If you could go back in time and buy a new......

[VolvoHeretic]

The worst time was when I had a party at the lake and my so called freinds stole the stop and yeild signs out of the ditch up the road and had them propped up in my Spruce trees. The cops showed up and asked me to turn down Weather Report, which I did and they drove away while the whole time they were looking at the stolen steet signs. I later replaced them and wondered why those guys were my friends.

[cradeldorf]

I get to play with most of the old WE stuff regularly, given my connection with Silbatone (Silbatone Acoustics).

Yeah, I have a soft spot for Lansing gear and I really really like 755As.

I really need a second ALTEC 756B or whole Melodist 700 badly right now.

However, if I had to pick one item out of the whole WE/Altec continuum, I'd go with a pair of 757As. I must say that this is probably my favorite speaker. not the biggest, not the baddest but remarkably satisfying.

While I'm back there I'd like to pick up a few Altec 1400 series amps too...

I was just on their site...awesome collection.

[voice of the theater]

I was just on their site...awesome collection.

Yeah--like a Western Electric museum....

Silbatone Acoustics

Silbatone Acoustics

[Geekstar]

It is a Western Electric museum. This collection will eventually be housed in a public space in Seoul. My friend that owns the stuff has been working on this for 25 years and he has the resources and connections to do it right.

This collection is a great accomplishment and research resource but it illustrates the fact of life that "your material possessions end up owning you." Anything beyond Altec A5s will definitely own you.

It is a lot of responsibility to have a huge collection. My Lansing and WE stuff all ended up here, where it will be cared for and curated and saved for posterity. People will get to hear it, which is the important thing.

We take various WE systems around to audio shows in a traveling exhibition like "The Treasures of King Tut." The value of such gear is much greater when it is shared with interested listeners.

Here's a video of a 16B horn at the Munich High End show: 1928 Western Electric cinema speaker - YouTube

The subwoofer under the horn is 4x 515Bs in an isobaric push-push slot loaded design, ~70hz low pass.

Better close up of sub here: HIGHEND 2011_MUNIQUE_SILBATONE ACOUSTICS.avi - YouTube

This is not to say that I wouldn't like a spin in that time machine to pick up a pr of 757As and a second 756B!

[Panomaniac]

We take various WE systems around to audio shows in a traveling exhibition like "The Treasures of King Tut." The value of such gear is much greater when it is shared with interested listeners.

Hurray! Kudos for that.

[A7fan]

How about the baby brothers, the 9849. Altec Lansing 12' speakers [Good for a club] Doug

[Todd W. White]

Preceding THX by at least 10 years, the A10 and related systems were the brainchildren of my friend John K. Hilliard's - he had the idea of improving the VOTT and, seeing the size of the houses getting smaller, came up with the A8 and especially the A10 (as seen above) as a higher-performance system that was a major improvement over the standard A4-type system, which he also designed. The Altec "brass" didn't see the need for it, and it didn't go anywhere. If they HAD, Sparkomatic wouldn't own the Altec name today....IMO

[Altec Best]

Preceding THX by at least 10 years, the A10 and related systems were the brainchildren of my friend John K. Hilliard's - he had the idea of improving the VOTT and, seeing the size of the houses getting smaller, came up with the A8 and especially the A10 (as seen above) as a higher-performance system that was a major improvement over the standard A4-type system, which he also designed. The Altec "brass" didn't see the need for it, and it didn't go anywhere. If they HAD, Sparkomatic wouldn't own the Altec name today....IMO

I can only imagine what Altec would be like today if they were still around.

Model 25,30, The Model 50 !!