Mystery Altecs

[voice of the theater]

I'm still looking for another pair of Altecs for my garage/workshop. Ran across a pair in the local classifieds--the owner knew very little about them. When I called him, he said something like "they're really big Altec speakers from the 60's". I asked him to check the backs to give me a model number and he said he couldn't find one. I asked him to describe them and he said "they've got 2 big woofers in each one and an Altec horn sticking out of the front". Hmmmm...... I then asked how much would he take for them and he said "a few years ago a guy offered me $500 for the pair". From his tone, I thought it sounded like he'd take less for them now--so I made arrangements to go and see exactly what this pair of "big Altec speakers from the 60's" really were.

I brought my camera and as soon as I entered his garage, I could see they had 811b horns. Here are a few photos of them.

















Looks like they were made by Seeburg (I've never heard of them) with at least some Altec components. In spite of the different crossovers on each cab and home-brew terminals, I was curious enough to ask the guy if he'd mind opening them up for me to see what's inside. I truthfully told him that if they had Altec h.f. drivers and Altec woofers inside that I'd be interested. He was a nice enough guy -- said he played in a "country" band -- he looked a lot like a present day Justin Hayward if Justin was from Alabama (if you can picture that). I asked him if these were his PA speakers (wondering if they'd been abused) and he said that he never used them for PA--he had a pair of Bose 802's that he used for PA......

[voice of the theater]

OK, he opened them up for me and low and behold, they were not Altec woofers (bummer!). I snapped some photos anyways, and thought I'd post them here in case anyone recognizes these woofers and knows if they are any good. They did have Altec 806 h.f. drivers—that was a plus......

















I didn't recognize the numbers on the woofers—told him I'd need to snap some more photos to see if my “friend” could help me identify them (you guys here are my “friend”). He was fine with it. Then I asked if I could listen to them, he said he didn't have an amp powerful enough for them handy. I said “what do you mean powerful enough?”. He said they need a lot of power. I told him that most vintage Altecs from that era are very efficient and will be very loud with very little power and he said something like “well, maybe I hooked up the crossovers wrong—I put in the terminals and wiring myself”. OK, red flag. I'm still tempted to go out there again with my own amp and give them a listen (especially since they're in my back yard—25 minutes away), but was wondering if anyone here knows anything about the woofers. I'm so hooked on Altecs, however, that I'm skeptical of buying these since they have non-Altec woofers not to mention that they may have been damaged by improper wiring etc. I think I could get the pair for under $500---maybe even $250 or $300 if I'm a decent judge of his tone when I was asking about pricing.

[Old Guy]

Utah Alnico woofs (328 is EIA for Utah). Seeburg had the xover made. Typical IMHO is 500 ish, fleabay hustlers want way more. I recommend woofer testing for T/S, new cabs with a compartment for each woof, would stack the woofs vertically. Did that way back, except for the T/S. They sound a LOT better.

[bowtie427ss]

Agree with OG.

Be sure to bypass that line transformer.

I had a few of these several years back, i can't think of a thing that i miss about them. They don't hold a candle to the 9844 in terms of overall sound quality. The woofers seem to suffer power compression easily and won't play nearly as loud as you'd expect from a tandem 15 cabinet.

I'd hate to see anybody pay much more than the value of the horns and drivers for them.

You'll need help moving them too, they're twice as heavy as you'd ever expect them to be.

[wws944]

Seeburg, for several decades, was a well-known jukebox manufacturer. Interesting that they got into disco speakers.

[Panomaniac]

Disco Baby! Just right for your Donna Summer LP collection.

[bowtie427ss]

Seeburg, for several decades, was a well-known jukebox manufacturer. Interesting that they got into disco speakers.

They were extension speakers for the "Disco" themed jukes they made.

They also made a smaller DWS-2 that also uses an 806/811, but with a single 12 inch woofer. The 12 inch Utah they used had a more powerful motor than the 15 inch woofers in the DDS-1, and IMO sound better overall albeit with much less bass extension, but the mids are more on par with what you'd expect from a system with an 811 in it..................... IMO

FWIW, Justus Percival Seeburg came to America in i think the 1880's to work for an established piano manufacturer. He went on to become a premier maker under his own name of automatic pianos, coin pianos, and orchestrions, all predecessors to the jukebox.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm2uv...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Ky9XRmKuE

[voice of the theater]

Utah Alnico woofs (328 is EIA for Utah). Seeburg had the xover made. Typical IMHO is 500 ish, fleabay hustlers want way more. I recommend woofer testing for T/S, new cabs with a compartment for each woof, would stack the woofs vertically. Did that way back, except for the T/S. They sound a LOT better.

Agree with OG.

Be sure to bypass that line transformer.

I had a few of these several years back, i can't think of a thing that i miss about them. They don't hold a candle to the 9844 in terms of overall sound quality. The woofers seem to suffer power compression easily and won't play nearly as loud as you'd expect from a tandem 15 cabinet.

I'd hate to see anybody pay much more than the value of the horns and drivers for them.

You'll need help moving them too, they're twice as heavy as you'd ever expect them to be.

Sounds like to make them listenable I'd have to do a lot of work including building new cabs--and then they still wouldn't touch an all Altec system. I'm definitely going to pass--thanks everyone for chiming in. When searching for vintage Altecs, I sometimes feel kind of like a prospector in the old west. I know there's gold in them thar hills, but this time it looks like all I came up with was "fools gold"......

[Alien_Shore]

I have an old 604 spec sheet that mentions the Carmel or Malibu cabinets are recommended for "home use" mounting of the 604s...
What do those cabinets look like?

Edit: I found these plans for Malibu, which have three different configs for 2x12" woofs/811, 1x12" woof/811, and 1x15" woof. It looks to be about 6.7 CF?