Just maybe the key to listening to altec VOTT speakers is that you need to have a sheet of movie screen with it's tiny itty bitty holes between the speakers and your ears to sound just right?
So I've had a pair of A7's in the living room for a long time. 8w DHT PP W5-M Heaths poweing them. Audio source was the TV variable audio out.
Pretty sad actually.
So I got a preamp/tuner....SS Mitshibishi DA-C20 I'm afraid to say (It is a classic though) in order to be able to tweak the bass and treble. Plus be able to hook the DVD player audio up for CD listening.
Better. Then I remembered what I never cared for with A7's. No low end, and a hump in the response around 200hz.
Dug out the old 12 band ADC EQ, tweaked it to my fav settings from days gone by, and what do you know!
I'm not going to say they sound great, but they do sound pretty damn good. The room is hard, and the positioning is not ideal. But dang. Altec through and through, and even with 8 watts per, will play damn loud and have solid bottom end.
And, with the front door open, I can easily entertain the neighbors!
I have had the Brian Setzer Orchestra in the player recently, if you like a combo of rockabilly giutar and big band, with some of the great classics, give this a try. It is quite good! and very well recorded to boot. Altecs were made for this stuff.
Later dudes!
Enjoying Altec Speakers since 1972
Just maybe the key to listening to altec VOTT speakers is that you need to have a sheet of movie screen with it's tiny itty bitty holes between the speakers and your ears to sound just right?
.......and driven with period correct electronics that it was originally voiced with, i.e. circa 1950. Makes a huge difference.
GM
Loud is Beautiful if it's Clean! As always though, the usual disclaimers apply to this post's contents.
I couldn't live without my EQ The day I added it was the day my life changed.
Yes, my name is voice of the theater, and I'm an EQ holic. I use an equalizer on all three of my Altec systems to get them to sound how I like them to sound with my acoustics etc. I even change the EQ settings for different LP's, CD's etc. depending on how "good" the recording and mastering job is on them. I'm so used to doing it that I put on a recording, and in a couple of minutes (usually less) can do slight additional tweaks to my EQ to compensate for what I consider to be inferior recording/mastering quality. Of course, I have lots of vinyl and CD's that I consider to be great recordings (and mastering jobs) that I just use my "default" EQ settings for--they need no additional tweaking. When I first set up my EQ settings, I did it with various recordings that I thought were excellent quality--played around for days until I found a setting that made all my "best" recordings sound phenomenal with no additional tweaks needed so now I only do any additional adjustments for what I consider to be inferior recordings. By the way, when I recapped my Model 19's, I did a side by side A/B comparison of all four speakers (I own two pair of them) and all four of them sound identical to each other (when located side by side) with the new caps. However, I have the two pair located in different rooms of the house now so I use different "default" EQ settings for them that work "best" (for me) for the rooms I have them in. I also use completely different "default" EQ settings for my Model 14's that I have in my living room. So yeah, I'm hooked not only on Altecs, but on EQ to get them to sound their best with my rooms/acoustics.......
I agree. I listen to a lot of rock music and Altecs sound phenomenal with rock n roll. Vocals, drum kits (cymbals, snare, kick drum), guitars--everything sounds so lifelike on a nice pair of Altecs. I've noticed that if you have a (rock) recording with a horn section or strings--they really shine with those types of orchestral instruments so Altecs are great for classical and jazz as well (any genre IMHO). You can really hear all the delicate nuances of a cello etc. and horn sections are right in your face like they're actually in the room with you....... Brian Setzer's big band is a good example IMHO......Originally Posted by RonSSS
Last edited by voice of the theater; May 1st, 2012 at 09:30 AM.
Being of "Sound" Mind
I thought I responded here this AM....oh well.
Heathkit W5-M's are about as 50's era as you can get. Mine are modified just a bit.
Ron
Enjoying Altec Speakers since 1972
Well, yes and no. The A7s were voiced with a very high output impedance whereas by the mid '50s, amps had much more nfb to get it low enough to match up with the new generation of drivers with weaker motors. For the stronger motors, one needed a pre-amp with tone controls with up 20 dB of variable damping for nominally 16 ohm systems. Tonally, not quite the same, but still better than using today's electronics with power robbing passive contour filters.
GM
Loud is Beautiful if it's Clean! As always though, the usual disclaimers apply to this post's contents.
My W5 Heaths are converted to 6B4G Direct Heated Triodes with no global negative feedback.
I should have described them better.
I measured the output impedance. I believe it was on the order of 2-3 ohms.
The Peerles (Altec) output transformers are VERY high quality. I doubt here is anything like them today.
Into a pure resistive load, these amps reproduce a 10Khz square wave nearly perfectly. I have never seen a tube amp, fedback or not, perform this well.
3dB bandwidth is 100khz.
They are quite good, but not quite powerfull enough.
I also used a high current driver circuit, so it doesn't limit the BW.
Ron
Enjoying Altec Speakers since 1972
Which EQs are you guys using?
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