VOTT's in Germany

[eisbär]

Here in Europe you can wait for years and don't find an original VOTT offered. Now we have two candidates at the same time: An A7 and an A5. Accoding to the descriptons both seem to be original. True? The backs of the A7 are just dismounted for the photos.

http://cgi.ebay.de/Altec-Voice-of-th...QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.de/ALTEC-A5-VOICE-OF...QQcmdZViewItem

Not mine and I will probably not go for them (though I'd love to) since I should keep my pocket closed - oh lord send me a winner in the lottery. Here the winning bids are quite often reasonably higher compared to those you're discussing on the board or linking to in the us-bay. What would be a fair price in the us for these? I need orientation if I loose my mind and get tempted.

The difference between a 515 and 416 is widely discusse here but what I'd like to know is: The seller of the A5 says you need a minimum listening distance of 2.4 meters/7.9 ft. Correct? While I'd love to get the whole midrange from a single driver I wonder wether these big horns can be used at home.

Regards
Ralph

[bfish]

Hi Ralph,

I looked at the pics (can't read Deutsch, or spell it either).

The A7s look like late '50s or early '60s models. Roughly $800-1,200 US$/pr in working condition. Driver performance is more "iffy" due to their age.

The A5s are much newer, '80s or '90s. More like $1,200-1600. Should play as new unless abused.

Neither was designed for home use, but lots of them end up there. They do sound best at a distance (more like 7-8M though). That's where you begin to perceive each system as a single source. In that regard, the A7 would be more suitable to nearer listening at home.

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ February 07, 2008 09:29 PM: Message edited by: bfish ]</font>

[eisbär]

bfish, thanks a lot for your reply!!!!
You're definitely right: I forgot to translate the basics of the descriptions. Sorry everyone. But I hope most of you can go with the pics and the numbers given for the woofers, horns and compression drivers. However, I add them here:

A7: 416-16A woofer; 806A driver; H811-B horn
A5: 515E woofer; 288-16K driver; 1005B horn

And thanks a lot for your value outlines. They're really helpful to me. See the A7 has a starting bid of 2.000 Euros. Regardless wether it's serious or not it's much more than you'd pay. Well adding shippng costs and customs duties you may end up the same ...

However, most important for me is your advice for the distance. I can't manage 7 or 8 meters. Maybe 6 but thats definitely the max. So I'll keep my fingers off them. To be honest I shouldn't even think of them but sometimes I start dreaming ...

Thanks for your help
Ralph

[bfish]

You're welcome Ralph,

The drivers for the A7s are newer than I thought, more like early '70s.

Originally posted by eisb?r:
...I can't manage 7 or 8 meters. Maybe 6 but thats definitely the max...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I should clarify. The distance isn't a day/night thing. You might find 6M from A7s very satisfying. Many folks do at even closer range. Altec did market A7s for home use, even though they were originally intended for larger venues. I don't think A5s were ever targeted at home use though.

Still, $2K would buy new drivers from GPA, wood for DIY cabs, and leave quite a bit of change.

[Ronald Lee]

eisb?r: 7 or 8 meters is a pretty big room in Europe, and a decent size in the US. If I brought an Altec 828 box into my house, I gurantee the wife would have me sleeping in the dog house tonight.

I know that a 2 Altec 12" 414 woofers and a 806/811 combo in a ducte port bass reflex box works pretty good in a home.

[eisbär]

To give you an impression of European prices: The A7 sold for 2.260 ? and the A5 auction ended up early. Applying the current official exchange rate of 1,4542 US$ per Euro given by the ECB this makes 3.286,50 US$!! WOW!!!! bfish that's almost thrice as much as you estimated for the US market.

And strange Altec offers still do continue:
http://cgi.ebay.de/Altec-Fullrange-S...QQcmdZViewItem

Here we've got a homebrew cabinet with 6 (in words six!) Iconic drivers. Two 168-8c and one 704 per channel and a homebrew passive XO. English descroiption is below the german. What an investment! Does this configuration make any sense? IMO the cabinets are fairly small.

If I had the money I'd follow bfish's recommendation and copy a Vott. But I'm gonna turn back to my initial altec project: Building cabs for my 604. Last year I built a 620/Stonehenge V clone made of raw chipboard without any veneer. I wanted a testing setup befor investing lot of money in expensive wood. I was in contact with seadweller an wanted to try his cabinet design alternatively.

Sound was quite nice but I had to wreck them. You wonder why? Ask RKLee. To be honest: They were nothing but beauties, just a testing setup. But my wife was shocked and she never ever wanted again such big boxes in our living room (though it's got about 40m^2 space). But will finds it's way: I'm gonna build my speakers and if they're presentable I'll show you the results.
Regards
Ralph

[bfish]

Wow is right!

The wife factor is a tough one (so I hear)...if bribes don't work, all I can suggest is playing her favorites (quite often).

Is "building in" your 604s into your home an option?

[hmole]

Those Iconic Speakers you were pointing out look very nice and there are probably over $2000 US in the drivers and crossovers. The drivers are new and made by Great Plains Audio which is associated with Todd here, but if your wife wouldn't go for the Stonehenge, I think those are a bit larger, and they still look very small for that driver complement.

Best
Harry

[eisbär]

Is "building in" your 604s into your home an option?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Do you mean building in a wall/shifting a wall to get the cabinet volume without a box in the room? Didn't think of it up to now. Instead I intend to go the other way. I try to empty the living room by building some closets in another room. So things can be stored elsewhere to get more space and keep flexibility for future rearrangements of the living room.

@hmole: I don't know what the components are worth but sellers opening bid is 3.621 US$ WOW!! I saw these ones two or three times before in national craiglists - obviously without any result. And I wonder why the seller didn't copy a model 19 or something alike. Do you know wether his setup has got any specific advantages?
Regards
Ralph

[bfish]

Yeah, your dual closet idea is what I had in mind. Should be a signifigant LF improvement over std boxes too. As long as you can maintain over about 7 cubic feet of usable volume in each, additional volume is even better, and hanging clothes make great damping. (And I've never heard of a wife complaining about extra closets!)

The tricky part will be location/placement for optimum HF at the listening spot.

Here's how Hilliard did his built-ins;

http://hifi-museum.com/hf/altec/altecart.jpg

Somewhere, I've got a little info on a duplex built-in a closet door. I'll try to find it and post it.

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ February 12, 2008 06:28 PM: Message edited by: bfish ]</font>