I smell BS...used more than all other amps combined? I suspect the BGW 750 ALONE shipped more units.
I also have a problem with 1978...Altec was solid state by then...
Note almost all of his feedback is as a buyer....yet another red flag.
Hopefully some of you former Altec employees/associates can determine if this is fact or fodder.
Vintage Altec Lansing 1569-A Power Amplifier - eBay (item 230364178887 end time Aug-11-09 15:49:05 PDT)
Something about having both a 1568 and a 1569 built in Anaheim in 1978 strikes me as questionable.I had this amp built in the Anaheim, California plant in 1978.
Is this possible, or mushroom food?
Not all vegetables make good leaders.
I smell BS...used more than all other amps combined? I suspect the BGW 750 ALONE shipped more units.
I also have a problem with 1978...Altec was solid state by then...
Note almost all of his feedback is as a buyer....yet another red flag.
Your neighbors called. They like your music.
The 1500 series power amplifiers were; 1568, 1569 and 1570.
I have a 1568A schematic that shows the start of production was in 1957.
End of production appears to be in the early or mid '60s.
Altec Lansing sales were international and many times more than other manufacturers in the '50s. It is unlikely total sales of the BGW amps came very close to Altec's sales, even in BGW's heyday.
Maybe this old guy had his 1569A re-conditioned in 1978 at the Anaheim plant?
Experience is Knowledge
No way.Originally Posted by whitebroncoii
First we are NOT talking about Altec sales. We are talking about the 1569 being the most popular amp.
I did live audio from the 1960's till recently. I lived thru the market changes. I did retail for a large part of that period.
The sound equipment industry in the 1950's was perhaps 5 percent what it was in the 70's.
BGW had a smaller piece of a much bigger pie. There is simply no way the 1569 shipped that many units....if you have any evidence at all I'd like to see it...the entire US audio industry in the 1950's didn't ship as many amps as BGW ALONE did in the 70's.
The sound industry went from millions a year to billions...what killed Altec was the lack of funds for R&D when the market exploded....
There were hundreds of theaters but many thousands of music venues...simple economics.
I would bet as many as 10 BGW's are out there for every 1569...and we haven't considered the Crown DC300A.
Actually, I think the most successful amp of all time was the QSC 1400...the Altec 9444B (not A)is essentially a clone of the 1400. Same number of devices and very similar schematic.
Follow up- On second reading this sounded way more confrontational than i intended...text is a poor communication medium...
In a verbal discussion "No way" is much less confrontational than seeing it in writing...
The point is though, you cannot compare the 50's to a later time...the industry mushroomed into a monster....many guitar stores sold more pro audio than they did guitars, whereas in the 50's it was at most a few percent of sales...and many stores virtually none.
Your neighbors called. They like your music.
I asked the seller to please explain how he came to have these amps built, and a second question asking him to please explain the serial numbers.
Here's his response to the first question, no explanation of serial numbers was offered.
You're partly right. Altec started to build solid state units circa 1969. They just couldn't stop tube amp production cold turkey. The lack of power, history of reliability and field replacement problems and sound contractors wouldnt allow it. They still had many needs for tube amps including their own internal testing needs.
Trust me .........I was there.
Not all vegetables make good leaders.
Where's my hip boots?
I was there 6 or so years earlier and they were NOT still building tube amps....
He probably was never at Altec.
Most likely, if there is ANY truth in his story, is he bought it NOS in 1978...
Personally, there is so much there,I do not believe any of it....if he had it made where is the paperwork? At least a receipt?
There is a seller selling Chinese Zomax clones of EV drivers as the real thing on Ebay...it's the Wild West out there, very little rule of law.
Your neighbors called. They like your music.
You verbalize my thoughts OG.
FWIW, "picking on" this seller wasn't my intent at all, i was genuinely curious, and hoping to hear an account of how there were leftover transformers, or that the core plates and other materials and recipe still existed such that the folks in the tranny dept could whip them up at request.
Then of course in my mind that raises another question of "why not the potted trannys of the 128B?", seems they would have been the preferred choice.
I own a preamp model from another "vintage" US manufacturer that was discontinued in the mid/late 1990's. This particular unit of mine was built in early 2008 in a run of ~50 units. So, i know it is possible for some manufacturers to "resurrect" production on a limited basis in certain circumstances. Acknowledgment of this is often kept on the "low down".
Not all vegetables make good leaders.
Yeppers.
But a bunch of red flags.
1978...the US economy wasn't doing well. That's the election that brought in Ron Reagan. Altec would be selling it's California real estate and moved to OKC because it needed cash...hardly the time to take a chance on reissuing a product.
Plus, Altec was already headed out of the home stereo business.
The 70's were lean times for home stereo. Lafayette, McGee, and many others were dying. Stereo stores were closing right and left.
It has to be NOS, or just plain bull.
Your neighbors called. They like your music.
1982 - Altec Lansing moves electronic assembly to Oklahoma City
1981 to 1989 - President Ronald Reagan
Experience is Knowledge
Doesn't seem like that big a stretch of the imagination to me. It's just a story though, so does it really matter?
"[I]We're going all the way, till the wheels fall off and burn[/I]!"
Bob Dylan, from [I]Brownsville Girl[/I]
[I]"Time wounds all heels"[/I]
John Lennon, referring to the Nixon/Hoover deportation fiasco.
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