WWII 800 found in the wild

**martyh45** · February 25th, 2012, 06:39 PM

It pays to let people know you are into this stuff. A friend / business associate called tto see if I wanted this. He remembered me building some horns that looked like this a few years ago. By the outward appearance it looks to be a WWII vintage 800. The horn, driver, cabinet and xo are correct. Hopefully it contains the correct steel frame 803 (the hinge is right anyway) . I?ve had hundreds of old Altecs but only ever owned one of the horns, two of the woofers and zero 810 cabinets. The date on the camera is wrong, these pictures are from yesterday. Anyway, this is the only place I know where people who can appreciate the rarity congregate.

It's My happy day :-)

Marty

**gearfreak** · February 25th, 2012, 06:59 PM

great score!

**Altec Best** · February 25th, 2012, 07:16 PM

Yeah looks like a H808 horn 800 cab,hopefully a 802 driver. Pictures look a bit strange maybe optical illusion.The one pick looks like an 800 and the other looks like a 825/828.But yeah definitely a 800.

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image.../800/page3.jpg

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image.../800/page2.jpg

http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/...eakers/800.htm

CONGRATS !!

**Old Guy** · February 25th, 2012, 08:00 PM

Great find!

It would be nice to get accurate dimensions so someone could draw an 800 print...

**Audio_by_Goodwill** · February 25th, 2012, 11:10 PM

Very nice....... will it get cleaned up and used as is, or will we get to see a restoration?

**martyh45** · February 26th, 2012, 09:43 AM

Looking at the literature Best posted I noticed for the first time that a 515 was an option for this speaker. Hopefully the original owner was cheap enough to stick with the 803.

O.G. I had no Idea that there are no drawings of this cabinet floating around. I will get a set done and post them here. The wings were not with it though so that will still be a guessing game unless someone can scale them from the old pictures. What I really wish I had was a trashed 808 I could sacrifice. I would like to get one of them drawn so people could build them. With the current prices for an original you could probably have a cabinet shop build them and be money ahead.

As far as the fate of this particular speaker goes, it will not be parted out or sold offshore but I am not going to hang onto it either. I don’t have the room to keep something this big waiting for a mate. I’ll clean it, document it and most likely trade it off for something less rare that I can actually use or sneak into the house.

**Old Guy** · February 26th, 2012, 10:59 AM

Second look- is that an early 2 bolt 802 and a one piece aluminum horn? If it is, a rare bird.

**martyh45** · February 26th, 2012, 12:57 PM

It?s an 802B driver on the urethane horn. My understanding of the horns is that the composite was the second version after the tar filled. They were only produced for a short time before the switch to Aluminum. Here is a picture of the first 803 that would date the whole thing to the very earliest production.

The Ironic thing is that I actually took this photo and then found it on Lansing Heritage. I posted about this woofer and its mate on the old Altec Users site years ago. My brother put his fingers through both cones if you can believe that. After he destroyed half a dozen RCA woofers on the next big find I quit asking him to help. Anyway, it looks like Steve Schell or someone else saved the photo which is a good thing because these are very hard to find even a photo of and mine were lost in a HDD crash

**Altec Best** · February 26th, 2012, 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by martyh45

It’s an 802B driver on the urethane horn. My understanding of the horns is that the composite was the second version after the tar filled. They were only produced for a short time before the switch to Aluminum. Here is a picture of the first 803 that would date the whole thing to the very earliest production.

The Ironic thing is that I actually took this photo and then found it on Lansing Heritage. I posted about this woofer and its mate on the old Altec Users site years ago. My brother put his fingers through both cones if you can believe that. After he destroyed half a dozen RCA woofers on the next big find I quit asking him to help. Anyway, it looks like Steve Schell or someone else saved the photo which is a good thing because these are very hard to find even a photo of and mine were lost in a HDD crash

Hey Marty ! The H808 was never produced as a tar-filled.There were 3 iterations I think. The urethane,composite, and the 2 piece aluminum.The urethane version are very brittle and will break easily.

Good move on the brother. I wouldn't even let him near them if he was my brother for fear of damage.Ruining 8 cones Ouch !!!

One other thing the Dimensions of the wings are posted on those links I posted (Second Pic at the Bottom) that you could determine once you take measurements of the cabinet.

**Steve Schell** · February 26th, 2012, 03:00 PM

Altec Best, the original version of the H-808 was indeed tar filled. It was the standard horn of the Lansing Iconic, introduced in 1937. I'm not sure when Altec added the "H" to the designation, but it was the same horn with identical dimensions. It used a three stud mount (same dimensions as later small format JBL) to the Lansing 801 driver. With the change to the permanent magnet 802 driver in 1945 and two piece cast horns there were some rare overlap models. I have seen a three stud, RWB label 802 driver as well as a couple of large flange, two hole tar filled H-808 horns. The urethane horn was actually two identical four cell castings ground flat and glued together, as was the aluminum version evidently cast in the same molds. I think the procession of two piece H-808s goes like this: glued urethane, glued aluminum, bolted aluminum.

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...lletins/4c.jpg