Fair price for 515-8G ?

I've 4 515-8G in VG/Excellent condition (some might say 'near mint' but I won't).
Serial # stickers have all fallen off, but presumably they're from the same run/shipment as other components from the same units have proven to be.

A fellow enthusiast is interested in 2 or 4.
What's a fair price per driver?

All that I can find for comparison:

515-8g HP (Altec) (ferrite round magnet) recent months sold ebay: ~$250 ea (only one example found) (+$40 shipping)
515 "C" (Altec) (alnico) recent months sold ebay: ~$500 ea (+$55 shipping)
515-8C (GPA) (alnico): $1450 new

I'm on the fence as to whether I'd want to break up the quad, and whether it'd even be worth it to sell them.

thanks!

In the instance, I actually had these,

I would listen to them.

Even though I might use a pair of 4x8

Sheets of plywood,

Open baffle,

I'd be listening to them.

You see the way the price are headed.

I would Choose carefully.

--------------------------------------

NAB show, soon.

http://go.nabshow.com/OLP1.html?utm_...LQ5ojxHT18RycM

Be aware I tend to price low. I would be higher in pairs than for all 4. After all, you have to do two transactions to get your money.
Even at that, I would still be reluctant to break up the 4. There is a customer who wants all 4.

I would want $1600 for the 4. If you check what GPA would want, that's dirt cheap. And where but you or Great Plains are they going to find 4?

I might start out higher and offer to ship to Japan. Have them professionally foam in place packed and charge the customer, likely 50 bucks each.

Thanks to you both for the suggestions.

Yes, part of being on the fence is wanting to experiment with them further. OB or otherwise, I do have the front baffles from an 8256 that'd be an easy starting point. They'd probably make for a doable 300hz>3.xK OB, with some wings added. hrm.

Unless you want/need the $$$ for something else, to 'upgrade' SQ wise from this compression horn driver would put you in GOTO territory, which starts at 294000 yen/~ $2720 ea. and if matching published Gauss levels, 546000/~$5052 ea. and of course with GPA's new pricing, if you wanted them again........

GM

Thanks GM, good perspective.

I was thinking 'crossgrade' but based on WiniSD sims (if I am using it optimally) for the sealed 12cuft voice of the futons (used for >250hz at present) , I am barking up the wrong tree.
I might as well swap the 416's out and 515's in. The 515's start gaining on the 416's @ ~100hz, and are ~6db up by 200hz.
This could do well to fill in a perceived 150hz dip nicely, without sacrificing too much (- ~2b @ 30hz) down low.
Again, if I am simming correctly. The real physics will always win, so I will have to try it.


The 'crossgrade' haunting me is the AE TD18H w/apollo. It sims closely to the 416 in the same box (and pub'd t/s are seemingly similar to my eye).
Wondering what I would gain if anything from larger Xmax ability, and powerhandling.

The BL of the 4 ohm TD18H (pub'd 19.13) is slightly higher than the (winISD calc'd) 17.42 of the 8ohm GPA 416-8C.

With a 4ohm choice I could throw 300w/side at it (sticking to the non-fan 9442A), and still not get close to damaging the driver... and EQ it more brutally than I would attempt with the 416 or 515.

The 9442A is only 150 watts at 4 ohms. It does do 300 watts mono, but won't run 4 ohms.
Or am I missing something?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Old Guy

The 9442A is only 150 watts at 4 ohms. It does do 300 watts mono, but won't run 4 ohms.
Or am I missing something?

---

Good catch. It is:

150w/ch @ 4ohm
300w bridged into 8

You are correct, by omission in the doc they don't want you to try 4ohm bridged.

Will have to look at the 8ohm version then. :-)

In mono, each channel sees half the impedance of the load. 4 Ohm mono is a 2 Ohm load on each channel.

Want a couple 9444B dirt cheap?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Old Guy

In mono, each channel sees half the impedance of the load. 4 Ohm mono is a 2 Ohm load on each channel.

Want a couple 9444B dirt cheap?

---

Thanks! but I will pass for now. Course then I'll come up with some reason for them in a couple months time. :-)

I might take up Phil-G on his 9442a sometime soon though, I could use a candidate to practice recapping at some point.

- - - Updated - - -

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tomt

...

Open baffle,

I'd be listening to them.

You see the way the price are headed.

I would Choose carefully.

--------------------------------------

---

Dern it. And I thought I was done with lumber for a while.
At least I got the kitchen faucet fixed this weekend.

...so we've now got these ~7ft tall industrial-back-lot-minimalist OB's mocked up.
8 ohm 515's, series or parallel for them as midrange? (9442a's)

mmm. Will probably start parallel.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gearfreak

Thanks! but I will pass for now. Course then I'll come up with some reason for them in a couple months time. :-)

I might take up Phil-G on his 9442a sometime soon though, I could use a candidate to practice recapping at some point.

- - - Updated - - -



Dern it. And I thought I was done with lumber for a while.
At least I got the kitchen faucet fixed this weekend.

...so we've now got these ~7ft tall industrial-back-lot-minimalist OB's mocked up.
8 ohm 515's, series or parallel for them as midrange? (9442a's)

mmm. Will probably start parallel.

---

I usually prefer parallel.

Bear in mind in series each voice coil will act as an inductor for the other speaker. This may or may not cause irregular response.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Old Guy

... in series each voice coil will act as an inductor for the other speaker...

---

Yup, thanks OG. That was my thinking, to avoid the cumulative inductance to begin with.

Readings taken from the 4 a while back:

[@1khz]
L(e)a= 1.365 mH
L(e)b= 1.230 mH
L(e)c= 1.258 mH
L(e)d= 1.178 mH


Using a and d in parallel to arrive at .6323mh , I get 1000hz for the beginning of a 6db/octave Butterworth roll off.

Seems like a lot as I will initially try them >3khz. We shall see...

(edit) * ahh, but I can add some series R to raise it... I don't think I need the full 150w/ch of midrange.

oh my

Well that was far too easy to get a really pleasing result, so much so that I didn't bother even to block the ports on the 8256 baffle until just now. And I might undo it in another moment.

Of course then that's not giving the 515 enough due we suppose.

Can't wait until I can crank them up a bit more.

Quote:

---

oh my

Well that was far too easy to get a really pleasing result,

---

You actually have to work at it a bit to make a correctly working Altec driver sound bad.

Ask an EV engineer from the mk IV era. ;)

Here is the sales data for 515-8Gs on eBay for the last few years. I generally record most if not all sales of common Altec units. Its tedious but useful.

515-8G P Good 350 2015-01
515-8G P Good 210 2015-01
515-8G S Good 150 2015-01
515-8G P Good 350 2015-02
515-8G P Good 340 2015-02
515-8G P Good 350 2015-03
515-8G S Exc 490 2015-04
515-8G S Good 225 2015-06
515-8G S Good 120 2015-10
515-8G S Good 200 2015-11
515-8G S Exc 170 2016-03
515-8G S Good 255 2016-06
515-8G S Good 150 2016-09
515-8G P Exc 800 2016-12
515-8G P Exc 800 2016-12
515-8G P Exc 575 2017-03
515-8G S Exc 500 2017-05
515-8G S Good 305 2017-07
515-8G S Exc 500 2017-08
515-8G P Mint 1100 2018-03
515-8G P NOS 1100 2018-10
515-8G P Exc 1000 2019-02
515-8G S Good 290 2019-04
515-8G P Good 460 2019-05
515-8G S Good 225 2019-08
515-8G S Good 250 2019-08
515-8G P Exc 700 2019-10


They are not that common, and you can see a trend there of prices rising over the last two years for good examples.

The S is for a single, the P for a pair. Yours would be either Exc or Mint condition. The price is in US$.
Factors such as willingness to ship internationally or not do affect prices.

Hope this helps.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by magnarc

...Hope this helps.

---

Most certainly, thanks for cataloging magnarc!

I've decided to keep them for now-ever. :-)

Now that I've been staring at them a while, I notice they are: "Anaheim, Calif. Oklahoma City, Okla."

This puts them appx. 1982/1983?

Don't the early ones say that and the later ones just Oklahoma City?

Altec Lansing 515-8G Low frequency horn | Voigt Enterprises | Reverb

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Old Guy

Don't the early ones say that and the later ones just Oklahoma City?

Altec Lansing 515-8G Low frequency horn | Voigt Enterprises | Reverb

---

Yup, that's my presumption, I just don't know the date range. Nor when the 8G was introduced... have to hunt.

Comparing to that (presumed later) example from the link:
Mine:"Altec Lansing" in script, in lieu of "ALTEC LANSING CORP."
Mine: 3 very obvious (look like Torx) fasteners holding on the back-plate, or maybe it's called the back-plate-cover vs absent.
Mine: 'light' or 'tan' front cork gaskets vs black (not a certain criteria of course)

meh. interesting.

- - - Updated - - -

catalog-wise, I don't see the 515-8G in '84, only in '89:

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...ro/1989-10.jpg

So I was way off. I thought they were well out of Anaheim by 84 would have dropped it from the labels.


Oh, and a digression, I haven't seen this one before.
...a sweet pic of the 8182. hah!
http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...ott/page09.jpg

- - - Updated - - -

...what I have in PDF as
"Jim Dicksons cheat sheet Large_Altec.pdf"
from: wmeckle.com

states:

515G Series
1984----- 8, 16 Ohms 75 Watts Same as above
Newest version of 515C. Built exclusively for horn enclosures. Don't use in vented or sealed boxes. Works better than any previous model. Great woofer


So we have a 1984 sighting.

pretty sure the 515G variants are what the 515E evolved into.

The early 515E's with flat magnets kind of suck, not unlike flat magnet 416's.

Later 515E's use the same rounded magnet/motor structure as found on the 515G variants and the 515-8LFE

I can say, often products were available before they appeared in catalogs.

And transition models aren't uncommon. I have 808A drivers with tapered bodies.

I suspect Altec was shipping 8G before the move, stockpiled them, and shipped the stockpiled ones after the move.

Possibly as I understand it the earlier 515 G had the torn bolts on the back holding the magnet on. The later ones didn't. When I get near another Hard Drive I've got images with labels and date codes that may help.