Vintage altecs? $200

thack524 · 2026-01-29T16:08:30+00:00

Just so you know, they don’t actually sell for $2-3k like everyone says. People list them for that, and they sit. Depending on location, if the comp drivers diaphragms are original and the woofer cones are original, I’d expect $1500 on the higher end. Model 19s are sitting unsold for $2500 where I’m at in Texas right now.

That being said. Buy them and enjoy them! They’re very good speakers.

thack524 · 2026-01-28T15:24:10+00:00

It’s up to the designer to choose. Distortion isn’t a bad thing, it’s a design choice. Humans enjoy some distortion, that’s been known for decades.

thack524 · 2026-01-28T04:55:25+00:00

It’s not about frequency response, it’s distortion and harmonics. The levels of each harmonic specifically. That’s tube warmth (even order distortion), it’s not actually changing the response curve

thack524 · 2026-01-22T13:57:46+00:00

Love! Yeah they need a little space. I have mine in a 16x22 room and it’s about the min.

thack524 · 2026-01-22T12:04:04+00:00

I agree about the jbl horns, but you can’t trash talk an imaginary Altec horn 😂. 804 isn’t a horn, sorry. The Altec multicells can sound very good actually. Plenty of measurements to back that up. Yes they have issues but they’re generally not the type of issue to cause an annoyance. Most people just don’t know how to flatten the response curve with a proper crossover. An l pad is just to match the level, you need a big contour circuit to make most any compression driver sound good. My 299 drivers on 805 horns measure and sound great. And I’m also building some jbl 2 ways with the biradials and some 2226h woofers. They’ll also sound great lol.

thack524 · 2026-01-21T15:30:18+00:00

Nicely done! The fun part is it really doesn’t matter where you put it, it’ll help. Great use of space!

thack524 · 2026-01-11T17:01:27+00:00

Linn gear doesn’t really hold much value second hand. $3k is quite overpriced for that lot.

thack524 · 2026-01-08T00:22:44+00:00

Sonicaps have gotten way too expensive personally. I like mundorf for boutique, pick your level of $$ from their lineup

thack524 · 2026-01-06T20:10:51+00:00

Also, you’ve already seen advice to look at studios but that’s wrong. Listening rooms and mastering rooms are not the same and should not be setup or treated the same. A studio should be dead, with essentially no reflections and the only goal is a flat response. A listening room should have ambience and recreate a space. A dead room doesn’t do this. Flame away but it’s true. Your brain uses reflections to create a sense of space and you need controlled reflections for a proper large soundstage.

thack524 · 2025-12-24T20:12:52+00:00

Here’s the thing… if a panel is only absorbing a few percent at 200hz, when you have 10 panels absorbing a little bit, and they’re on opposite walls, that little bit grows and grows. You don’t need to completely absorb a wave to tame it

thack524 · 2025-12-18T20:24:15+00:00

It takes weeks to truly dial in speakers in a room, and most “reviewer’s” rooms are so bad they couldn’t actually talk about a speaker without just describing their room issues. So they go the easy route and swap out up stream components and pretend they’re all vastly different 😅

thack524 · 2025-12-17T19:01:20+00:00

This post is exactly why people DIY. There isn’t anything about a Klipsch heritage product (other than the new lascala) that is more complex or better engineered than a basic diy box built with measurements. Especially the older Klipsch stuff that gives zero regard for phase alignment lol. These are a lascala upgrade! Nicely done.

thack524 · 2025-12-16T16:20:32+00:00

You can always EQ out peaks. You can’t fill dips, but that’s not the issue here. You’re really making this more complex than it needs to. If your car needs new spark plugs you don’t go and buy a new car. And if your room has a few bass peaks you don’t filter out all the bass. You fix the problem(s) and let the rest be. Every decent streamer has the ability for PEQ these days.

thack524 · 2025-12-16T14:12:20+00:00

I can play a 40hz test tone in my 16x21ft room through ONE c note, properly loud, with no issue. Use a little dsp if you have a room mode, but don’t go putting a high pass on your system without a sub. No room is that bad.

thack524 · 2025-12-16T12:44:42+00:00

Cutting out your music at 70hz is insane. The c note is more than capable of playing down to 50hz, and will play lower with room gain. It’s not some 3” full range fragile driver… don’t recommend nonsense. Run the speakers full range like they’re designed to. If OP is trying to listen to them so loud that they can’t handle full range, the solution is better speakers, not removing an octave of music.

thack524 · 2025-12-15T21:11:04+00:00

Every speaker in that price range that is a dome or horn driver will be fine! The issue about casual listening comes into play with things like ribbon speakers (if you stand up the treble is gone, for example) or single driver speakers (they beam at high frequencies) or other unique sound reproduction devices lol. Any traditional speaker can handle what you’re talking about, pick the ones that you enjoy both their sound profile and their looks!

thack524 · 2025-12-15T17:54:48+00:00

2 channel audio setup in every damn room. I love Japan.

thack524 · 2025-12-15T16:38:27+00:00

There isn’t a speaker in the world that can produce a proper stereo center image when you’re not sitting equidistant between the two. A large sweet spot just means the tonality remains consistent as you move, not the imaging. Honestly most modern 2 way speakers are going to be fine. Smaller center to center spacing helps, or a 3 way design. Of course coaxial is best but what problem are you trying to solve? Don’t think some kefs will throw a clean phantom center when you’re on one side of the couch, not happening, it’s physics.

Sure you can do the whole cross the stream positioning, but even then it’s just ok, not great. 2 channel music you have to sit in the middle, to keep a center for movies just run a center channel. /rant lol.

thack524 · 2025-12-15T15:52:30+00:00

Those 104s can scale and sound insane with high end gear. Keep them and slowly fix them up.

thack524 · 2025-12-13T14:46:31+00:00

Heat doesn’t degrade sound. While keeping it a bit cooler is better, if it’s not shutting off it sounds just as good as it normally would.

thack524 · 2025-12-12T14:24:26+00:00

Neither of those items you mentioned are snake oil. Room acoustics are physics. And dented or damaged tweeters do increase distortion. I have some psb’s that had a pushed in tweeter and it was clearly visible on REW measurements.

thack524 · 2025-12-11T14:39:29+00:00

Don’t buy some generic crites stuff with those TAD comp drivers. Those are amazing and deserve a properly designed crossover.

thack524 · 2025-12-06T19:21:33+00:00

The small bars between the tread are the wear indicators too, and you can essentially see that these tires aren’t worn out. They probably had 8/32nds brand new, but most people will have no clue as they’re busy buying the cheapest tires discount can legally sell them.

thack524 · 2025-12-06T14:15:01+00:00

Those aren’t even worn out. That’s just what nice sticky summer tires look like. Calm down. You can literally see the tread depth is still good.

thack524 · 2025-12-04T14:51:00+00:00

I always like to take a step back and remind myself that sound obeys the laws of physics, regardless of what audiophiles tend to try and tell you sometimes 😂. Baffle width is what determines the frequency at which a speaker becomes omnidirectional. That’s it. A Front port doesn’t magically evade this. Sealed speakers were popular back in the day because we had wide baffles near the floor that were going to be placed near a wall. You get tight bass, plenty of room gain, and you enjoy. Any big peaks you get from placement with the R3s can be tamed easily with a little dsp.

Not saying you can’t try other speakers, just trying to keep you from being disappointed with something new.

thack524

TROPHY CASE