Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: ALTEC LANSING 800 VOT story!!!

This is topic ALTEC LANSING 800 VOT story!!! in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 11-15-2013, 11:13 PM:

I went to a wedding awhile back, when I got to the reception I noticed the
band they hired setting up their equipment.I could hardly believe it until
I got really close and saw a mint condition ALTEC LANSING 800 voice of the
theaters that belong to the lead guitarist who also had a stratocaster.

I asked him where he got it, he said his uncle owned a small one screen theater
in a little hick town here in Montana in the 50's.When it closed in the 70's
The projection equipment got sold but the Uncle put the 800 in storage somewhere
for over 25 years.When he got in the music biz,The uncle said he had this old
system that was in his theater and he could have it if he wanted it.

To make a long story short, the guy took it to a shop here in town, had all the vaccumn
tubes checked,caps, etc.Everything inside was as cherry as the outside looked.Anyway
they played all night and that thing sounded awesome.Goes to show that even 60 year
old tech still cuts the mustard.That Guy will have that 800 til the day he dies;thats
how much it means to him....Those old vaccumn tube amps aren't dead yet...s.m.

Posted by Robert Koch (Member # 3728) on 11-17-2013, 06:05 PM:

I`m a 91 year old tech and I think you are confused. The Altec 800 system had no vacuum tubes, just the baffle and horn and passive crossover.. You should tell us what amplifier you are talking about that the old time tech fixed for you. Altec made some good amplifiers; which one are you talking about.

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 11-17-2013, 11:00 PM:

I`m a 91 year old tech and I think you are confused. The Altec (800 system had no vacuum tubes, just the baffle and horn and passive crossover.. You should tell us what amplifier you are talking about that the old time tech fixed for you. Altec made some good amplifiers; which one are you talking about.)

He never fixed it for me;I'm just quoting what the Musician told me...s.m.

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 11-17-2013, 11:44 PM:

One great thing about all the VOT systems..it took very little audio power to get to room-filling levels. The late Charlie Ajar (of Universal Projector Co. N. Hollywood) once used a cheap Radio Shack AM transistor radio to drive a VOT speaker to a very loud (yet clear) level in our shop. Using the radio's earphone jack.

I was duly impressed.

Oh, and Steve, a few notes:

One, use the "QUOTE" Button and cut and paste quoted text so your post reads coherently. Like this:

quote: Steve Matz
He never fixed it for me;I'm just quoting what the Musician told me...s.m.

(Also, it is actually unnecessary to quote the post directly above yours if you are only replying to it. If you add something else before you respond, as I did in this post, it is a good idea TO quote the previous post though.)

Two, it is totally unnecessary (and candidly very pompous) to end your posts with your initials ("s.m.") We know who you are. [Smile]

Posted by Tony Ratcliff (Member # 1196) on 11-18-2013, 03:20 PM:

An ice rink I managed late 80's/early 90's had a two VOT speakers, one out by the rink and one inside. They rocked the place, supplied by music from a boom-box and one tiny amp.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 11-19-2013, 07:57 AM:

A4 are still in my top list of speakers

Posted by Robert Koch (Member # 3728) on 11-19-2013, 02:03 PM:

Good Gordon; A4x was mine.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 11-19-2013, 02:59 PM:

They tore down a cinerama and moved all the speakers across the street. They then converted the 70mm house to mono. What to do: We made an A-0x. It had 6 sets of 2 515's. That was powered with a 22 watt kelmar. Plenty of level whn running at 4.5. 1500 seats. louis

Posted by Jeff Taylor (Member # 443) on 11-20-2013, 10:18 AM:

This won't come as a surprise to anyone, but years ago (probably 50!) I had a school installation with a pair of E-7's which normally drove an A4 with a small Altec amp, but on occasion we'd show 16mm and that A4 did just fine with an 8 watt Pageant driving it. Gorgeous sound.

Posted by Sam D. Chavez (Member # 1841) on 11-20-2013, 12:15 PM:

A4's with the wings are hard to surpass. I have one Atmos setup with 20 Meyer surrounds and 3 A4's. The HF horns were replaced by JBL CD horns. Also, the bass cabinets were modified for lower LF roll off by Lonny Jennings.

They play very nicely alongside the awesome Meyer speakers.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 11-20-2013, 04:10 PM:

Yeah, a modified A-4 has pretty decent bass, actually. Easily flat down to 40Hz. On the HF...I always liked the Altec Manatrays (MR-94) best over all other CD horns. VERY uniform coverage. That and with a 288 or 299 behind them.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-10-2013, 07:04 PM:

Sam.... I'll never forget the awesome talk John Meyer gave in Dolby Training Class circa 1984. I think he put most people in the class to sleep but he kept me wide awake. He was testing speakers outdoors back then. An amazing engineer for sure!

Mark