Altec phone home ?

What I would like to see is AK absorb the Altec Users group over on Hostboard. The software on that forum is hopelessly outdated and they seem to lose post and a lot of info.
I agree that a Altec subforum on here would be nice and I'm against splintering forums any more than needed. It's just that there is a lot of Altec traffic in the speaker forum and it would be nice to have it all in one place with the appropriate stickys at the top.

BillWojo
 
What I would like to see is AK absorb the Altec Users group over on Hostboard. The software on that forum is hopelessly outdated and they seem to lose post and a lot of info.

That software chased me, a lifelong Altec user, away and I started that forum! Good group though. I try to check in every month or two and see what's up but sometimes operation is hopeless..

Back then, maybe 1999, Hostboard was a cutting edge app, out before Yahoo groups and all that. They didn't even have any means of moderation or intervention. You just started a forum and let it rip. Stone Age program. I set it up as an accessory to an Altec Users Page I had up in those days and it got like two posts a month or so!

Todd eventually took the board under his wing when facilities became available, thank God, and did a good job of shepherding it....but the software is a huge drawback.

These days there are many better solutions than Hostboard, i.e. virtually any other solution!

I think an Altec forum on AK would be good for the kinds of hobbyist discussions that emerge here, while the tenor of discourse is a bit more low key and specialist on the AUG. Over there a lot slower paced which makes it more thoughtful somehow. On AK, there's an Altec scroe every 20 minutes!
 
Well, the Lansing Heritage software seems to work OK but I am not a JBL fan. I can't even fake it.

The Altec Users Group is its own thing but it could benefit by a hosting arrangement that works smoothly. It ain't 1999 no more. I can't even figure out what Hostboard is and why it still exists.

It seems that the Hostboard platform is mainly used for tit wrestling porn and the like, you know...popular stuff, which is why there is not enough bandwidth for Altec!

I sense that there would be a lot more interest in Altec consumer and prosumer gear here on AK, Boleros and whatnot, whereas AUG is skewed toward the pro components and systems a bit and the good folks there are committed Altec-centrics. That's why I would opine that AUG is a bit more "specialized." Hey, I am specialized in Altec myself, so I understand the diagnosis.

Anyway, Professor Bowtie, with the hot and heavy scroe action on AK, your superhuman encyclopedic gear ID knowledge would be put to constant use on an Altec forum here!:bowdown:
 
Thanks Joe! Everything i know is owed to folks like yourself. I just nibble up the bits and crumbs you fellas drop along the way. :)

FWIW, i was being a bit facetious about the friendly majority at LHF. Altec discussion is received about as well as the twice removed slutty second cousin at a family reunion.

More back on topic, i would opine that the AUG and it's small venue character may be more appealing to some of the older/more seasoned professionals who tend to offer the real gold in that forum.

It also would add to the AK moderation and server load to mostly parrot topics that have been or can be discussed in existing forums including the "Speakers" forum here.
 
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Everything i know is owed to folks like yourself.

Brother, the difference between you and I is that you have instant recall of fine details from the 1964 Utah speaker catalog and I start over from scratch every morning!

At least I'm getting good at it!

I often joke: "I do have a photographic memory. Unfortunately they stopped making film for it in 1989."

There has been a huge upswing in new people checking out The Altec Way recently, for whatever reason. Slow train coming. Altec has only been around for 70+ years.

The focus and mindset of some recent adopters seems to be too specific for a general speaker forum and too general for a hardcore crazed lifer Altec nut venue.

Plus the gear covers a wide swath. I have to admit that what I have to say about Valencias and the dreaded 511/811s, etc. is not useful for hobbyists who are in that mode and having a good time with it.

--Hey this fried SPAM on wonder bread is delicious!

--I recommend free range heirloom wild boar pate on a freshly-baked artisanal rye and spelt baguette.

So, I can see a need for an AK Altec forum.
 
Well if the idea of an Altec Mfg's forum is too distasteful for many to contemplate
I will settle for an invitation to the next family reunion as long as all the cousins can
make it. As they say, there is an ass for every seat so may I suggest you bring on
a few more chairs for your Altec chums.
 
Well if the idea of an Altec Mfg's forum is too distasteful for many to contemplate
I will settle for an invitation to the next family reunion as long as all the cousins can
make it. As they say, there is an ass for every seat so may I suggest you bring on
a few more chairs for your Altec chums.
Naaaaaaaaaaaaa, we're not responsible for others' eccentricities.

Joe makes some very good supportive points, and reminds me that in the world of anything high performance and professional, redundancy is a good thing.
 
Lansing Heritage has a couple interesting but iirc somewhat contradictory bits on James B. hisself. I'm specifically trying to find solid info on his time in S.L.C. Utah.
 
Here's some 403a's in cloned 618 cabs. Wish I had 755A's!

Not Altec, but try some Pioneer PIM-8s in those cabs. Different flavor, softer and less intense than a 755A, but closer to true "full range" performance than any of the lesser Altec 8 inchers. I have a pr in my old 755A cabs now that I moved to the Silbatone box.

With the Pioneers, when you skanky girl cousin shows up for Christmas dinner, she will also be Japanese!

When i was publishing, going a bit out of my way to present contrarian approaches, the thing that attracted the most ire was my advocacy for horns and Altec. I got hate mail and even hate phone calls from drunk old high end coots "Roberts, you bastard, you are putting audio back 30 years."

I told him I was trying to go back 60 years. That would be more like 80 years now.

I understood why they were upset and maybe afraid. Good Altec, like an A5 system, is better than high end contraptions and once you hear that, there is no going back to Sonus Fabers or whatever. If horns destroyed the high end notions of the day, it is only because they deserved it.

The truth is on the side of Altec. Perhaps not everything they made was reaching for the stars but some of it definitely was. And the system building philosophies vintage Altec demonstrates are timeless and can inspire implementations beyond what Altec themselves created and more in tune with the requirements of home music listening.
 
Not Altec, but try some Pioneer PIM-8s in those cabs. Different flavor, softer and less intense than a 755A, but closer to true "full range" performance than any of the lesser Altec 8 inchers. I have a pr in my old 755A cabs now that I moved to the Silbatone box.
With the Pioneers, when you skanky girl cousin shows up for Christmas dinner, she will also be Japanese!

I unloaded my two pairs to friends who couldn't afford 755A thinking I can find some again, not anymore. :(
 
They show up. Saw three mint Lafayettes for $200 shipped on ebay about a week ago and I'm not even looking. Almost bought them but WTF I have enough hoarded junk.

Just because you can't run out and buy something right now doesn't mean that they don't exist. This was a fairly obscure item from long long ago. Unrealistic to expect you could find them like they are listed on Amazon.

I have had saved searches on ebay running for years without hits, like for a second Altec 600ohm RIAA filter module. Now, that thing is hard to get.

I think it is safe to blame that guy Joseph Esmilla of JE Labs fame for making this Pioneer full range unit unavailable.:biggrin:

BTW, the 6.5", PIM-16A?, is said to be even better, or at least that is the word in the Korean scene where these were quite popular some years back. Now that Korea is a wealthy country, they buy Altec 755As for $2000 each instead.

I sent a scan of the Pioneer paperwork on this speaker line to HiFi Engine, so you can learn more there.

Altec is insanely popular in Asia and Europe and now it is really picking up steam here. Formerly extremely common, I expect good Altec parts to dry up over the next decade, but so many were installed, they will trickle out long after I have left this planet.
 
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