My Grandfather's system restored and reunited

Thank you both-and welcome to AK, James! I'll eventually send my drivers to Bill @ GPA for a regauss (if they need it) and radial waveguide upgrades but they sound so good just as they are.

Since my last post, I did make some changes. The ported subwoofer wasn't doing it for me so, fueled by ibuprofen, I rolled my Tuba HT horn sub up two flights of stairs and pushed it into place with the mouth 18" from the wall. The Tuba is more dynamic, creates deeper and more immersive bass, and has no problem delivering at concert levels with headroom to spare...a perfect compliment for the Altecs. I also added my OPPO 93 (not in this pic) and Anthem MRX310 to my system as a digital front end.

Next stage of my journey will be room treatment (mostly bass trapping) and rattle control. Luckily, the need to treat reflections is minimal, as my room isn't strictly rectangular and doesn't have a back wall in the traditional sense (as shown in my previous post above).

RWKEvFV.jpg
 
Old school beats New school any day! Your Grand Dad picked well. I only can point out that all of it works. 50 years from will the gear built today work?
I for one doubt it.. after all it’s engineered remember to recycle or in the case of your Grand Dads gear from the Golden years of hifi leave to your Grand Kids so that they can Reuse. After all recycling was not needed back then things were reused..
good to see it in a good home! Cheers, Nemo
 
Old school beats New school any day! Your Grand Dad picked well. I only can point out that all of it works. 50 years from will the gear built today work?
I for one doubt it.. after all it’s engineered remember to recycle or in the case of your Grand Dads gear from the Golden years of hifi leave to your Grand Kids so that they can Reuse. After all recycling was not needed back then things were reused...
good to see it in a good home! Cheers, Nemo
And, I think that with minor service, this stuff here will run for another 50 years.
Nice system! This would be the dream come true for me.
 
Looks like a theater in your room wow ! Big horns :eek2:

I still am horrified about when my grandma got rid of her vintage system years ago . Was a nice one but speakers were rather low to mid end. Still angry I wasn’t given the option to have it . O well rip
They did not compare to this amazing set up speakers .
Your tube amp or vintage amp is so awsome looking!!
 
Very nice system! I must admit, in the first picture, it was hard to notice the system what with that fantastic view outside the window. ;)

I had to Google about the Tuba HT sub, pretty impressive.

How do you get signal to the sub? Through the plate amp crossover or ??? Do you send a rolled off signal back to the amp powering the A7s?
 
I thought I heard some dulcet tones emanating from the South over the Summer. :)

Great system you have there. I too inherited my love of music and great sounding gear from my Grandfather, in part, as he really liked his music. My Grandmother, Mother, Uncles and Aunts all played instruments or sang and I grew up in that environment. There was everything from harmonicas, old time squeeze boxes, violins, guitars, pianos and banjos and even a tenor saxaphone going at one time or another. At times, they were all together on the lawn at the farm in Woodburn. Ah...those were the days.

Enjoy that system!!!
 
Thanks for all the comments!

Gramps was also the most influential person for my interest in electronics and audio. I've been looking through old photos to try and find ones of him with the system but sadly couldn't find any. Plenty of him tinkering away in his electronics shop...

Since the recent bout of moves I've been out of the hi-fi game, but I have the itch to once again weild my soldering iron and make my system the best it can be. Currently the Scott and Macs mostly have orange drops in them, with dynamicaps and vishay metal film resistors in the phono section of the 355. It all sounds great on the VOTTs (visitors almost always say it's the best stereo they've ever heard), but I keep wishing there was more micro-detail and three-dimensionality...and thus another journey begins...
I had to research and find the best sounding vintage tweeter to help the horn out.
 
I had the Altec 500B horn in one system.

The thing is, though, I had a new driver on it that crossed over at 2500 Hz. Trying to play lower reveals quite a pronounced resonance right at about 500 Hz. Playing it higher avoided the low resonance, but there was definitely a residual 'ringing', which was subtle, but actually quite musical in it's perceptibility. I quite liked the sound.

Research on the internet showed that a lot of people found the sound objectionable, and had devised a few methods of removing the resonance. Curious, I implemented one, which was to cut the vanes along the welds and then reconnect them with silicone. I excitedly hooked it back up in my system, but sadly, the magic was gone. The sound was now quite... Dead.

I took the modified horn out of my system, and never used it again.
 
Very nice... Grandpa had quite the stereo, even by today's standards. People who had that kind of 'stuff' back then were usually somehow or another in the audio/music business...or had a serious attitude towards their hobby. Obviously you'd have to afford it, but having that kind of equipment in the home was more than just being able to afford it. Glad you have it, kept it in the family. Neat.
 
Thank you both-and welcome to AK, James! I'll eventually send my drivers to Bill @ GPA for a regauss (if they need it) and radial waveguide upgrades but they sound so good just as they are.

Since my last post, I did make some changes. The ported subwoofer wasn't doing it for me so, fueled by ibuprofen, I rolled my Tuba HT horn sub up two flights of stairs and pushed it into place with the mouth 18" from the wall. The Tuba is more dynamic, creates deeper and more immersive bass, and has no problem delivering at concert levels with headroom to spare...a perfect compliment for the Altecs. I also added my OPPO 93 (not in this pic) and Anthem MRX310 to my system as a digital front end.

Next stage of my journey will be room treatment (mostly bass trapping) and rattle control. Luckily, the need to treat reflections is minimal, as my room isn't strictly rectangular and doesn't have a back wall in the traditional sense (as shown in my previous post above).

RWKEvFV.jpg
Yep, all are great changes! Sorry for the delay, but I am now retired and have more time to peruse the forums. :(
 
Echoing sentiments here. Absolutely beautiful! Its an absolute delight seeing vintage gear of this caliber restored and in service.

A7's, thrive in large or infinite spaces. Have you tried moving them outside on the deck or other large space for a listen? If the neighbors are close enough to hear, they won't mind a bit. :)
 
Echoing sentiments here. Absolutely beautiful! Its an absolute delight seeing vintage gear of this caliber restored and in service.

A7's, thrive in large or infinite spaces. Have you tried moving them outside on the deck or other large space for a listen? If the neighbors are close enough to hear, they won't mind a bit. :)

Nothing has the same grunt or high impact slam that large format horn loaded speakers. provide.
 
Wow!!!,,,,,, Beautiful system Thankyou for sharing . Those Mac's with that Scott looks soooooo cooool .love it
 
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