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.

GM · February 26th, 2012, 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by martyh45

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.

Hmm, I thought I posted them quite awhile back. Oh well, kind of academic as the info is on an HD I can't access [at least for now]. I've a rear 3/4 view that you can probably eyeball close enough with the specs on the brochure. Is the tri-***** email addy still good?

GM

**Altec Best** · February 28th, 2012, 02:32 PM

Yup if you look at the weight as well from the 1508,1504,1503 from the link you posted, the weight nearly doubles each time you go lower in cutoff frequency.You also get a much longer/bigger horn too.