ALTEC Studio Speakers

CoolCat

Well-known member
I was just wondering in the past decades the ALTEC seemed to be the "MONITOR" for all pro studios and on a thousand gold records, hall of fame stuff..

so why isn't anyone using them today?

we , the gearheads, seem to salivate over 1073 preamps and old mic's and tube stuff from the same era, old MArtin guitars and Gibsons and Fender...

but the ALTEC faded out? Does anyone own some still?

Has anyone ever heard them in a studio? were they better than any other speaker on earth?

They seem to be in EMI to Columbia and others as THE professional studio monitor for a long time.

RIP ALTEC...
 
Last edited:
Studio monitors benefit from being accurate rather than having character, and speaker technology has advanced considerably in the last few decades. Modern speakers are just better (if you spend enough).
 
I remember JBL 4310 / L100 as the studio monitor of the 70s. I thought they were a bit boomy on the bottom, but a lot of people loved them. A friend still has his for stereo speakers, driven my his Crown DC300. The rest of the studio gear is long gone.
 
Funnily enough, the speakers I have on the computer are ALTECs. When I'm testing a mix, one of my mediums is the computer and the Altecs actually make the music sound good on a computer.
 
I think THE monitors for most British studios back in the day were Tannoy dual concentrics, red or gold?

The fact was, those guys in the 'pop' field listened at nerve shattering volumes as a rule and there were very few speakers around that could produce the necessary SPLs and give some semblance of quality. Do not forget as well that power amplifiers were valved and a 50W, quality valve PA was a heavy, hot, expensive chunk and so the speakers needed to be quite sensitive. Ok, the Crown DC-300A you would not want dropped on foot but imagine getting 300W from valves? Twice!

But the then BBC would have none of it and embarked on a serious research programme culminating in the L/S series. We owe a great debt to those BBC engineers for the low colouration and accurate speakers we have today.

Dave.
 
Tannoy,Altec,JBL/Westlake,Urei had their runs.
ATC,PMC,Augspurger time.
Common denominator is refined 15" PA drivers.
Need to balance kick, bass and snare at live levels.

G
 
+1 to Boulder Sound Guy. The more transparent and less coloring on a monitor, the better. Technology has simply afforded us the ability to have better, cleaner monitors.
 
Last edited:
I still know some guys with AL 19's in their home listening rooms. Back in the 80's, they popped up in a lot of small theaters also (along with EV Sentry 500's). Ironically, they did sound better than the (also Altec-Lansing) "Voice of the Theater" line IMO.
 
Still have my NS10's LOL. A studio that does a lot of mastering near me still has a pair of Altecs sitting next to the Duntech sovereigns.

Alan
 
Back
Top