OK, a pair of Altec 31A HORNS, just sold on

**Leland** · July 16th, 2009, 09:05 PM

the bay for $3,705.00 dollars. Can someone tell me why?

Plus, I am bidding on the 1005 tar filled horns.....any comments about them, I would like to hear them.

**Leland** · July 16th, 2009, 11:46 PM

Well, the price on the 1005 tar filled horns has jumped from 100 to 650 tonight.....plus the 150 shipping. That just about knocks me out of the box.

But, dang.....they look nice.

They will probably go for well over $2000, and end up in Japan for 5 grand

**Panomaniac** · July 17th, 2009, 11:11 AM

Too bad about the 1005s. When I bought my 803Bs the guy had one 1005 tar filled that he want to see me for a good price. I almost did it. But knew that finding 1 more might be hard. Wow, those tar filled horns are heavy!

The 1005 seems like a great horn for domestic use. They sure fetch high prices.

**DSauro** · July 17th, 2009, 11:53 AM

I think the original question concerned the 31A horns selling for $3705.00!!! Is this a misprint, or am I thinking of another horn? I thought the 31A was the smaller horn with the curved throat, used with the 1" drivers. The early models were cast, and the later were reinforced fiberglass. Is this correct? I find it impossible to believe a pair would sell for that price, but have no answer to offer, even if drivers were included. Anyone??

**Leland** · July 17th, 2009, 12:02 PM

No missprint.

Yes they were the smaller solid cast horn. They were advertised as one Western Electric and one Altec....but were identical...except only the Altec had an Altec label.

I assume they were very old.....perhaps even 40's.....but look just like the one Altec Horn identification brochure. No drivers...just the horns.

Here is a link to the auction....but it has ended.

220449886314

**DSauro** · July 17th, 2009, 12:17 PM

Thank you, if memory serves me correctly (it doesn't always), Altec produced the cast version through the mid seventies, then converted to the fiberglass version around 1978. I used 4 of them new in '77.

**bfish** · July 18th, 2009, 10:10 AM

I think you're confusing the 32 and 31. 31s never went plastic. The 31A was the original bent horn, dating back to Blattner's 1935 Bell Labs patent:

ACOUSTIC DEVICE - Google Patent Search

The 31 was a bit larger, had a radial mouth, and used a long tapered adapter for 1" drivers. A pic from a '75 catalog from the LH library shows both:

**DSauro** · July 18th, 2009, 12:43 PM

Thanks, bfish, was a bit foggy.

**Old Guy** · July 18th, 2009, 05:43 PM

Also confusing fiberglass and plastic...there is a BIG difference.

The 32b's are plastic not fiberglass. Some are, anyway.

Note the 31 has a 2 inch throat for the WE driver that had the same, Altec uses an adapter to 1.4 or 1.

**artlab** · April 2nd, 2010, 12:53 PM

Hello everyone, this is my first post. I have a pair of Altec 31a horns that I would like to sell. My first question is, if I were to mirror polish these aluminum horns would it negatively affect the sound quality? Also if I were to make a mold off of them and have them recast in aluminum, is there a market for these reproductions? I apologize in advance if these questions are naive (or dumb) :^)