Altec Lansing Technologies Legacy Series

[Don McR]

http://www.altecmm.com/legacy/

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ May 24, 2003 07:48 PM: Message edited by: Todd W. White ]</font>

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Can't believe it! Posted for four hours now and Todd hasn't completely trashed them yet.

Caveat Emptor!

[stpower]

From what I see in the pictures of this A-7, the way they have the 511-b mounted in the enclosure almost completely blocks off the port area. Makes one wonder, do these people really know the A-7?
I doubt the line to buy these will be very long at $4300. Just buy the used real thing and have GPA rebuild the drivers for considerably less.

stpower

[RonSSS]

Seems to me that Altec has made a good effort here. Why bash them?
Ron

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Chill out there, Skippy! No need to get so exercised.

They also spec the "new" speaker as -3dB at 54Hz: that's quite a bit more honest than the "old" Altec spec of simply ?guaranteed response: 32Hz-20Khz". And why would you think the same 515-G in the same horn flare on the same 828 cabinet would have 6dB lower sensitivity? That doesn?t seem reasonable to me.

What does seem reasonable is that they may be acknowledging the sophistication of the market these days. People actually have computer based RTA capability in their homes - a factor the old Altec marketing gurus didn't have to wrestle with in the past.

[scott fitlin]

why bash them? Ill tell you why! Because they rate them as 97db sensitivity 1w @ 1m.

As opposed to an A7x being 101db @ 4feet 1w!

Or the A5x with 515-8G coming in at 104db 1w @ 4feet!

Or how about a plain 828H with a 515-8G being 103db 1w @ 4ft!

However, in light of their claims of HIGH EFFICIENCY and claim that you can use a low powered vacuum tube amp to drive these! But depending on which vintage system you can get your hands on you would have 2 -4 times as much acoustic output then you will get with the $8600/pr A7,s and their HEFTY 97db rating!

I DO NOT CONSIDER 97DB to be HIGH EFFICIENCY! It is medium efficiency!

[Roland N R]

The problem is meaningless specifications!!

You need to specify the freq response within a certain dB of flatness for example 35Hz-22KHz +/-3 dB. By itself as given 35Hz-22KHz could be anything...the extremes could be 10-20dB down!!!!

Similarly sensitivity rating without giving the freq range in which it was measured is meaningless. For example 105dB/W @ 1 meter usually is understood to be a midband 1000Hz measurement. The sensitivity at 35Hz or 22KHz will obviously be quite lower.

Without detailed specs you really don't know.

Unfortunately most manufacturers including JBL and Altec have been forever getting away with such shabby representations of speaker specifications.

[scott fitlin]

you may be right, and I will find out. But you must admit, for a horn loaded system, 97db seems kinda low!

But, if, like me, you have heard REAL vintage Altec, you DO know it was extremely efficient. You didnt need an RTA to determine this, your ears knew. Yeah, for an exact number at a specific frequency you need an RTA. But we shall see!

[Todd W. White]

Hello Fellows!

I am working on a response to the appearance of this ad. It should be ready this time tomorrow, unless I have to wait until Tuesday to get some information I'll need to give you a proper analysis of this critter.

In the meantime, suffice to say I am VERY suspicious! Here are a couple of things that I notice outright -

1. It says the entire unit is made in the USA, and the components are made on the original Altec tooling.

Unless Bill at GPA has been hiding something from me (something I do not think he would do), I SERIOUSLY DOUBT that these are NEW products made on the original Altec tooling which HE owns.

I strongly suspect that they are NOS parts with new cabinets and crossovers.

2. I am bothered by the specifications - years ago, when THE Altec Lansing sent out new spec sheets on the A7-8G, as it was then called, Dr. John K. Hilliard and I both sent long, detailed letters to Ted Uzzle and Dave Merrey excoriating them over the flaws in the technical specifications.

I am looking for a copy of those letters now, but I distinctly remember that the efficiency ratings were WAY TOO LOW on that spec sheet, which might account for the goof on the new "Altec" Legacy A7.

Dr. Hilliard and I BOTH castigated them for changing to the 515-8G, which was NOT originally designed for the A7. In fact, the A7 originally used an Altec 803-series woofer, followed by it's successor, the magnificent 416-series of woofers.

"Magnificent" - now WHERE have I heard that before??????

Simply put, the A7 doesn't work as well in the LF output department with the 515-G series woofers as it did with the 416's.

The only reason that I can come up with that they are using it is because THAT is what the current guys at ALPro remember, so when the folks at Sparkomatic (ooooops! - I mean Altec Lansing Technologies) asked them for the spec's, they, in their naivete', gave them a list of products with the 515-G series in it.

3. They claim that the TANGERINETM Radial Phase Plug is theirs - it's NOT - it's BILL's!!! Not only that, but the Trademark is NOT theirs, either! They did NOT buy it when they bought the 6 they DID buy from Telex! They don't own MANTARAYTM, either!

Personally, I find everything that ALT & ALPRo are doing as a disturbingly dishonest attempt to make people THINK that THEY are THE Altec Lansing everyone's heard about!

I'll have more by Tuesday evening.....

Until then, I offer my standard CAVEAT EMPTOR!!!!!

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ May 25, 2003 06:38 PM: Message edited by: Todd W. White ]</font>

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I guess, as in everything, opinions vary.

"The final woofer, the current one, is the 515-8G woofer. This unit is far superior in fidelity, b a s s, m i d range and efficiency to its predecessors.The L.F. boxes of the small ? V. O. T. T.?s ? are not near as critical to the woofers as the larger units. With the exception of the 803A woofer, all work well. The 515-8G exceeds all others in performance."

Jim Dickinson, Sales, Iconic Speaker Manufacturing