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Topic: ALTEC A7 born again...

Adam Fraser
Master Film Handler

Posts: 499
From: Houghton Lake, MI, USA
Registered: Dec 2001

posted 11-25-2003 11:10 PM

Although I am not an audiophile, i had a set of 604 E's and I agree with steve, old rock and roll just sounded great on them. I have never heard a speaker that had such a clear sound that filled the room. They came in a nice solid maple(?) cabinet with a dial crossover attached to the back.

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Kenneth Wuepper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1026
From: Saginaw, MI, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 11-26-2003 06:42 AM

I wondered if anyone else noticed the photos of the reincarnated A7? When the horn is mounted inside the enclosure it replaces the solid board leaving the bottom port unobstructed. The picture shows the horn fully blocking that port. It is not going to sound very good with that chamber closed.

I used to have a pair of A7s in my room while in high school. My favorite recordings were of the pipe organ, specifically theatre organs. Driven by a pair of Dynaco tube amps, these were really sweet.

KEN

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Gary Crawford
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 200
From: Neptune NJ USA
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 11-26-2003 02:41 PM

The guy who got me into the projection business when we were teenagers was fortunate enough to have his father as the local Altec-Lansing service rep. His house and shop had all kinds of cool things to play with.

There were a pair of A7s in the den of the house and we ran most any sort of audio we could find through them. Guitar amps, stereos, radios, anything. Although the sound could quite literally blow the walls down it just didn't sound right. Good, but not great.

But in a local theatre, 2000 seats with a balcony and great accoustics, these same speakers sounded incredible. Onscreen voices were natural as long as bass and treble weren't fiddled with.

That leads me to believe that speakers like the A7 were meant for big spaces, not small rooms. His dad often told us that you had to use the right tool for the job, meaning things like the A7 were just too big to make audio in a small area sound like it is supposed to. Something designed to fire sound some 200 feet to the back wall of the balcony just might be a tad powerful for an 10 X 12 room.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 11-26-2003 06:02 PM

Sam,

I stated "I'm no great friend of the A-7..." I'm not a sectorial horn fan (the 511 or 811). As to the ringing...you can deaden that with appropriate use of insulating foam on its back side. Some even coat down into the horn...I say just pitch the horn all together and land your hands on a Mantaray. But even then...I'll take an A-5. The 288 or 299 on the MRII-594 is just so sweet.

So again...where do you get that I'm regressing...I never said I was a big A-7 follower..it was always was wanting in the high-frequency...as you stated...then again...it will run off of a transistor radio! My favorite Altec speakers are the 604, A-4 and A-5...in that order...the A-6 is good for a direct radiator. Certainly...not all of the speakers listed will work in all spaces...in fact...they all have their particular spaces...the A-5 being the most versitile. I've used a ton of A-5s to "fix" tough rooms. Most recently at the Kimball theatre in Williamsburg, VA and the 19th Street theatre in Allentown, PA. Tough theatres are those with non-friendly acoustics or the stage speaker is expected to free-float in mid air inside of a stage house...and A-5 will do that...a direct radiator will just embarass itself.

As to the horn mounted in the cabinet (never the preferred tuning)...if you look real closely...you will see that it does not fill in the entire cavity...there are slots on the left and right just outside of the horn. The total port area will not be the same with the horn in and out of the cabinet since the horn/driver displaces internal cabinet volume. Again, the response will be better with the horn outside of the cabinet. Note also, they seem to be using the 515-8G LF driver this has a much different tuning than the orignal 803 or 416 driver originally used.

When the A-4 went to the 515-16G the number of ports increased from 2 to 4 and the upper chamber of the cabinet was blocked off.

Steve

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Jean-Michel Grin
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 222
From: Geneva & Lausanne, Switzerland
Registered: Jul 2002

posted 11-28-2003 05:39 PM

If You're are searching for an oooold Altec system, we got three stage loudspeakers for sale: We closed recently a theater equiped with Altec loudspeakers and we are searching peoples who can be interested.
The only problem is that theses loudspeakers are verry big and weight equal than an elephant !
But if some Altec's lovers are interested about it, just send me an email...

But I think that theses Loudspeakers are too old to interess any person. we willtrow it to the dump [Frown]

Bye,

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