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Altec 820A...

JonL

JonL

Lunatic Member
A pair of Altec 820A speakers will soon be in the "family." :banana: A friend is clearing out his deceased parents' house, and is giving these speakers to my band. Not exactly sure what we'll be using them for, but they will take up residence in the warehouse loft where we play during the summer months, as it's the only place where any of us has room. The loft is a mezzanine that opens out into a 20,000 square foot warehouse. It sounds incredible when we play there, not sure how these speakers will sound with recorded music in such a space, but we'll soon find out. Don't know what I'll feed them with just yet...

My friend's father was quite the audiophile back in the day. I remember going there in high school and listening to Dead bootleg tapes on a big reel to reel, can't say what brand, probably Crown. My friend is aware of the value of such things, and he's being very generous giving us these speakers. (Maybe he just doesn't want the hassle of shipping.) He's selling or sold whatever else was in the system. I'll have to find out what all there is/was.

Edit: Link to some info on these (generic, not the exact ones).
 
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Despite their size those are not designed for high power.

Be real careful with them.

Nice Get! :banana:
 
How much power can they take, and how efficient are they? Can they get loud enough to do PA duty for us? (Yeah, I know it's kind of a waste, but none of us have a suitable living situation for them right now.)

I've got a few amps I can run these off... Tube integrated amps at about 15WPC and 30WPC, a Bogen MO-200A that can be split for stereo at 100WPC, solid-state at 200WPC, also the little Yamaha PA head we use now, don't know what the rating is for that.
 
The problem I see is someone dropping a mic or the unintended spike or a pot dialed to 11 at turn on.

A 30 watt amp for music would be a lot with them.

Think background music while entertaining the ladies rather than PA use.:D

As responsible as you certainly are, someone else will likely accidentally mangle them.

It's kinda like hauling bricks with your new Bugatti.

Don't forget to post pictures.
 
tom1356 said:
The problem I see is someone dropping a mic or the unintended spike or a pot dialed to 11 at turn on.

A 30 watt amp for music would be a lot with them.

Think background music while entertaining the ladies rather than PA use.:D

As responsible as you certainly are, someone else will likely accidentally mangle them.

It's kinda like hauling bricks with your new Bugatti.

Don't forget to post pictures.
Click to expand...

Yes, I understand. I've already gotten a couple of PMs regarding these speakers and how they'll be used... so to clarify a few things:

1. These speakers do not belong to me, they are sort of communal to my band and the original owner's son. They will be in my possession (at my workplace warehouse), and under my care. They will not be for sale or trade any time soon.
2. My questions about their use as PA speakers shouldn't imply that they will ever be moved and used for that purpose outside of our practice space. Within our practice space, they *could* be used to supplement our existing and adequate PA (for vocals only). I know that industrial La Scala's were made for PA use, and I thought these might be similarly robust. I'm learning that they are not.
3. "Think background music while entertaining the ladies rather than PA use.:D" This is likely to become their use for the foreseeable future, though they won't see much use in this way unfortunately.

I wish I had a better place for them where they could be enjoyed more often.

I will post pics. Picking them up Saturday. All 460 lbs of them.
 
You have a good handle on the situation.
Don't forget to protect the tops from beer cans.:thmbsp:
 
Well, over a year later these speakers have made beautiful sounds once again. The speakers were taken to my bandmate's home, where he has a suitable space for them. The speakers have four 15 inch woofers between the pair. One had obviously been reconed in the recent past, and the other three badly needed to be reconed. The cones and accordion surrounds were badly dry rotted and falling apart. All four were sent to Great Plains Audio for reconing so they'd all be alike. I removed the drivers, and a mutual friend that owns a local recording studio got involved and handled the processing of the speakers. They came back recently, our friend ran them in at his studio for a while (how I do not know) and tonight we got together to install them and see how these babies perform. Joining us was another recording studio owner from Amarillo, TX. The woofers were installed, our studio friend replaced all the internal wiring, and I hooked up the Harman Kardon A500 I had rebuilt to run the Altecs. The new owner is just getting back into audio, so another friend donated a low end Technics turntable with a Grado P-mount cartridge on it. I replaced the belt on the table, and checked the stylus under my microscope where it looked brand new.

Cutting to the chase... these are the best sounding speakers I've ever heard. Even with the very modest front end, they sounded simply amazing. Far deeper and smoother bass than I had expected. Very natural presentation of timbres across the entire audio range. No humps or holes. Dynamic, and BIG sounding. Wow. I've never heard anything so BIG sounding (not loud, though they were loud). They present the scale of the music in a very realistic way. We were all blown away, including the studio owners who have $30,000 speakers in their control rooms. The only thing I felt the speakers didn't do well was to convey a seamless soundstage across the middle. It could be that they were rather too far apart. It could be the modest front end. The imaging was very 3D; John Entwhistle's bass was two feet out in front, but there was little "mono" information in the mixes we heard. (Everything we heard was from filthy and beat up records. Pink Floyd, Hendrix, and The Who.)

These speakers make my La Scalas look small, and unfortunately also make them SOUND small. I now know that I must get a bigger living space so I can chase after the sound I heard tonight. Wow.

Here's another picture of one of them (before reconing):

attachment.php
 
Nice, those must sound seriously good with a raccoon of the woogers.
Did the 802s need new diaphragms also?
 
Dukiedook said:
Nice, those must sound seriously good with a raccoon of the woogers.
Did the 802s need new diaphragms also?
Click to expand...

Seriously good. I wasn't expecting nearly the amount of bass these guys put out. The 802 diaphragms are fine. We opened one of the crossover networks to see what was inside, and it was all potted so we're just going with them as-is. They're probably fine, considering that the two speakers sound alike and sound fantastic.

The speakers aren't as sensitive as I expected. The Harman Kardon puts out about 25 WPC, and with it up past 75% on the volume knob my iPhone app reported 95ish dB SPL. Just hit 100 once in a while. I'll get that loud with my La Scalas and my 35WPC Dynaco at less than 25% on the preamp. I tested the HK on my La Scalas, and couldn't go close to halfway up on the volume. I would've thought the sensitivity of the Altecs would be close to that of the Klipsch, though the Altecs are also in a much bigger room.

I need a bigger room. :tears:
 
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