Favorite or most memorable Altec moments.....

**juniper** · December 28th, 2012, 03:32 PM

Just curious what were some of our forum members favorite "Altec moments" were. My first one was in high school when someone gave me a pair of 604 8g's that came out of a home studio, I hooked them up and was amazed what they could do... I never heard of Altecs before, but the power and clarity with many pieces of music was astounding, I had never heard a speaker like this before.... The second was a few years later, at this point my Altecs were in dire need of repairs. I visited a high end audio shop in the washington D.C. area. I asked the owner, an ex doctor, who loved audio, and decided to give up his practice to sell equipment. I am looking for a pair of speakers for around 5000.00, that are 2 way. I had heard that 2 way speakers were better because of the complications with 3 or more way crossovers. This was probably bad information . He politely asked, but with a little sarcasm, "what type of speakers do you have" I responded Altec 604 8 g's, he then replied, "you cant touch that sound for under 10,000.00... I was amazed, if he hadn't said that, I would have sold them long ago... I am very thankful that this gentlemen pointed me in the right direction... If you gentlemen could share some of your favorite or memorable "Altec" moments it would be interesting...

**RonSSS** · December 28th, 2012, 09:58 PM

Good post!

In 1977, my room mate saw a Stereo Superstores wharehouse ad for disco speakers. There was a picture, but no brand name.
They had 4 and they were A7's. A7X to be exact. 416-8B, 802-8G and N1201 xovers.
We bought them all. $379 ea.

We stacked them with the top pair upside down.

Roomie was vacuuming the back of the house one day and couldn't hear the music over the vacuum. So he cranked em up!
A neighbor over a block away came over and pounded on the door and told him to turn it down......

Priceless!

Ron

**juniper** · December 28th, 2012, 11:52 PM

That sounds like an intense system, I am suprised there wasn't an uprising in your neighborhood!!! A great story!!!! I can only imagine what music you were listening to, I bet you thought it was awesome!!! I bet it was!!!!!

**rontec** · December 29th, 2012, 02:48 AM

Around 1978 I went into a stereo store in Berkeley looking for a Marantz cassette deck. I saw a fairly large pair of speakers hooked up to an amp and playing at very low volume. No one was around so I cranked it up just a little bit. I heard a huge stereo soundstage that I had never heard from any speaker in any show room before. A Salesman quickly came to my aid and informed me that they were Altec Model 19's.
That was my first Altec moment. My second Altec moment came 7 years later after hooking up my own model 19's and living that first Altec moment all over again!

**Old Guy** · December 29th, 2012, 11:54 AM

Yippie Smoke Ins in Washington back in the 70's, did several. 290's on 1003 with LOTS of little plastic tweeters, 8x 421 in RCA (Shearer) horns, 8x 421 in sorta 815 boxes, we used the 210 horn truncated just as Altec did, but ours were different size and ported.

photo credit Reading/Simpson (copyrighted)

Foreground right is ex GF.

**cradeldorf** · December 29th, 2012, 02:32 PM

The day I opened up the 604C I bought from Jennifer Whitewolf and saw the date on the rim. "54" a perfect date match for my other speaker. Firing it up and realizing they both sounded identical, and then measuring them later on and seeing them match almost perfectly. Although they didn't come together I consider them a matched pair now.