♫ Altec A5 VOTTs
I started my vintage Altec Lansing A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeaker project a couple of years ago now (it was December 31st 2016 when I originally posted this update), and I have really been enjoying watching my Altec A5's evolve.
Gary Fischer did a beautiful job of restoring my vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers, and you can read more details about Gary's work with my A5's in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of the posts I wrote about them.
The Altec A5's were intended to provide ample sound for the specific needs of small-to-medium sized movie theaters, so their crossovers need to be redone to adapt the big beasts to a domestic listening environment.
The low-frequency section of the Altec A5 crossover.
To that end, my crossovers are an adaptation of Jean Hiraga’s superb 16-Ohm crossover design for the Altec A5’s, but with a few modifications recommended by Yazaki-san (SPEC Corporation, variable resistor) and Pete Riggle (Pete Riggle Audio Engineering, L-Pad) to help blend in the 1005B high-frequency horns I’m using instead of the 3dB less sensitive 1505B horns that Hiraga-san used.
The high-frequency section of the crossover board.
The Altec A5's are impressive loudspeakers that are surprisingly flexible and room friendly, and somewhat to my surprise they have adapted remarkably well to their new home, which happens to be a spare bedroom in my home that I use as a TV room, with the rather small dimensions of 11-feet x 12-feet x 9-feet (ceiling), with a 6' x 3'5" x 9' foyer on one end.
Keep in mind my associated equipment varies all the time depending on what I am experimenting with or writing about at any given time.
My TV room has an aging Philips television hung up on the wall so I can watch an occasional movie or TV show, kept company by an OPPO UDP-203 Blu-ray player for spinning DVD or Blu-Ray movies, or an occasional CD.
Oppo UDP-203 (top)
I also stream Netflix & Amazon Prime from my iPad and Mac, with surprisingly good results.
I am continually surprised by how good digital sources can sound with vintage Altec loudspeakers, and they don’t have to be fancy digital sources to sound great.
This makes for a remarkably satisfying and simple system for watching movies, endearingly evoking classic movie theater sound from the old days, and also sounds great listening to music!
2-meter Acoustic Revive Power Reference TripleC NCF AC power cord.
I use a Acoustic Revive Power Reference TripleC NCF AC power cords with my Oppo, and Belden 8402 microphone cable interconnects to connect the Philips TV to the Leben CS600, and the Leben CS600 to the Oppo.
Duelund DCA16GA speaker cables connect the Leben CS600 to the Altec A5's.
I use Acoustic Revive Power Reference TripleC NCF AC power cords with my Leben CS600 integrated amplifier and Leben RS30EQ phono preamplifier.
The analog front end is an Artisan Fidelity Thorens TD124 Long Base Statement turntable with a 12-inch Thomas Schick tonearm and an Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge.
Acoustic Revive RAS-14 TripleC NCF.
I use the Acoustic Revive RAS-14-TripleC NCF Power Stabilizer to supplement the generic power cord of the Thorens TD124.
I'm using an Auditorium 23 SUT for the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103, which connects to the Leben RS30EQ phono preamplifier with a shielded pair of Duelund DCA20GA interconnects.
The Leben RS30EQ connects to the Leben CS600 integrated amplifier (Sophia Electric EL34-ST power tubes) with shielded Duelund DCA16GA interconnects.
As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!
