FS: Custom Two Way Altec Speakers

I am reluctantly ready to pass along a very unique set of speakers. I do not have shipping materials for these, so this sale will be for local pickup or meetup within 2 hours of Boston. If you want to have someone come pick them up and then crate & freight them off to you, have at it

UPDATE: Thanks to helpful advice from @k4rstar I believe that shipping is possible via uShip. I have no idea on pricing; you submit a job and people bid on it. I'm certainly willing to arrange shipping through that service if so desired. Still happy to drive them within a 2 hour radius of Boston as well.

UPDATE 2 2024-08-07: Thanks for the kind comments Friends, with special thanks for the folks who provided advice on my related profile post. I have found a local friend (IRL, non-SBAF) who's willing to put these to use on a long-term loan basis. It gets them out of our house without having to say goodbye forever - works for me. If someone happens across this post in the future, PM if you are really feeling these

Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/uM1apwvnUA8q8ZnQA . These were taken last year before I swapped them out of my system but nothing has changed in the interim.

I am the second owner of this custom Altec replica build using drivers from Great Plains Audio (https://greatplainsacoustics.com/): 32C plastic horns, 414-8B woofers and 374-23746 compression drivers from 9849 monitors, which are essentially the same as 806–8A drivers. Cabinets were professionally made and the crossovers were built according to the JE Labs plans by the late great Pete Riggle. I rate these as an 8/10. The solid walnut cabs are super nice with a few small marks, and the drivers are mint. These are basically furniture grade, and have a super cool retro look. My wife loved them. However, I have moved to active monitors which are a better fit for my small living room.

Pete reworked the crossovers to use his paper in oil capacitors, good inductors, and an Lpad for control of the tweeter level. He notes "I chose the Lpad as opposed to a high power potentiometer (rheostat) used in the original design. As shown by SPICE program electrical response calculations, the Lpad provides better control of the tweeter response curve than does the rheostat. I made calculations of the electrical performance of the crossover networks using the SPICE circuit modeling program." I will include the notes, schematic and invoice from Mr Riggle (cost for crossovers was $396).

The system looks a bit like a smaller Valencia (based upon the Altec 614 rather than the 612 cabinet) and sound really great, with the "live" horn sound in abundance. The horn is especially low in coloration and everything is nicely integrated. These are about 95 dB efficient, have a great form factor for most rooms, and work really well with low powered amps.

I used these with a number of amps including a 300B (Elekit 8600s) and a 10w ZOTL amp from LTA. The 32 horn is a real treat, and never becomes shouty or overly directional. In fact they sound just as nice off axis, and were versatile and very clear for TV/Movie watching from the couch as well.

Asking $1300 from Friends & Contributors, $1500 from others, plus actual shipping costs. This is about one third of the build cost.

Feel free to ask any questions. These are one of a kind.

 

I am in love. That wood is beautiful. I'm sure the sound is too

 

there beautiful, I hope they stay in the community

 

If the drive was a bit shorter I would have been there already. Astonishingly low asking price on these and beautiful.

 

Dang, finally letting these go! I’ll have to come over to hear these before they move on…and maybe try to see if there’s a room for them.

 

You need to come over and hear the Buchardts that caused the breakup!

 

@shotgunshane @ChaChaRealSmooth please close this thread