ROTFL

Altec had a LOT of them when Vietnam ended. They were used in HUGE arrays hung from copters. You could understand what was being said ten miles away! They were used for propaganda and such. I have pics in one of my storage bins of them being assembled, along with millions of pieces assorted other 70's crap. Finding them is a daunting task though. I'm a disorganized packrat.

Anyway I bought 24 290E's for a sytem I built, and probably sold another 300+ to other sound companies. They won every time in an A/B against 2480's. The macho look did not hurt, for sure.

Many sound companies were not even aware of the 290. Altec really thought since they owned theater installs at the time, they didn't need to market much to pros.

It was really hard for a lot of dealers to get Altec. They were trying to protect their contractors.

JBL was much more available and better advertised.