Transitional pieces?

**bowtie427ss** · June 12th, 2007, 06:48 PM

I have for some time subscribed to the understanding that 755's made by WE had 6 welds securing the return pot, and Altec manufactured 755's had only 3, and possibly a smaller vent opening.

These seem to have passed WE's QC, yet bear Altec decals.

I thought they are a nice clean pair with enough exception and of enough interest to be worthy of a post.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...139715081&rd=1

**J Stover** · July 7th, 2007, 01:56 PM

Hi, I bought those speakers -- mainly out of long standing curiosity about 755a's. Now I've got to figure out the best way to use them. There seems to be 2 ways to go: 2 cubic foot boxes or open baffles. I'm leaning toward the boxes. It would be great to find WE or Altec enclosures, but no luck with that at all. BTW, the speakers sound pretty good all by themselves. No substitute for VOT's though. Regards, John

**Audio_by_Goodwill** · July 8th, 2007, 08:38 PM

I have for some time subscribed to the understanding that 755's made by WE had 6 welds securing the return pot, and Altec manufactured 755's had only 3, and possibly a smaller vent opening.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I have a single KS 14703 labeled 755A. It has 3 welds and 6 screws covered in black "stuff". I think KS stands for Kearney Systems that was supposedly a subsidiary of WE. I don't know if they actually manufactured WE replacement parts, or just sold regular production WE parts, as replacements. Do you know any better/different?

**Steve Schell** · July 8th, 2007, 10:08 PM

As I understand the story, Western Electric had what they called a "procurement depot" at their Kearney, NJ facility. The KS stands for "Kearney Specification" and indicates that the goods were made for W.E. by an outside supplier.

Western Electric was forced to sign a consent decree with the U.S. Government in 1949, and agreed to cease manufacture of their loudspeakers and microphones. A full page ad by W.E. appeared in Audio Engineering magazine in late 1949, announcing that some of these products would continue to be manufactured by Altec Lansing.

**Audio_by_Goodwill** · July 9th, 2007, 01:24 AM

Originally posted by Steve Schell:
The KS stands for "Kearney Specification" and indicates that the goods were made for W.E. by an outside supplier.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Bummer, I had hoped/assumed that I had a Western Electric made driver.

Is it known who the outside suppliers were? ... more than just Altec?

**bfish** · July 9th, 2007, 02:35 AM

The WE ad (4th image from bottom of page) Steve mentioned seems to imply Altec was the vendor for the models listed, at least at the time (1949).

**Steve Schell** · July 9th, 2007, 05:38 AM

Thanks bfish; that's the ad.

Joseph Esmilla has assembled some comprehensive notes on the 755 series on his web site. I wrote to him awhile back and he added my letter to his 755 pages.

http://members.myactv.net/~je245/755survey.htm

BTW, the SPL and impedance curves (blue graphs) are from the archives of a now deceased RCA engineer. Like most manufacturers, RCA tested the competition's products. These measurements are from RCA's "competitive loudspeaker data sheets" compiled on the W.E. 755A in 1947. They must have been taken aback by that impressively smooth and extended response curve!

**Audio_by_Goodwill** · July 12th, 2007, 04:04 AM

Originally posted by Steve Schell:
Joseph Esmilla has assembled some comprehensive notes on the 755 series on his web site. I wrote to him awhile back and he added my letter to his 755 pages.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That's really the only place I've found much info on the 755 series..... although, it appears that I read it long enough ago to mis-remember some of the details.

BTW, the SPL and impedance curves (blue graphs) are from the archives of a now deceased RCA engineer. Like most manufacturers, RCA tested the competition's products. These measurements are from RCA's "competitive loudspeaker data sheets" compiled on the W.E. 755A in 1947. They must have been taken aback by that impressively smooth and extended response curve!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Very Interesting...... I never thought about finding information on old drivers in that manner before!

So it appears likely that my driver is/was from that transition period from WE to Altec..... I guess that's not too bad :-) ....wish I could find another for $10/$15 like my current one :-)