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Altec 19's - just bought from original owner

Great looking nineteens Gil.:thmbsp: From the pics they do look perfect except that wrinkleling around the horn. Not nit-picking at all......it's just that thats something I've never seen before. I don't know what exactly the stuff is. I can't even tell from examining mine right here. It seems to be some kind of hard plastic or vynil material but I'd never expect it to be able to wrinkle like that. Minor issue but interesting.

Anyhow, again...great looking set!:thmbsp: Hope you enjoy them.


Russ
 
WAF Problem????

Speaker Fan, I find it amazing that you had a problem with WAF! Those 19s look GREAT flanking the fireplace! The "mantle rack" of gear IS rather tacky,but as you said, soon to be moved. WAF- WTF????

By the way, the pictures look fine. Enjoy Those Altecs!

later.....willhowl:banana:
 
Willhowl,

Trust me, it was 5 days before they could move from just inside the door ("can't leave them in the car") to their new home by the fireplace. I think they look great there also.
It would have been close if I hadn't asked my dad to put 3 layers of brick above the top of fireplace. Everything you see in the photo is a self build home addition (added almost 500 ft2) from framing to painting :yes:

Will see if I can loosen horn and get rid of puckering... not sure why Altec didn't simply paint this area instead of using a vinyl product... oh well, it was the 70's so the did many weird things back then, some good, some not.

ps - how do I get a great signature like you guys that lists all of the audio stuff I am using?
 
Speaker Fan said:
Dave, your diaphragm repair looks impressive, didn't think that type of repair was even possible. Detroit is about 45 minutes from me, could I drop it off sometime or mail it to you for review?
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I sent you an e-mail, Dave.

Very nice speakers!! :yes:
 
RussinOhio said:
Great looking nineteens Gil.:thmbsp: From the pics they do look perfect except that wrinkleling around the horn. Not nit-picking at all......it's just that thats something I've never seen before. I don't know what exactly the stuff is. I can't even tell from examining mine right here. It seems to be some kind of hard plastic or vynil material but I'd never expect it to be able to wrinkle like that. Minor issue but interesting.

Anyhow, again...great looking set!:thmbsp: Hope you enjoy them.


Russ
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Great find Russ! and Welcome to AK. :thmbsp:
 
Very nice speakers.. looks like a really great score, but bum deal on popping a horn...

Man.. My wife would kill for my speakers to look that acceptable.. (see my avatar, they grey bit is the horn on top) but if you wife is like mine, once she listens to them a while, she will never let you move them out..
 
Hello everyone,

I noticed that some users have more than one pair of 19's.
Also a friend who has 2 pair of 19's (one oak, good shape - other home built cabinets) was in town today.

We had a chat and I got the idea... :screwy: ...hold on guys... what would you use for a center channel with the 19's for surround sound???

Talk about "voice of the theatre" at home... knowing this group it's likely we have a few users who actually have thought of this before me. Let me know what you think :thmbsp:

Gil
 
Great looking speakers! Do you mind telling us what you paid? I am considering a pair of 19's as well. Just wondering what the market is right now. Thanks and welcome to AK. There is a lot of good knowledge and great people around here. :thmbsp:
 
If your receiver is set up for it, use a phantom center channel setting. I tried both and prefer the phantom. Let me qualify that last by saying I didn't have a set of matching high-end surround speakers to use.
Still, I've heard more than a few HT sets, and the center channel speaker always seems out of balance with the fronts. Too much beaming of the mid range, I'm guessing.
BTW, your 19's look very nice. I'm in process of building a pair. I have the horns and drivers. Saving up for the 416's from GPA and designing the crossover, at present.
 
OK - I am going to try them in a 4.1 surround setup with my custom sub (NHT amplifier and JBL 15" woofer in a 4625B pro cabinet) and the PSB stratus Golds as the rear channel... have to send the wife away for a few hours for this radical a move.

Also, I have nothing to hide regarding the cost.
The 19's were in the paper for $500.00 which is part of why I was so excited.

When I called, the owner told me they had been in for 2 days already and 2 seperate people had come to look at them and both said they were too large.

I suggested that I may be able to take one with me right away in my car he said "take them now and you can have them for $450.00". At that point I had looked them over well enough and it took about 1 second for me to say yes. :banana:

Also...

Some people have suggested that I look at the capacitors in the crossovers as they can go out of spec with age.
I have also read stories of people replacing capacitors only to find that the sound changed significantly (not always for the better).
I have a multimeter but it does not have a capacitance mode, also wouldn't you have to remove one lead from the circuit in order to test?

Thanks for your continued information !
 
Speaker Fan said:
I suggested that I may be able to take one with me right away in my car he said "take them now and you can have them for $450.00". At that point I had looked them over well enough and it took about 1 second for me to say yes. :banana:
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450 bucks....in that condition! Without a doubt the best M19 deal ever that I'm aware of.:thmbsp:

Amazing that the first two "lookers" passed at 500 bucks even for the size!

Russ
 
Wow. What a score. :jawdrop: Obviously neither the seller or the two that passed on the speakers had any idea of what they were looking at. This is like the little old lady who advertises an old Chevy in the paper and it turns out to be a '63 split window Corvette in mint condition and she only wants 2 grand for it. Sheezzz.

Congrats. Have fun with them.
 
A DMM isn't going to help you....

I've replaced my crossover caps with Solens, and after a burn in period, they sound great - open, detailed and warm. The prevailing wisdom is that the caps Altec used tend to go out of spec with time, so replace them now or replace them later. DGWojo has a nice thread somewhere about the crossover cap replacement, including pix....:thmbsp:

BTW great score. I paid double that form mine, and was happy to get them. Turns out the fellow I bought them from got them at a thrift for $260....
 
Great deal...about the best deal I ever have heard of!

I paid 3 times that - about 3 years ago, but I suppose the dollar had greater value back then :D

I had to move my 19's down to the basement because of their size, BUT my Model 14's have a permanent spot in my living room.

I bought new foam pieces for the horns from a guy on eBay and they are perfect! I re-capped the xovers with Dayton from PartsExpress, and people love the sound. I had to solder the flat wires on both of my 802-8G diaphragms (microscope work), and they sound very smooth. If people didn't already know; they couldn't really tell that they were listening to horns. Many people pre-judge horns without ever hearing nice smooth ones.

Richard C.
 
Nice find an welcome to AK! :yes: :thmbsp:

Those are on my short list to acquire some day! :yes:

Scott
 
Speaker Fan.
Welcome to AK,great score. :yes: :thmbsp:

As you have seen there is a small group of Altec users here.A nice bunch.

I'll predict that once your wife hears just how good her favourite music sounds on your 19s,she'll threaten divorce should you ever attempt to sell them. :D

I got my Valencias(think of the 19s smaller older brother) here in Australia for the equivalent of $190 US,at a Salvation Army store. :D

There was a pair of 19s(the only pair I've ever seen in Aus,though there must be others)which sold on Aussie E*ay in the last month.I would have attempted to buy them,however my car decided to deteriorate to the point of no return at the same time,and I've had to use my funds buying a 2nd-hand vehicle(got a good'n thmbsp:).That's life.
When you get your diaphragms from GPA(the way to go),play your wife's favourite music for the first couple of days.
She'll come around. :yes:
 
Speaker Fan said:
Greetings again.

You are all awesome, so many replies, so much good advice, this must be the place.

If all goes well, here is a photo of tonights episode of Dexter on my Sharp Aquos with the 19's on either side. :D
Don't mind the sparse audio equipment, most of it is moving to a location other than the temporary fireplace mantle location.

The 19's still have paper labels on them that read something like "this cabinet is constructed with natural wood grain veneer".

Hope you all enjoy the photos if they work (old camera, 1st time posting).

Gil
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Very nice! BTW, I touched up your pix a bit in Photoshop so we could see them better ...
 

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theophile said:
Speaker Fan.
Welcome to AK,great score. :yes: :thmbsp:

As you have seen there is a small group of Altec users here.A nice bunch.

I'll predict that once your wife hears just how good her favourite music sounds on your 19s,she'll threaten divorce should you ever attempt to sell them. :D

I got my Valencias(think of the 19s smaller older brother) here in Australia for the equivalent of $190 US,at a Salvation Army store. :D
Click to expand...

Wow, even more Altec fans with more information...

Don't think I would have taken the plunge for much more cash than I paid. Not that these are not worth it, just that I have purchased many speakers over the years and results vary if you can't sit down and listen for enough time to allow you to reach a good decision.

The owner of these toasted his older equipment so he had them hooked up to a CD player, then through the TV and then to an cheap reciever powering the Altecs. From what they sounded like I would NEVER have bought them if I didn't know more about these fine speakers.

My past experience with horns has not been great so again had the price not been so good I may not have made the move. What did help is a friend of mine who owns 2 pair of 19's (and just one NOS Valencia which is looking for a partner) who keeps raving about them.

On another topic, my wife and I were in Aus (mainly Brisbane) for 3-1/2 weeks 3 years ago in March. I love Brisbane and we travelled the sunshine coast down to near NSW border and up. Even got to Cairns to do some snorkeling and rode the Caranda (spelling?) Railway. Great country - my uncle and aunt moved from Moose Jaw Saskatchewan (yes is on planet earth) in Canada to Aus and have never come back !!!

In process or rearranging audio equip and am waiting for diaphragm (took old one out, quite easy) so I can have a listen again. Also my horn has no label on the back showing model number... is this normal? I could take other one out and look, maybe they forgot to put it on or maybe they stopped doing this in the later days.

Take care and thanks everyone... feel free to post if you have ideas, want pics, etc.

Gil
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