Older Altec horn speakers

06-08-09: T_bone
Johnnyb53, The L65 Jubal link shows that sensitivity is 78dB. Is that really so inefficient? Given higher impedance, it might work with tube amps, but it would certainly be a stretch for a lot of tube amps I know...

Sensitivity ratings weren't standardized in the least back then. Altec used wide band pink noise measured at 4 feet. The resulting figure is not at all comparable to what you get today with a 1KHz test tone measured at 1M. The Jubal is pretty efficient, but I still think there are better-sounding Altecs from that era.

The Model 15 is sort of a Model 19 Jr.--a home VOTT sensibility, but with 12" woofer and smaller horn in smaller cabinet. Pics and specs here.

The JBL L-65 Jubal is probably around 93 db per watt at 1 M... the 78 db figure is from 15 feet away.

listening to wrti fm on a pair of recapped 890c's now via an upgraded ee preamp, triode strapped st-70 (hovland caps, magnaquest power transformer) sourced to an lt 110 scott tuner. i've attached a hsu clone sub. if there's a sweeter-sounding set up, you'd have to enpanel a jury to prove it to me.

I once owned a pair of Altec Model 15s and eventually parted them out when I got a pair of UREI 813As (using the Altec 604). The folded 32B horn on the Model 15 were grainy sounding and the woofer was not even Altec sourced - apparently they used something from RCA.

In the past I've also heard some pretty trick VOTT systems with cement horns and triode amplifiers - though everything sounded BIG and golden with amazing dynamics, the overall sound was quite colored - every record started to sound like it was mixed and mastered at the same studio. Of course that could have been the front end, preamps or amps...

I always had positive oppinions about altec speakers, i owned different models of them and they are awesome.
Check here:
http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20516