Not Altec, but very interesting vintage Franken-Jensen.

**Nipper** · January 5th, 2012, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by Old Guy

About that time is when I was involved.

OG,

Did you actually work for Altec?

**Old Guy** · January 5th, 2012, 12:57 PM

Never really "in house". I had worked for an Altec contractor.

A sales job opened. I was out there a number of times, mostly liquidated a lot of stuff from the Ling area that was sitting. While I got paychecks that said Altec I was only inside for meetings. It became apparent while I could sell refrigerators to Eskimos, personality wise I wasn't suited to a big bureaucracy. Didn't respect pecking orders, for one.

The guy who wound up taking the job posted here a few years ago. Small world.

**Altec Best** · January 5th, 2012, 01:41 PM

Originally Posted by Old Guy

They were never able to recover from being left with no cash by Ling. He spun them off with heavy debt.

He is the idiot I blame for our Beloved company's demise. I would have liked to spun him off (A Cliff)

I have no doubt Altec would still be around today if it wasn't for James Ling ! The massive debt is what did them in,as they were still selling a lot of gear but couldn't recoup the debt.

BTW one of the world's most highly regarded speakers, Altec 755a, has a stamped frame. All a cast frame does is give a speaker more rigidity. The bigger the frame, the better idea a cast frame is.

FWIW It's not so much the stamped versus cast frame I have the issue with it is the thickness in metal that bothered me the most.

The Altec 755 is a very robust frame.One of the best Full ranges made.And is welded in several spots.The Jensen would disappear into a pool of molten metal with a arc welder it is very thin sheet metal.The 755 is 1/8" thick steel or close to it.