These speakers couldn't have been that expensive to make - since they were only selling for $30 each when new. If they sound that great, it still seems astonishing to me that no one has bothered to make modern clones. (At reasonable cost, that is.) Either that, or there really are better sounding 8" speakers these days...Originally Posted by Geekstar
W.
The ferrite 755C probably wouldn't be too expensive to remanufacture, but it is also nothing special. The 755A is the magic version.
The Alnico 755A used a chunky 3 lb.+ cast donut of alnico...I'd guess the magnets would cost well over $100 in quantity, maybe a lot more than $100 in any reasonable quantity relative to demand. Raw Alnico V is over $30 a pound these days from what I've read recently.
The cone of a 755A is also deceptively complex. Supposedly high silk content fiber mix, variable thickness, with a center compliance....would probably be expensive to tool up to make these too, if appropriate machines still exist.
Reproducing complete 755As and spare 755A cones has been tried in Japan in the past, with disastrous results.
According to my Japanese expert friends from Western Sound Inc., the 755C cone is different in a number of ways from the original run WE 755A cones and sounds nowhere near as good. These guys have worked with 1000s of 755As and repair them all the time. They demonstrated to me how the later cones are softer and less rigid than the original A cones. Put a C cone on an A and it sounds like a C, they say.
The 755A is a speaker that is more than the sum of its visible parts. Yes, there is a lot of hype about it, but much of it is justified...even though the totally crazy prices are hard to swallow. I never heard anything else like a 755A.
They were a lot more fun when they were $5 to $100, instead of $1000 -$3000 each, though!
Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must remain silent --Wittgenstein
back when these were made,
federal minimum wage was 75 cents an hour. (1955)
by 1965, $1.25.
dollars then vs. dollars now ...
i'd have to disagree about that.
(though i suspect the 'A's to have more/better resolution)
i had 4 per channel, on an open baffle.
6.5 or 7 feet high, two feet wide.
lo powered 6L6 tube amps.
j-fet pre-amp.
except for the beaming,
they sounded much like the 1989/90
martin-logan cls.
--------------------------------------
i'd left a space for tweeters, as i have still several of these -
this is the Polydax / Audax HD13D34H.
these have an acceleration factor of more than 7500 meters per second.
if your amp/electronics can keep up ...
guns kill people,
like spoons made rush limbaugh,
fat ....
I found some specs on the 755A. Looks like it has 1.3 lbs of Alnico:
http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...755A/page1.jpg
and:
http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...755A/page2.jpg
Googling around, here are some modern full-range drivers that make many of the same claims. He has a choice of ferrite, Alnico, and neo magnets. A big difference is that they use whizzer cones w/phase plugs instead of biflex cones. He is asking $500/pr for the 8" Alnico model:
CommonSense Audio
Did the 755A (or C or E) have the traditional Altec edge-wound voice coil?
W.
An exceptional tweeter. Westlake used them in my BBSM-10's as well as a couple other models.i'd left a space for tweeters, as i have still several of these -
this is the Polydax / Audax HD13D34H.
these have an acceleration factor of more than 7500 meters per second.
if your amp/electronics can keep up ...
The Westlakes have a removable metal bug/dust screen that is held in place by the magnet. Do you know if the bug screen is a product of Westlake Audio or Polydax/Audax?
Not all vegetables make good leaders.
I saw those Altec 755A data sheets and I don't think the 1.3 lb figure for magnet weight is correct. 3.1 pounds is more like it.
The speaker is heavy @ 5 lbs. The magnet is very large and solid AlNico except for a groove on the bottom (against the frame) for a charging coil. The rest is made of thin stamped sheet metal. It seems obvious to me, holding one in my hand, that the magnet constitutes most of the weight of the driver.
I know the donut magnet in the 12" 728B weighs 10 pounds but i can't find any WE data on the magnet weight in the 755A.
In any case, it would be a very expensive magnet to manufacture today. The end product would have to sell for at least $500-600 each to make any sense, and that is before factoring in tooling and minimum orders for the cones.
I know somebody who has special mix hot press paper cones made. He pays a few dollars each but has to order 10000 units at a time and he had to pay around $15000 to have the mold made--and that was a simple curvilinear woofer cone, not a complex structure like the 755A "diacone" construction.
Does that make them special?except for the beaming, they sounded much like the 1989/90 martin-logan cls.
The 755C is a very decent 8" for sure but there are many other good 8" cones, new and old.
Nothing else sounds like a 755A though...that's what I am calling special.
Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must remain silent --Wittgenstein
Sparkling, astounding triumph.
- Mike
Yeah I know I sound like a broken record... but the WE/Altec Alnico cones are the only speakers that, 25 years after I first started using them, I sit and listen amazed with a stupid grin on my face the whole time.
They don't do this to everybody, but the 755A really gets inside my head.
I owned and heard a lot of speakers but the 755/756/728/754 based setups are really special to me.
Astounding triumph, indeed!
Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must remain silent --Wittgenstein
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