Six Million Dollar Bionic Speakers

[voice of the theater]

I did an ebay search today for Altec 416 and this result came up--almost $1200 for a woofer!

Altec 416-8B | Kilimanjaro-Series A416WVL | NEW NEU - eBay (item 260579855608 end time May-03-10 05:47:37 PDT)

Has anyone seen these? Is this a gimmick? I find it hard to believe they're worth anywhere near the price especially since they are not "time tested" like the Vintage Altec/GPA technology that keeps going and going and going and still sounds amazing..... I don't see much in the way of specs on his listing either--but there is plenty of trash talk about vintage speakers in general. I went to their website and under "NEWS" they have this listed
"News
2010-04-02
VOTT equipped with field-coil speakers ready for demonstration. Stunning."
Field-Coil Speaker(s) | Kilimanjaro-Series | Wolf von Langa
There are photos of VOTT style speaker systems on the website. Do they even have the legal right to call these things VOTT? At $1200 per woofer they better include a date with the Six Million Dollar Bionic Woman!

P.S. According to the ebay listing on these woofers " The price is only for this time limited promotion." Ummm, what will they cost after this promotion? Gulp......

[Audio_by_Goodwill]

I assume the field coil motors are essentially hand made.

[lowpoke]

I saw these a while ago. I got the impression he starts with a GPA driver and as Audio_by_Goodwill suggests, hand makes the field coil motors.

I'd have no reason to doubt they sound impressive. (Out of my price range though.)

[Altec Best]

I saw those awhile back too I think they are Made In Germany.

[Nipper]

They can keep dreaming and yipping all they want....

I will put my "old worn out" 30+ year old VOTT's (all original) up against his anytime.
I'm not scared.
:snickerpup:

[voice of the theater]

I will put my "old worn out" 30+ year old VOTT's (all original) up against his anytime.
I'm not scared.
:snickerpup:

I agree! (Model 19's/Valencias in my case)

[theebadone]

It's great to see another maker of the hard to find drivers, but i don't think the market will be very big for his products at those prices. I wouldn't mind hearing some of their stuff, just might surprise us in a good way.

[jclynadms]

Altec has always stayed up to the mark and provided some top class products to its customers. I did hear about the speaker and how good it sounds but didn't know about the cost. Though it's not much of a surprise to me, as the coils are handmade and its now that I came to know why it sounded so splendid.

[atilsley]

I've had some emails with Wolf (Kilimenjaro) re a high-end GOTO bass horn cabinet using his Field Coil driver. He knows Bill from GPA well.

I understand some comments re prices...but consider the GOTO bass driver at US$9,000!!! This makes the "FC GPA" seem like a bargain.....

For what it's worth...

Andrew

[bowtie427ss]

I've always viewed those with a curious interest.

I'd like to hear Mr Schell's(IMO a very knowledgeable FC guy) thoughts on them.

All things considered, i agree with Andrew in the previous post, and find the price easily reasonable.