Poor StonehengeI ???

[Old Guy]

Originally posted by gamalot:
In a brief discussion with Bill he did say that Altec sourced out a few of the woofers for the smaller home versions. I think if you check the model 14, 15 and the model 9 you will fine thety all have a very sinilar basket design and will be listed at GPA under RCA equipment.

I would not let it bother me in the least because they sound just fine.

Gary

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes Altec sourced parts- to Utah and CTS. I REALLY don't beieve RCA was involved at all.

[gamalot]

Interesting discussion here and as far as I am cooncerned it really doesn't matter if RCA was or was not involved.
They happen to be very nice sounding so I would just be happy to get the accurate information as to who did make them and why they even have RCA associated with them at all.

I will bet between Oldguy, Todd W and Bill H we could get the real answer.
It won't surprise me at all if RCA did make these because at that period in time I think Altec had all sorts of strange stuff going on.

A member over on LH posted an interesting story about a pair of 846s he bought new back in the early 70s. They had the fancy wood lattice grilles. Not long ago he was in the process of repairing the grilles or changing the cloth and found that one cabinet had a black 811B while the other one had a Gold 811B.

All we could surmise was they ran out of black horns that day and probably just used one off the seeburg line to get the speakers finished.

Another member showed a pair of original model 19s and the XOs were labeled 1201-8A rather then Model Nineteen like every other one I have ever seen. He was absolutely certain this is the way they came from the factory.

Gary

[Old Guy]

I do know of parts exchanges between Altec and Utah. Frames for stamped frame Altecs usually came from there. I am not as sure, but reasonably so, that some of Utah's Alnico was machined by either Altec or University. It's very hard to work with Alnico.

CTS tweeters are certain. Heppner parts fix one horn in a hi-fi box, so I think it came from there or a common source.

I never heard any mention of RCA from anyone I knew. RCA had shut down most of it's factories in the US- I believe they were only making picture tubes by then.