Stonehenge II Woofer

[voice of the theater]

Does anybody know if this is an authentic/original Stonehenge II woofer? Thanks in advance!!

Vintage ALTEC LANSING STONEHENGE II SPEAKER woofer working 12" | eBay

[bowtie427ss]

it's a correct Stonehenge I woofer 023691.

Stonehenge II takes a 33555 which was similar to the stamped steel frame woofer in an early model 15.

[voice of the theater]

Thanks Bowtie! They didn't look right to me even though the Ebay link I posted showed that the seller claims they're Stonehenge II woofers. For one thing I thought Stonehenge II woofers were supposed to have a foam surround. After reading your reply, I did a search here and found this post from 13 years ago--Jim Butler claims Stonehenge II woofers are the same as the early Model 9 woofer (which I'm aware is the same as the early Model 15 and early Santana II woofer) but you seem sure that it's similar to the early Model 15 woofer but not the same.

Stonehenge II

The reason I'm interested is that I bought a pair of Stonehenge II's a couple of weeks ago from Craigslist for $50. The seller had them listed much higher, eventually listed them at $75 when they didn't sell, and I stopped by and pointed out that they didn't have the original woofers so he took $50. I knew right off the bat from the CL listing that the woofers weren't original (their ribbed cone was a dead giveaway).





The surprising thing is that they sound amazing with the non-original woofers. Plenty of low end and lower mids (the crossover frequencies for the Stonehenge II are 500 Hz and 5 kHz). The midrange from the midrange driver is unbelievable. The reason I wanted these was to get a couple of spare tweeters for my Santana II's (they use the same tweeter). I own two pair of Santana II's and two of the four tweeters are really nice and bright sounding, and two are more muffled sounding and don't produce as much signal/less efficient. (I'm guessing they were abused) I figured that for the $75 he was asking it would be worth it to get two "good" tweeters for the Santana II's. Well, not only were both tweeters "mint" sounding, but these Stonehenge II's blow the Santana II's out of the water! Mids to die for, nice crisp highs (the CTS tweeters that Altec used really are in mint sounding condition which I don't take for granted any more) and the replacement woofers sound surprisingly good/balanced with the rest of the drivers (once I dialed in the two crossover pots on each speaker and found the "sweet spot"). The Stonehenge II's don't sound as good as my Model 14's or 19's of course, but they really sound great even when I do an A/B comparison against the 14's or 19's--but not quite as good of course.

One pair of my Santana II speakers have the earlier 12" woofer frame as opposed to the later 13 1/2" frame but the woofers are REALLY stuck in the cabinets. I'm not sure I can get them out. Do you think those woofers are very close sounding to the originals--should I try to pry them out or are they pretty different sounding from the originals?

[bowtie427ss]

According to the '75 reference guide the part number for the early model nine woofer is 23897. I'd wager your early Santana II woofers are the same or very close.

Use a blow dryer on low/med and warm up the mounting rim of the basket. Take your time, slow and steady wins the race, the idea is to get it warm thru without overheating anything. The heat will help loosen any migrated adhesive from the rear gaskets, or cabinet finish or resin that may contribute to sticking.

IMO, the midranges in those SH II's are well worth your entry fee. I would most definitely sacrifice a pair of Santana's to preserve a pair of those in a heartbeat.

[voice of the theater]

Thanks for the advice on removing the stuck woofers. I'll try to get them out and then do an A/B test. I'll install one Santana II woofer into one of the Stonehenge II's, and A/B compare it to the other Stonehenge II with the ribbed replacement woofer that is currently in it. If the Santana II woofer sounds better in the Stonehenge II than the ribbed replacement woofer, those two 12" (old style) Santana woofers will have a new home in the Stonehenge II's. I can always keep an eye on Ebay for another pair of Santana II (old style 12") woofers to put back into the Santana II's at some point.

Yes, those midrange drivers in the Stonehenge II's sound incredible. I've always been a fan of Altec's "midrange magic", and the mids that come out of those Stonehenge II's rival the mids from much more expensive speaker systems. I really didn't expect to like the Stonehenge II's that much, but they are a great sounding speaker system IMO...