Hello to all my fellow Altec fans!
It's been almost 8 years since I last got on this board. But that's a small time compared to 40 or so years I've been enjoying the wonderful sound of Altec VOTT-like systems. I was known as taudo previously, but seem to have lost my old password, so had to re-incarnate as taudo2. It's good to see some familiar names still around! And Todd is still making it all work!
"My name is Tim and I'm an Altec-aholic..."
Back in high school I stumbled across some new Altec 1204 MI systems way in the back of North Valley Electronics in the San Fernando Valley. Being the goofy kid I was, I fell immediately in lust with their
appearance and had to have a pair, even though I had never heard them. But, being broke there was no way I could buy them, so I built a set of kinda look-alike cabs and installed 811s, 802s, n801s, and 416s as I saved up and bought them. When I finally got them finished and got to actually hear something of that Altec sound, I was hooked!
Those home-brewed systems served me well for years - until I replaced them around 2005 with A7-500 systems with JBL subs in the bottom and tri-amped them. The Altec components were re-manufactured by Bill at Great Plains Audio to be better than new. The industrial gray 828 cabs with the horn on top looked ugly as sin, but sounded like heaven. They still do. They fit so nicely in the dormers of my loft that I've been accused of building the house around them. But it's just a coincidence!
I hadn't planned to acquire any more Altec systems but it seems that my Altec addiction is still active because I couldn't resist picking up a pair of real 1202B systems yesterday.
This is an excellent site I love it! They were in very good cosmetic shape and cheap but sound like what they are - PA or guitar systems. I have no real good use for them, but might use them for a hifi system in a guest room. Fortunately, I have several sets of GPA'd 802s carefully laid away to replace the raspy Symbiotic 807s. But I'm interested to know what the folks here would recommend for replacing the so-called woofers in these systems (421s I think. Haven't opened them up yet. But insufficient bottom end in any case). I haven't had time to go through the T-S calcs, but was thinking GPA 3154's would be an improvement (I think they weren't available in the last thread dealing with this issue). I don't want to make 3-ways out of them. What do you all think?
Glad to see this board still going strong!
Originally Posted by taudo2
Hello to all my fellow Altec fans!
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