Altec Lansing Model 14
- Thread starter h00kem
- Start date
Got a chance to fire them up. All I can say is WOW! They are particularly suited to strong recordings where particular instruments or vocals are emphasized (e.g. Chris Botti, Diana KrawI, Tony Bennett) They remind me of my Klipschorns without the need to shove them into a corner. At the moment I am powering them with my Sansui Au-999, but I'll switch to my Dynaco MkIII mono blocks as I think they would benefit from that tube sound. The highs and mid are accentuated so I changed out the crossover capacitors replacing them with Solens. That seems to have mellowed them a bit. I'll post pics this weekend. I really can't believe what great condition they are in! Thanks for all the feedback. I can honestly say that I am very impressed with the sound them and they look so cool! These are definitely keepers!
That is outstanding!!
Sparkie
Active Member
I am listening to my Altec Lansing model 14s for the first time tonight. i just got the woofers back from being refoamed. i found them at an estate sale a week or so ago. i am really liking what i am hearing so far. while i was pacing back and forth waiting for the woofers to get ready i noticed on my project shelf an altec lansing 911 that i had purchased and gotten frustrated with and put away. seems it has a habit of blowing fuses on one channel so i have been working on it but tonight i am rolling FM mono. Things are sounding pretty fine. I am having one awesome all Altec Lansing Saturday Night! James Brown on the ALs. Payback!
Last edited:
Greg Beckler
New Member
I just
I was. Wet lucky and liked up a pair after searching for a while for $700. They are in excellent condition except a water stain on top of one of them. I have been working on building a vintage system for my 10 year old daughter. She is a Leukemia survivor and got into vintage rock and hifi gear while she was going through 3 1/2 years of chemotherapy treatments. The drugs kept her up all night and says yes up with her and we listen to all the old good stuff. I promised that when she got better I would put something really good together ( money was and still is a bit tight from med. bills). Sorry, off track there. My question is, you replaced the crossovers with Solens. Where would I find those and could a novice do it in his own with a 10 year old?
Another question, you stated that you had a Dynaco tube amp. Did you run it with the 14’s, did it sound better.
Thanks so much.
Sam08861
Super Member
Congrats h00kem,
Nice looking speakers! Do you know if the previous owner replaced the capacitors on the crossovers? Easy to do and I have a thread with pics if you need. (post #44 here... https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/model-14s-first-day.823237/page-3)
I ended up bi-amping mine, following the lead of the audionirvana guys and happy with the results.
Nice looking speakers! Do you know if the previous owner replaced the capacitors on the crossovers? Easy to do and I have a thread with pics if you need. (post #44 here... https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/model-14s-first-day.823237/page-3)
I ended up bi-amping mine, following the lead of the audionirvana guys and happy with the results.
Greg Beckler
New Member
The crossovers were not done but, plan on giving it a go. If they sound this good now, I can’t wait to hear the outcome. I’ve never attempted to bi amp buy, would really like to go for that. Where would I find information on how to do this correctly. Thanks so much.
Sam08861
Super Member
Physically, pretty easy to do and I had a thread with lot's of great advice from the forum members. I elected to use the dbx driverack pa2 like the Audionirvana guys did, to play it safe, but you can use the crossover/dsp of your choice. Lots of folks use the minidsp and behringer. I wanted it to be easily reversible, so put the new sets of posts on the bottom.
Putting back to original would simply mean disconnecting the new terminals (one of which has a capacitor in line) and reconnecting the crossover spade connectors back to the horn, woofer and original terminals. (save the binding posts, which could be removed and filled easily if one really was bothered by them)
Thread here... https://www.audiokarma.org/forums/i...h-driverack-pa2-project-and-questions.870225/
Greg Beckler
New Member
Thank you so much. I read that article as well and was very interested in trying it. Did it dramatically change the sound of them.
Sam08861
Super Member
I'd say it's like if a pair of speakers were 80% 'there' as far as sound quality, they go to 90-95% there, so not a night and day transformations as the author describes it, but a pretty significant improvement to me. Perhaps night and day when comparing the cost of equivalent performing new speakers. As an anecdotal reference... I was able to speak to the author of the article, and he gave me a few tips for the setup and his feeling was that it was better than anything less than $10K they were selling in their shop. (I believe 'destroys' was his word of choice, lol.)
For me it was absolutely worth the effort and cost (~$500, most of this being the crossover/mic , with maybe $150 of that for the xlr cables/binding posts/caps) You could spend a lot more or less, depending on what crossover you use and what other equipment / cables you already have on hand. (since you'll need a 2nd amp, etc.) I elected to go with the same balanced crossover they use, in the eventuality that I obtain a pair of balanced amps in the future, so had to spend a few bucks on xlr/rca interconnects.
While not 10x better or something, I am still continuously astounded by the sounds the bi-amped speakers are able to reproduce. Biggest thing for me was the sounds I had never heard before or are so much clearer and tighter. One of the guys on the thread called it more 'revealing' and that's a great term to describe the difference. Other factors at play, of course, are the equalization/calibration/time alignment afforded by the particular crossover I chose, which also made a huge difference for my setup. (22' ceilings and lots of windows, hard floors, reflective surfaces, open plan) I had a great parametric EQ prior, but the auto-calibration made this process sooo much easier. Once I learned the calibration sequence and mic placement, minutes instead of weeks of tweaking.
I feel I am at my personal end game with speakers for my setup/space (until I hear something remarkably better
or some tannoy westminster royals gr's or such fall in my lap, lol)
For me it was absolutely worth the effort and cost (~$500, most of this being the crossover/mic , with maybe $150 of that for the xlr cables/binding posts/caps) You could spend a lot more or less, depending on what crossover you use and what other equipment / cables you already have on hand. (since you'll need a 2nd amp, etc.) I elected to go with the same balanced crossover they use, in the eventuality that I obtain a pair of balanced amps in the future, so had to spend a few bucks on xlr/rca interconnects.
While not 10x better or something, I am still continuously astounded by the sounds the bi-amped speakers are able to reproduce. Biggest thing for me was the sounds I had never heard before or are so much clearer and tighter. One of the guys on the thread called it more 'revealing' and that's a great term to describe the difference. Other factors at play, of course, are the equalization/calibration/time alignment afforded by the particular crossover I chose, which also made a huge difference for my setup. (22' ceilings and lots of windows, hard floors, reflective surfaces, open plan) I had a great parametric EQ prior, but the auto-calibration made this process sooo much easier. Once I learned the calibration sequence and mic placement, minutes instead of weeks of tweaking.
I feel I am at my personal end game with speakers for my setup/space (until I hear something remarkably better
or some tannoy westminster royals gr's or such fall in my lap, lol)Greg Beckler
New Member
Would it be alright if I reached out to you when I gather everything needed to set mine up the same way you have. Want to make sure that I’m doing it correctly. Also, I have two vintage Marantz receivers. Would I be able to bi-amp with them.I'd say it's like if a pair of speakers were 80% 'there' as far as sound quality, they go to 90-95% there, so not a night and day transformations as the author describes it, but a pretty significant improvement to me. Perhaps night and day when comparing the cost of equivalent performing new speakers. As an anecdotal reference... I was able to speak to the author of the article, and he gave me a few tips for the setup and his feeling was that it was better than anything less than $10K they were selling in their shop. (I believe 'destroys' was his word of choice, lol.)
For me it was absolutely worth the effort and cost (~$500, most of this being the crossover/mic , with maybe $150 of that for the xlr cables/binding posts/caps) You could spend a lot more or less, depending on what crossover you use and what other equipment / cables you already have on hand. (since you'll need a 2nd amp, etc.) I elected to go with the same balanced crossover they use, in the eventuality that I obtain a pair of balanced amps in the future, so had to spend a few bucks on xlr/rca interconnects.
While not 10x better or something, I am still continuously astounded by the sounds the bi-amped speakers are able to reproduce. Biggest thing for me was the sounds I had never heard before or are so much clearer and tighter. One of the guys on the thread called it more 'revealing' and that's a great term to describe the difference. Other factors at play, of course, are the equalization/calibration/time alignment afforded by the particular crossover I chose, which also made a huge difference for my setup. (22' ceilings and lots of windows, hard floors, reflective surfaces, open plan) I had a great parametric EQ prior, but the auto-calibration made this process sooo much easier. Once I learned the calibration sequence and mic placement, minutes instead of weeks of tweaking.
I feel I am at my personal end game with speakers for my setup/space (until I hear something remarkably better
Sam08861
Super Member
Absolutely glad to help, please do reach out as you need.
As long as you receivers have a way to take a 'line in' and output to speakers, then you should be able to use them.
Since, like my setup, these aren't strictly amplifiers, best if you can bypass the tone controls and preamp / volume sections, but not absolutely necessary.