CHALLENGER II SPEAKERS--also (separately) MANTARAY II HORNS

[voice of the theater]

I have an opportunity to buy a pair of Altec Challenger II speakers. I've never heard of these before and at first I thought that they were probably Sparkomatics. I did a google search and found this article in Billboard Magazine that mentions the new Altec Lansing Challenger II speakers. The date of this issue of Billboard is September 18, 1982 and the source of the magazine article is specified as Anaheim California. Also, the article mentions "four new products in the Mantaray II line include horns with vertical/horizontal coverage patterns. Mark Ureda, Altec engineer, ....."

According to this article, the Challenger II speakers have a 10 inch woofer in a closed box design with a Polyamide soft dome tweeter and radial ribbed cone woofer. It seems to me these were manufactured by the "real" Altec Lansing. Has anyone ever heard these speakers or heard of them? I'd have to drive quite a ways to audition them--not really psyched to do that knowing pretty much nothing about them as far as quality. I'm wondering if they were a cheap line that Altec put out right before they "went under" or if they were actually nice sounding Altecs (or were they both--cheap and good)?

Also, has anyone ever heard or heard of the Mantaray II line? (which I understand is definitely not part of the Challenger II speakers) I'd never heard of them. According to Altec engineer, Mark Ureda, the new generation of Mantaray speakers has allowed his company "to significantly improve the low frequency loading characteristics of these horns, while maintaining precise directivity control superior to that found in radial and exponention-type horn designs." Sounds great to me--is it time for me to put the Model 14's (with their "older style" Mantaray horns) to the curb?

It was fun looking at this old issue of Billboard--and brought back some memories of 1982. I see Steve Miller, for example, is in the Billboard "Hot 100" with Abracadabra!, and brand new (at the time) Broadway musical production of "Little Shop of Horrors is delightful and offbeat!" Underneath the Altec article in their "FAST FORWARD" section is an article titled "Ditital Seen as Audio's Future"! Hmmmm, ya think?

Here's the article: Billboard - Google Books

[voice of the theater]

UPDATE--I just called Bill at Great Plains Audio. I never buy vintage Altecs without checking with GPA to see if they can recone and refoam the woofers if needed. Ninety Nine percent of the time they tell me that they can. However, in this case, Bill says the company that made those "custom" radial ribbed cone woofers went out of business so he can't recone the woofers if they need it. Also, he says they have a very steep foam surround and that no foam he's ever been able to find will fit them so he can't refoam them either.

I asked him if they were "any good" and he said they were really nice sounding speakers--actually VERY accurate (linear response) reproducers with a silky smooth sound. He personally worked on them at Altec in 1982--they were the last line of expensive home speakers that they introduced. He said they were significantly better sounding than the previous (cheaper) line--the Model 1010 and the Model 1012. He also mentioned that they weren't really popular at the time because they weren't as efficient as most vintage Altecs--only about 88 dB with one watt input (but excellent sounding).

Surprisingly enough, he says he has the tweeters for them--the exact tweeters that were used on the original (the Polyamide soft dome tweeters) and that he could sell me those if I need them. Bill never ceases to amaze me with his knowledge of relatively obscure Altecs and his ability to supply "real deal" replacement parts for them like this very obscure tweeter that these speakers use. I'm going to insist on some close up photos of the woofers/surrounds before I drive to check out these speakers. However, I'm thinking that woofers from 1982 almost certainly need to be refoamed--and that would be a deal killer considering the unavailability of foams for them. A shame, because the seller only wants $70 for the pair and I need a nice pair of Altecs for my garage/workshop. If by some miracle the woofers and surrounds are still mint, I'd be interested based on Bill's first hand recommendation of how great they sound (even if the tweeters turn out to be blown--since Bill has the original tweeters for sale)......

EDIT: I didn't want to waste Bill's time asking him about Mantaray II horns--figured folks here would know about those and would hopefully share some info. I'm sure he's a busy man and I try to only ask him about potential purchase related stuff like refoam/recone or replacement parts availability.....

[bowtie427ss]

The MR II's were midsize large format CD horns in 1 piece fiberglass moldings. They didn't have the aluminum detachable and optional multi-driver throats.

[voice of the theater]

Anyone have any idea if this is true (regarding advantages of Mantaray II to original Mantaray)? "According to Altec engineer, Mark Ureda, the new generation of Mantaray speakers has allowed his company "to significantly improve the low frequency loading characteristics of these horns"....

[bowtie427ss]

"to significantly improve the low frequency loading characteristics of these horns"....

In contrast to what??????

My WAG is he was referring to the MR94-8 and other horns that may have been among that first family of 1 piece fiberglass horns. The MR94-8 has a 1200hz low limit which seems to defy the reasons why one would want a large format driver, and probably explains why that horn was made for only a very brief span..

[Alien_Shore]

There is some pretty good design info about MR in Tech Letter #241, but it deals mainly with coverage area for MRs, not low frequency loading. If you're an AES library subscriber, you can read one of their technical papers about MR. I think all of the MRII's were large-format...
Several up for grabs in this lot:
Lot of Altec Horns & Drivers

[bowtie427ss]

Several up for grabs in this lot:
Lot of Altec Horns & Drivers

I only see 1 MR94B, as opposed to several MR64B's and MR42B's.