In a previous post (HERE) I mentioned that I was excited about the news that Great Plains Audio - the technical descendent of Altec that still builds Altec drivers and services them under the Great Plains Audio banner - would be sending their latest drivers to me in the not too distant future to listen to and write articles about for you here at Jeff's Place and for Positive Feedback.
For an Altec fan like myself that's an incredibly exciting development!
GPA (Altec) 515C low-frequency driver.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, Great Plains Audio is to Altec what Altec was to Western Electric. When Western Electric ceased their production of cinema products, Altec was formed by a group of Western Electric employees to service Western Electric products in the field, and then later they developed their own production facilities for drivers and loudspeakers, like the famous Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers (below), for example, and many other fine Altec products.
Vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers.
When Altec went the way of Western Electric, in like fashion Altec employees founded Great Plains Audio to service Altec products in the field, as well as to produce new Altec drivers under the Great Plains Audio name, and they have been quietly laboring away doing quality service and production since then.
Great Plains Audio has been purchased by Troy Audio, so the Altec torch has been passed to the next generation of enthusiasts to keep the Altec dream alive, as Bill Hanuschak - owner of Great Plains Audio - prepares to retire in the next few years. For now Bill will be staying on as the lead engineer as the transition takes place.
I am sworn to secrecy for the moment, but there are some really exciting new Altec developments coming that will complement the array of fine GPA-Altec drivers in current production, which I'll tell you all about in due time.
Left to right: Eliseo (Troy Audio), Bill Hanuschak (Great Plains Audio), and Santos Oropel (Troy Audio).
Serendipity is a wonderful thing, and a couple of weeks ago while I was in Munich at the Hofbräuhaus with my hifi and travel buddy Doc Leo, where we were having a couple of liter sized German beers and dinner, when a gentleman walked up to the table and said something to me which I didn't quite hear, and since we were just finishing up dinner I thought he was waiting for our table and asking when we might be done, as it was standing room only, so there were quite a few people standing and waiting for tables.
Then to my complete surprise he said, "You look like Jeff Day." I responded that I was indeed Jeff Day, and inquired who he might be. It was Santos Oropel, accompanied Bill Hanuschak, and Eliseo, who I immediately invited to join us!
It was great catching up with Santos, Bill, and Eliseo, and we had a lot of fun chatting over a beer! What a super group of guys! My apologies for the poor photograph above, but better photographs will be coming in the not too distant future, as you'll read about in a moment.
As I mentioned, Bill has been the force at Great Plains Audio keeping the Altec dream alive, and Santos and Eliseo are associated with Troy Audio, the recent buyers of GPA that will carry the Altec torch forward when Bill retires for the next generations of Altec enthusiasts.
Troy Audio Hellena MKII loudspeakers shown at the Munich Show
It turns out that Santos, Bill, and Eliseo were in town early to get setup for the Munich HiFi Show, where they were showing the Troy Audio loudspeakers with Altec drivers, and that use the beautiful custom Duelund crossovers that Santos built for them (below).
It just so happened they decided to drop into the Hofbräuhaus in Munich for dinner at the exact same time Leo and I had dropped in for dinner, and thanks to Santos' discerning eye in recognizing me, we were able to connect and have a nice get together.
Leo and I were not actually attending the Munich Show, rather we were traveling through Munich, Salzburg, Hallstatt, Vienna, and Prague on a travel adventure that involved a lot of live music, great food & drink, and a bunch of cool cultural experiences, so it was complete chance that we ran into Santos, Bill, and Eliseo at the Hofbräuhaus, and otherwise we wouldn't have met up with them! Now that's cool!
Duelund crossovers in the Troy Audio Hellena MKII loudspeakers!
During our serendipitous meeting at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, we talked about me making a pilgrimage to GPA to visit Bill in the not too distant future to get a grand tour, as well as do some interviews, photo shoots, and the like. It should be exciting, informative, and fun!
I'll be looking forward to telling you much more about visiting Bill Hanuschak at Great Plains Audio, what will be happening with Great Plains Audio and Troy Audio in the future, and about the Altec "revival" that is occurring, so there's lots of good things to come - stay tuned!
With that exciting lead-in to this post, now let me tell you about Today's Fresh Catch, the bespoke terminal strips from Santos Oropel.
Santos Oropel's terminal strips.
I saw the terminal strips in the photos of the Duelund crossovers that Santos built for the Troy Audio Hellena MKII loudspeakers, and I inquired with Santos about them, as I thought they looked like a good solution for cleaning up the wiring of the Duelund CAST Sn-Cu crossovers I am building for the Duelund-Altec Project.
I had come to the conclusion that I needed to use terminal strips instead of my usual McMaster-Carr lugs, which while being a nice purist approach to connections, were simply overwhelmed by the number of connections that I needed to make in the crossovers, and Santos' terminal strips looked like the perfect solution.
I inquired about buying some of the terminal strips from Santos, but Santos graciously offered to provide the terminal strips I would need for use in the Duelund-Altec Project - thank you Santos!
Santos' bespoke terminal strips arrived yesterday, so today I thought I'd tell you about them and take a few photographs of them to show you.
For the Duelund-Altec Project, for each crossover I need one terminal strip with six connection points, and two terminal strips with five connection points (shown above).
The terminal strips bases are made out of Delrin, which according to Wikipedia is "... an engineering thermoplastic used in precision parts requiring high stiffness, low friction, and excellent dimensional stability."
The connectors are pure copper, first plated with nickel, and then plated with 24K gold, which is similar to the materials and process used to build the custom Acoustic Revive AC wall outlets I use in my main music listening system.
As you can see from the scale of the terminal strips sitting on my CTC Garrard 301 turntable, these are sizable terminal strips, and their robust connections are perfect for the 16 to 12 gauge Duelund tinned-copper lead wires used in the Duelund CAST Sn-Cu components of the crossovers, and the Duelund DCA Sn-Cu connecting wires I'm using within the crossovers to connect the drivers and everything else together.
Pricing for the terminal strips is dependent upon what you need for the number of connectors, as each terminal strip is custom made for a customer's particular needs.
These may be available on the GPA website in the future, but for now contact Santos Oropel (HERE) directly for more pricing information based on your particular needs.
Now for the next step of the Duelund-Altec Project, designing the second iteration of the crossovers!
As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!
