Should I buy these Altec Voice of the Theater Speakers?

zbadboy69

New Member
I have a chance to buy a pair of Altec VOTT Speakers. A brother of a friend of mine owns them. He lives in Iowa and I live in Arizona however, he is coming out to visit and said he would deliver them. He wants $800 delivered to Arizona. Here is the story on the speakers....

First, the center speakers in the picture are home made boxes for a pair of 418-8H woofers. I am unsure how he had them wired into the N809-8A crossover network. Also, the boxes don't appear to meet the requirements for that woofer. He said he bought them from someone who said they would work as a mid-range driver.

Second, The lower boxes appear to be original Altec boxes, however, they are different in design. This leads me to believe they are from different years. They both have 421A woofers installed.

Third, The compression drivers are 808-8A with I believe to be 511B horns.

VOTT speakers are two way speakers. I am unsure how to make this a three way and don't believe the two woofers are designed for this. I was considering keeping two of the woofers and set them up as a set of two way VOTT's. All the drivers are working.

Which woofers would you recommend keeping?

I know how much something is worth is subjective, however I was curious as to what others thought regarding this package of speakers.

Thanks
 

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Although it may be a good price for the quality and amount of equipment, IMO you should base your decision on how they fit into your home, your 'lifestyle', your SQ preferences, and your DIY capabilities. They look like projects to me.
 
all i can say is "I'm Jealous!!" you have a pair of VOTTs and what look like 816a.
if done and tuned properly you will have by far a super speaker system, i mean SUPER; but it will take a bit of elbow grease and sweat to get it there.
 
The woofers are 418-8H and 421A. Not 816a. I do have some DIY capabilities but do not want to have to throw a bunch of cash on getting these functional for music play back. I have researched the heritage site and from what I have been able to find, is the drivers I have are not the most sought after. That said, I was leaning toward keeping the 421A's????
 
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I have known quite a few people that have used A7's, even my Chief engineer used A7-800's. His were in corners so they were flat down to 40 HZ. But with the old 802 drivers and diaphragms available in the 70's the highs weren't that great and the harmonic distortion from the woofers was horrible. He changed to 927 woofers and that helped. He eventually changed to Beta speakers, similar to a Cornerhorn, but with a bass reflex horn and ports . The sound was better. Personally I would rather have a pair of Cornwalls any day of the week. Better top octave, none of that resonant horn sound from the 811B horn and none of the cabinet vibrations of the 825 enclosure. I much prefer the Emilar 800 HZ horn. It has better dispersion for stereo, doesn't honk, and it sounds better with either the 902 , or Emilar driver. IF you like the Altec sound look for a pair of model 19's with the compensation network to make the 811 horn linear when used with the 902 driver. If it were me I would want the 994 fibre glass horn instead. But it would need a compensating network, too. With many DSP's you could probably mask most of the A7 ill's after all its a small movie house speaker designed for 50 to 7.000 hz with a roll off above that. You didn't need any more than that for theatre and PA. JBL's were just as bad at the time unless they had the horrible ring radiator. It wasn't until JBL came up with the 2220 woofer that JBL had some great bass sound. LE 15a wasn't bad though. I have never heard horn bass I really liked until Meyer came along. Even Community Light and Sound was hoaky. No one uses horn bass professionally except theatre, every one uses line arrays and subs. for live entertain meant. Only a few companies do Horns right for the home now days. Older stuff is just obsolete from Altec JBK, Ev, Frazier, etc etc. You can go to Great Plains audio to update your drivers and if your a cabinet man you can upgrade your enclosures. Crossovers should be rebuilt and changed to the N1201 style, with the 811 horn. If I were going to have anything Altec it would be current 604's !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You want amps with high damping factor and to bi-amp to keep some kind of control of those woofers.
 
Never heard 418s but liked the 421s in A7 cabs. I would probably sell 418s - you will end up with a great deal. Just add a folded horn sub!
 
Bottom cabinets are factory looking 828's.

Top cabinets are hacked off 825's or 828's, hard to say if they were original factory cabs or not.

Given the associated components, the 828's were almost certainly part of a 1236 sound reinforcement speaker system.
 
"Given the associated components, the 828's were almost certainly part of a 1236 sound reinforcement speaker system."

So what you are saying is these components are not ideal for home stereo listening? The top and center box were DIY.
 
Hey Bowtie, which woofers would you recommend keeping to utilize with the 808-8A Driver and N809-8A crossover? Thanks
 
They're called "Voice of the Theater" speakers and you have to guess?? :)

Was actually more of a hint for the OP. A bit of a nudge. I have some 418's and it says musical instrument speaker right on it of course too.
 
I think I am going to pass on these. It appears some say you need to rebuild the boxes replace or repair the drivers to make these home stereo quality. I was hoping to keep the original bottom box, sell two of the woofers, abandon the home brew middle box and mount the 808-8A driver on top. However, through my research with these speakers, it appears I do not have the ideal components to make these VOTT's sound good.:music:
 
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