How rare are the 1803 horns?

[Cal Weldon]

I picked up a pair along with some 288C's and N-500-C XO's. Sent the drivers to GPA and had Bill redo the diaphragms and remag them. Not sure what I will do with them just yet but these would be something I only ever dreamed of owning as a kid, so I wasn't about to say no to my inner child. I saw that other thread about what they go for on ebay and I was wondering is that because they are so rare?

Wish I could post a pic but not sure how. Anyway, great fun. I really should try and make it over to this site more often.

[bfish]

Just gotta adapt to the times, bowtie...you can still use the most offensive words known to man;

Bush
Cheney

Carry on...

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ April 25, 2008 02:25 PM: Message edited by: bfish ]</font>

[LICORNE]

Cal Weldon

Topic: How rare are the 1803 horns?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It seems that they were quite rare . Theres a web site for old theaters and theres no mention of the horns only the type of enclosure . A-2 A-1 etc.

One interesting finding that I made . The LA downtown area of the 50's and early 60's . They built office buildings with a theater on the main floor. Now today many of these theaters have been preserved and are being renovated.

We had the same phenomenon in Montreal several high rise office towers had a large screen with Altec A-4 or A-5 but the difference is that they were torn down in the early 90's to make place for food courts or more parking space.

Fortunately one survived and was simply closed at the Berri station. They are in the process of renovating it ; it's a 1200 seats.

http://cinematreasures.org/news/18738_0_1_0_M10/

Here is something even rarer an 1804 B 60X125 3X6 400 CPS.



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<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ April 26, 2008 02:04 PM: Message edited by: CONVERGENCE ]</font>

[Old Guy]

I wouldn't agree at all with "quite rare"

I can find them anytime I want, to me that doesn't qualify...

Try to find old Lansing field coil units...that is my definition of "quite rare". Can be found, but you gotta work for it.

Generally, in any collectible situation. "top of the line" is the most expensive, be it when they were new or used.

The 1803 was the most expensive multicell...

The "geek value" is very high.

They sound good and look good- for sheer impressiveness hard to beat.

I've got more reasons if you need them, but I think you get the drift.

[bowtie427ss]

Pics have to be hosted by a 3rd party server. Many of us like and use www.photobucket.com , it's very easy to navigate and manipulate. I for one would love to see pics with at least 1 showing something providing some scale so those who've never seen them can appreciate how massive they are.

I'm not really qualified to say what the root of their value is, but i'd speculate it's rarity based first on limited numbers produced, and then based on their very large physical size and the consequences of that size such as damage from handling and simply being s*******/abandoned as previous owners have valued the space they occupied more than the horns themselves.

EDIT: apparently the spastic censor doesn't like the word S_C_R_A_P_P_E_D,
D_I_C_K_ VAN D_Y_K_E practically locks it up

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ April 25, 2008 12:51 PM: Message edited by: bowtie427ss ]</font>

[Cal Weldon]

Hi thanks for the replies. I managed to work my way throught photobucket so here's a shot of one on them on the back of my truck.

http://s286.photobucket.com/albums/l...t=IMG_1874.jpg

[Cal Weldon]

Maybe try this one.

http://s286.photobucket.com/albums/ll111/calweldon/

[Cal Weldon]

OK that one seemed to work. You can see the horn and one of the 288's before it went down to Bill.

[bowtie427ss]

WOW! Those look to be in very good condition.

Thanks for sharing.

Is that an Altec decal i see in the mouth of one of the center most cells?

[dhook17322]

In terms of rarity, the adapter block that accepts two Y-throats for a quad-driver setup is rarer. I have never seen one on ebay or even a pic of one on Lansing Herritage or in any Altec catalogue.
I have a fairly rare set of horns - a pair of 1203's, the 2x6 configuration. I plan to top my A-2's with them initially with 2 drivers each. We'll see where this setup goes in time.