616 questions

[Old Guy]

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...pro/page12.jpg

dang it I hate it when I space on the URL.

[Old Guy]

I'm bidding on a deinstall. I originally thought 605's were involved, but they appear to be 616's.

Anybody ever play with these?

Essentially I have several choices- pass it by, bid to keep, or bid to resell.

Frankly I've never heard a pair. Not sure how many are involved yet, could be a bunch.

Appear to be 605's with no horn or a much smaller horn- they are still in place.

Any of you fellas have a clue?

[bowtie427ss]

They look interesting enough that should you get a quantity to resell, you can probably put me on your short list for at least a pair.

[Old Guy]

Bit of an oddity- 4 inch voice coil on the LF.

Short horn. HF is only rated to 12khz but has an 806 driver essentially. Filter in Xover?

The thing is I may get them at a low enough price to do a 5.1 setup- Left Center Right and 2 rear.

Never seen Duplexes in that situation.

They aren't labeled. Just a number starts with 391 which is code for Altec, does say Altec on the driver covers. Light Grey.

There may be as many as 20. If I get them they'll be reasonable- I would think half the price for 604's is where I would try to be.


I had hoped they could be converted to standard Duplexes but not possible apparrently. They are what they are. Did find a discussion at Lansing Heritage, several people there got them and spoke highly of them. Frankly I sold a lot of Altec back then and don't even remember them. Must have been uncommon.

[bowtie427ss]

Bit of an oddity- 4 inch voice coil on the LF.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I was noting the ribbed cone..........

HF is only rated to 12khz but has an 806 driver essentially. Filter in Xover?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Maybe a symbiotik phram? the 4 inch coil screams hi power

[Old Guy]

I thought Symbiotik too- it would make sense. these are still bolted in the ceiling so I can't tell what pragm, but GPA says should be aluminum which is why I thought filtering...

I probably should just go ahead and try to get them. Best way probably to get info is use them.

[bfish]

Hi, OG,

If you haven't found the spec yet;

http://www.altecpro.com/pdfs/vintage...%20Speaker.pdf

Looks to me like distributed/ceiling use as designed would be the only useful app. for them. If the cone's as heavy as it appears, and they've been in a ceiling since new, I'd expect suspension sag has rendered them nearly useless by now, unless they're overhung, which is pretty unlikely with a pleated surround. Since the cone is the HF horn, IM distortion will be off the scale up high, maybe why they don't go there.

Go ahead and buy them though, if for no other reason than keeping some con from pairing them out to the gullible on eBay.

[Old Guy]

Hey- I was gonna pair them out to the gullible on Ebay- just at a lower price.

I may or may not even get them, there aren't a lot of people being offered the deal. But some fools go nuts when they hear "vintage Altec"

Like Ebay scammers with their high power studio monitors.

[Steve Schell]

Old Guy, when I asked a knowledgeable friend about the 616, he replied that it is "...the good ceiling speaker" of the old Altec line. It has a 411-like 4" woofer motor with shallow gap and coil, a nice light corrugated cone, and an 806 high frequency section on a 90 degree conical horn. He feels that they would be quite suitable for a 5.1 setup.