890C's $150 Texarkana

[Old Guy]

406 woofs worth the bucks alone.

Vintage Altec Lansing Bolero 890c Studio Monitors

[voice of the theater]

Great price on those. I've never heard a speaker system with a passive radiator (in their literature Altec calls it a "free suspension phase inverter"-- I think that's their name for a passive radiator?).

http://altecpro.com/pdfs/vintage/Spe...%20Systems.pdf

Does anyone here know what "exactly" a passive radiator is supposed to do for/to bass response? Wonder what h.f. driver those little horns have driving them and whether or not it's a "real" Altec h.f. driver? I'd love to hear a pair of these and at $150 I'd be auditioning them today (and possibly buying them) if they weren't so damn far from here. Come to think of it, they're right in Bfish's back yard. Earth to Bfish--time for your triumphant return?

[Old Guy]

The tweet is from Heppner. Altec sourced this and the larger similar one there.

A passive radiator does essentially the same thing a bass port does, the math is different.

[voice of the theater]

I understand the 406's are the real draw with these but how are the Heppner drivers--do they at least approach the Altec sparkle that many of us are used to (spoiled by?) or are they pretty lame?

[tomt]

I understand the 406's are the real draw with these but how are the Heppner drivers--do they at least approach the Altec sparkle that many of us are used to (spoiled by?) or are they pretty lame?

zillions of these are in magnavox consoles.

sound good with lo power tube amps,

which is what they were designed with/for.

they are not the same as an large compresson driver, and don't sound like one .

[Old Guy]

tomt is right. The large Altec horns are more forward. The Heppner crosses higher, so doesn't have the "in your face' mids, it's more laid back. McGee Radio sold boatloads of Heppners back in the day, they were a fave of the DIY market, known as "Hepp horns"

They do sound good.