Did Altec inspire Radio Shack???

[Panomaniac]

Yep - that's exactly the one!
http://reel2reeltexas.com/cat39LafayTV.jpg
Ain't the interweb amazing?

I can't imagine building a TV kit in 1939, but there it is. Wonder is it really worked.

The 60s Radioshack catalogs are impressive. Nice selection of stuff. Thanks for the link!

[bfish]

...Then he pulled out the "prize." A 1938 (IIRC) Lafayette catalog! .... Sure wish I had a copy of that.

I've got a '39 Lafayette (aka Wholesale Radio Co) catalog. What's even better, I have one of the Lafayette broadcast studio amps that's listed in it. ~50lbs of 6L6 PP meat with the coolest backlit red mixing knobs.

[Panomaniac]

Oooooo.... can we see it? Can you scan it or take a photo of the mixer? I love that stuff.

[bfish]

The amp's in a "future project" box, but here's the catalog page;

http://members.cox.net/vott/Lafayett...%20catgrey.pdf

[MikeInNH]

Well the date alone would indicate Altec, and not Sparkomatic........ the magic date for Sparkomatic was 83, right?

The magic date is something like 86 or 87.

The Voice Of the Highway was ALL Altec NOT Sparkomatic. Sparkomatic did make automotive speakers....Their 6x9 was about half the price of the Jensons. I bought a pair of the Jensons for my 73 Vega. I looked at the Sparkomatics.....Put any wattage to them they broke up easily.

As for other players back in the 70's..I agree there were others...but not very big players...For years.....Jenson was the KING of upgrade car speakers....They were considered the BEST...by far...And compare them to almost anything now...they'd sound like junk.

[Audio_by_Goodwill]

The magic date is something like 86 or 87.

I'm about 96% sure it's not that late. I just can't find it printed anywhere.

[Altec Best]

The magic date is something like 86 or 87.

The Voice Of the Highway was ALL Altec NOT Sparkomatic. Sparkomatic did make automotive speakers....Their 6x9 was about half the price of the Jensons. I bought a pair of the Jensons for my 73 Vega. I looked at the Sparkomatics.....Put any wattage to them they broke up easily.

As for other players back in the 70's..I agree there were others...but not very big players...For years.....Jenson was the KING of upgrade car speakers....They were considered the BEST...by far...And compare them to almost anything now...they'd sound like junk.

Mike,I think Jensens were considered the best back then because they were the best sounding speaker in most peoples price range back then their Coaxial,and Triaxials I beleive sold for like $50-$60 I paid $190 for the 4B's and $130 for the 4A's beleive me when I tell you they couldn't hold a candle to the Altec VOH's even at full volume no break up at all even after 26 years they still Rock how many Jensens can you say that about.They were worth every penny.Comparing Jensens even Radio Shack/Realistic is like comparing VOTT's to your alarm clock speaker.To my ear's anyway.The line I heard most when people listened to them was "Damn they sound Better than my Home Stereo" the last pic is a side by side compare of the magnet assembly between the Duplex 4A and the Super Duplex 4B that one speaker was almost 6 3/4 lbs. and that was from mostly the magnet actually they weigh 6lb 10oz each. I don't remember any Jensens built like that

[Old Guy]

Mike,I think Jensens were considered the best back then because they were the best sounding speaker in most peoples price range back then

That's true,with addendums...

That was always Jensen's market position, even in the 50's...well, not so much earlier, some pre WWII Jensen stuff was fairly high end..

What happened in the leaner years of the late 50's is the market got carved up...

Altec owned the high end home stereo market. University generally was a step down, with exceptions...

Jensen competed more with the likes of University, for the consumer rather than high end market.

A Jensen HiFi driver would compare more with a University than say an 802.

JBL went after the pro market, which stood them well later.

Any way, Jensen had a rep as a good cheap speaker. Many guitar amps of the 60's came with them.

Jensen has changed around a lot, and most Jensen product now is Jensen in name only, just like Barkomatics are Altec in name only.

[mah]

I have a nice pair of 15 inch Jensen Concert Vibranto loudspeakers that I believe were used as warranty relacements in some fender amps that suffered loudspeaker failure of their original Jensen drivers.

Marshall.

[Panomaniac]

The amp's in a "future project" box, but here's the catalog page;

Very cool - thanks! When does that date from?

And thanks guys for the Voice of the Highway info. I'd never even heard of it. This forum is great.