Altec model 5 freebies

[elduce]

A buddy gave these to me yesterday.Are these worth fixing up,by that I mean the woofers are different.One is white (looks like a JBL )the other is grayish blue,are they originals?They were in a cellar and the bottoms split on the sides at the seams you can see it in the bottom corners.Surprising the veneer is in good shape.Are they worth the time to refoam,recap and glue together.

 

[mhardy6647]

The white woofer is not original; the other one may well be.

http://www.lansingheritage.org/images/altec/catalogs/1975-home/page09.jpg

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

AFAIK, the white coned woofer is incorrect for the Model 5.

 

[jimfet]

That was a very good line of speakers and the cabs were top notch.

 

[KGBMAN]

I have a pair of the model threes.

Nice speakers.

 

[Derry]

head over to the Altec site for some good advice on handling the repair, yes they are worth it,,

http://www.hostboard.com/forums/altec-users-board/

Derry

 

[elduce]

I'll try to hunt down a woofer for this,if anyone has a line on one please shoot me a PM.Thanks again

 

[geiman]

I recently refoamed a pair of those. The white woofer is incorrect as others have said.
The main thing about these is they are efficient, I'm using a 15 watt power amp(Accurian) to power them and they can play LOUD. The voicing is kind of like Advent, good bass for sure. The top end has the CTS tweeter sound, smooth but can distort at extreme high levels. Overall these are worth saving. You might consider a 12" woofer like a Dayton Classic rather than a refoam. Also, you have a good foundation to do an E-Wave waveguide conversion on these, the cabinets are worthy for sure.

 

[kirk57]

except the cabinets got wet and are split at the bottom corners....

 

[Markw]

One thing (among many) that impresses me about Altec here is their spec sheet. They give the most meaningful power handling specs that I've seen.

 

[bowtie427ss]

31063 woofer, really a 10 inch in a 12 inch frame.

Also used in the series 1 model 7 as well as 891's and probably a couple other bookshelf speakers.

A little time spent perusing the reference manual at lansing heritage library would produce a list of potential donors of the correct woofer and their respective system model numbers to keep an eye out for. These parts are often available at that auction site.

 

[dc270]

I have rebuilt these in the past. The cabs are certainly top notch and even the original drivers do sound quite good! This series of Altecs I really like, produced in their hayday of good quality speakers. Well worth restoring and finding a donor woofer I would say!

When you compare this model line to many others of the day the competition was fierce- but I still think Altec came out on top most of the time with a superior sound and quality looking products. That company had a lot of prode in product at one time.

Altec, EV & JBL were major players for darn good reasons! They took some what differant approaches nut always found superior sound somehow.
DC

 

[elduce]

Just had a look at the drivers,Looking at the picture the baskets are the same.The only difference is the magnet. The original speaker production date is 76 the white cone is 79.The white cone speaker was sealed like the other one was.The speaker code was tough to read it looked like S50129U or H hard to tell.Could this be a later production version.The mystery continues......

 

[JesusChrysler]

Fuzzy pics of my 1978 Series II Altec Fives. No idea what the difference between the two but the woofers appear original. Just thought I'd muddy up the answer here.






Matt

 

[dc270]

One looks to be Alnico the other a ferrite type........
DC