Altec 617-8a

[misterpoorboy]

Altec 617-8A

I just purchased 28 complete units enclosed in 24"x15"x20" sturdy birch plywood cabinets (as with most things they don't make plywood like this anymore). I was the successful bidder in a private auction held by The Calgary Stampede organization here in Calgary Alberta, Canada. They were the indoor PA system speakers hanging in the grandstand at the horse racing track. To my suprise and pleasure, the elderly gentleman I talked to in maintenance when I went to view them, turned out to be the guy who built all the cabinets back in the seventies when they first installed them. he was like a living time capsule. He knew all about them, built them all and also hung them all ( they were suspended about 20-25 ft in the air pointing down on about a 45o angle.). he said they were the latest thing back then. They were operated at 70 volt from one source using the matching transformer system on the back and attached to the inside of the cabinet. I was suprised at the size of the magnet on this speaker. Also the overall weight since I had to remove all the brackets and lug these units all down from the 5th floor and put them in my Ford Escort 4 at a time, lol.
The units all appear to be in remarkable condition, they look brand new. Besides the obvious application they filled for the last 30+ years, I am not sure what other applications these may be suitable for. ???
I found one on Ebay and based on it's selling price I realize that I stand to make a tidy little profit if I took the time to sell them on various sites.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...0483&rd=1&rd=1
I always liked Altec, I have a pair of Baby santana's that I used to power my Heathkit mono blocks through and they sound beautiful. if I was to try these out as home speakers would I just wire them directly to the speaker connection posts directly(?), bypassing all the stuff on the back? Would these be any good for guitar or bass amp speakers?
Any suggestions or input would be greatfully appreciated.

Cheers

martin

[Steve Schell]

Hi Martin,

Wow, 28 of them! I am sure you will make money on these, but you might want to keep some for yourself too. They will probably sound quite good for stereo, and might make very good home theatre surrounds as well.

I don't have any direct experience with these, but seems to me that you should make connections before the crossover but after the impedance matching transformer. You should probably disconnect the transformer completely.

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...pro/page16.jpg

[Old Guy]

Be aware though that Ebay auction went a bit high- I've seen a number sell for half that.
It's not a "baby 604".

The high end is actually University Sound based if I'm not mistaken.

I've used them quite successfully as stage monitor wedges.

They are decent speakers. Wish you well with them.

[Old Guy]

Here is a link to the data sheet- sorry meant to include it.

http://alteclansingunofficial.nlenet...17-8A-Data.pdf

[magnarc]

The largest auditorium of the cinema triple I worked at in the 90s had 8 of these as surrounds. Sound was good and the spread across a 650 seat cinema was wide and consistent.