I've been looking for a pair of Model 19's for my (in home) recording studio (I already have 19's in my rec room) and finally found a pair in New Jersey that looked mint. Up until now, every pair of 19's I saw listed for sale online was either too far of a drive, not mint condition, too overpriced, or a combination of the above. I bought this pair from a guy who owned them for two years--he bought them from the original owner who had "babied" them since 1976. The guy I bought them from had installed replacement horn foams, and bought rubber feet for them which are the exact same height as the optional bases that most pair of 19's have. In fact, that was the only drawback to these speakers is that they didn't have the bases but the feet he provided me work great. They are not attached to the speakers--you simply rest the speakers on these rubber feet and they support them quite well--very stable and sturdy.
Anyways, last week I bit the bullet and drove 6 1/2 hours to New Jersey (and 7 hours home--uphill both ways! through the mountains) and I was not disappointed when I saw/heard these speakers. I was very familiar with how 19's sound since I own a pair from 1978 in my rec room (they are stamped 8/25/78). This pair was stamped 1/10/76 which made me wonder if they might have different diaphragms than the pair I already owned from 1978. Well, apparently they don't because I brought my own CD player and my own amp and some CDs that I'm familiar with and cranked these things up--they sounded identical to the pair I already had at home and looked mint as well. I guess they were still using the "lite" diaphragms in 1978 as the pair from '78 sound identical to the pair from '76. I drove these babies home, and the first thing I did (the next day), was to set them up next to my other pair for some A/B comparisons (I removed the horn foams for the comparisons to make it a fair test). I have a "speakers A/speakers B" switch on my amp so I spent some time playing recordings that I'm familiar with and switching back and forth between the '78 and '76 pair. They sounded absolutely identical except for the fact that the 1978 pair seemed to have a bit more low end. I scratched my head, and realized that one of those speakers was right in a corner of the room, whereas neither of the other pair were directly in a corner. So, I moved the 1978 pair to where the 1976 pair were located and moved the 1976 pair to where the 1978 pair were located and sure enough, now the other pair (the 1976 pair) had slightly more low end! So, the positioning of the speakers had thrown me a curve ball. Anyways, they both have 416-8B woofers and apparently the same "lite" diaphragms as the high's and mids sound identical on both pair (and the bass as well--depending on where they are positioned in the room)...... Here's a few photos from my A/B comparisons (before I moved the 1976 pair to my in home recording studio, and before I moved the 1978 pair back to their usual position in my rec room). Click on the images to enlarge......
A couple of quick questions for the experts here...
Both pair are mint--even the grills--but I noticed that the 1976 pair have a little bit more luster than the 1978 pair. I know these are supposed to be rubbed oil finish--what kind of oil do people out there use on these? (I'm assuming not 10w40?)....
Secondly, does anyone know what years the "lite" diaphragms were in production? I read somewhere that besides the early 802 8G's that both pair of these 19's have, the lite diaphragms were also used in the early 902 drivers as well. They must have been used at least until 1978 as these 2 pair sound identical, but I'm just wondering how many years were those "lite" diaphragms in production?
The only mod's I've done to these speakers so far is to bypass all four treble pots (the optimum range is at the maximum area and I always leave the treble pots cranked all the way up anyways), and I also cleaned the mid pots. The mid pots are nice and quiet when you turn them, and as I said, all 4 speakers sound identical (I A/B'd them in pairs first, then later one speaker at a time compared to one speaker). I'm guessing the caps are still close to the right values, since all four speakers sound identical to each other I'm guessing nothing is too far from spec (is that a good assumption)? Eventually, I'm going to want to bypass the ground lugs (I may have a couple of questions regarding that mod at that time), but for now I'm enjoying these speakers and not in a hurry to tinker--they sound amazing!
I want to thank Todd and everyone who's been so helpful here in this forum. When I joined, I had never even heard of Model 19's. I owned a pair of Valencias, Heathkit AS 101's (Valencias in Heath cabinets), a pair of A7's (years ago), a pair of home made P.A. cabs with various VOTT drivers in them, and a pair of Model 9's. I've since sold every one of those speakers and have absolutely no regrets--these model 19's blow them all away......
Originally Posted by Altec Best
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