Altec in the disco era....

[cls500]

I remember going to the big disco clubs in the mid 70's and marveling at the wonderful sound systems these clubs had. Did Altec embrace this era and what sort of systems would one have expected to hear there ???

[Alien_Shore]

Seeburg DDS-1

[bowtie427ss]

Seeburg DDS-1

Jukebox extension speakers.

Seriously, the Seeburg DDS1 would have to be improved dramatically to even be considered an inadequate disco speaker.

Search the name Richard Long, he designed many of the notable disco systems here in the Northeast back in the day. He was a big proponent of the 4520 double scoop and 2395 slant plate horn..................... probably my favorite vintage JBL combination.

EDIT: Had to go dig thru some old jukebox books so i could get the models right. The DDS1 was designed to be a cosmetic match for the Fleetwood, Electra, Mustang, and Discotheque Jr jukeboxes from Seeburg's "Discotheque" series. If you search out any of these models from 1962-68/69, you'll see that they use the same grill materials, trim, heavy cabinetry, and ugly as sin formica covering as the DDS1 extension speakers.

[cls500]

Thank you Bowtie--I had assumed alien_Shore was joking in his post. . So you are saying that the JBL brand was the big player in disco pro sound systems of that era, at least on the east coast??

[bowtie427ss]

Actually, i think most of the BIG systems were pretty much custom, and you'd find individual components from all the major players like Altec, Electrovoice, Gauss, JBL, even Cerwin Vega and Heil/Sunn etc. being used.

Back in the day, manufacturers were fairly generous with cabinet plans. Those "W" bins that you see being used on the bottom end of the RLA-7 system were fairly popular, go fairly low when used in multiples of 2 or more at SPL's that have to be felt to be believed. I think the plans for the ones we built came from EV, but i've seen touring sound companies with the same "W" horns with JBL logo's pasted on them. But, i don't believe any of the big name companies ever produced those cabinets themselves.

[Alien_Shore]

Thank you Bowtie--I had assumed alien_Shore was joking in his post. .

Yeah, glad the humor was apparent. But seriously, from what I've read, by the time Disco was in its heyday (78-82?), JBL was dominating, Altec was declining.

The pros here can tell you what you're looking to know - I would expect that most respectable disco installs would have been custom work for pro sound reinforcement contractors, and most of the loudspeakers would have been JBL.

[bowtie427ss]

Yeah, glad the humor was apparent.

I really wasn't sure, those things get a lot of unjustified love, and a lot of folks think they're actually "disco" speakers. I suppose that in the mid 60's they were quite substantial for a jukebox extension speaker. For me, in terms of hifi or sound reinforcement, they were gaudy formica covered albatross'.