offer. If I am passing through the area I will definitely take you up on that. I have seen pics of your basement setup. Looks pretty impressive

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    Senior Hostboard Member Steve Schell's Avatar
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    Re: Early 515 woofers with leather surrounds???

    As they say in retail, "If you can't fix it, feature it!" Those leather surrounds on the auction drivers are of course an awful ham-fisted botch job. No leather surrounds since the early 1930s Lansing radio speakers AFAIK. Perhaps if they added a few more exclamation points to the item description...

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    Senior Hostboard Member bowtie427ss's Avatar
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    Re: Early 515 woofers with leather surrounds???

    Glad to see you checking in, Steve!
    Not all vegetables make good leaders.

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