Upgrade A7s

[Ted888]

In 1966 I bought two Altec Lansing A7 Voice of the Theater speakers and I am now looking for a firm in the Baltimore Maryland area that might consider doing some up grades. So far I have had no luck, Any suggestions PS The new LegecyA7s are out of my price range at $4000 each
Ted888

 

[fmw]

They were fine speakers for their day. I doubt they have much value today except perhaps to a collector. I would sell them online and use the proceeds to complete your upgrade. I had a pair of Klipschorns stored in my basement for many years. I finally had to give them away to get them out of the way.

 

[TLS Guy]

In 1966 I bought two Altec Lansing A7 Voice of the Theater speakers and I am now looking for a firm in the Baltimore Maryland area that might consider doing some up grades. So far I have had no luck, Any suggestions PS The new LegecyA7s are out of my price range at $4000 each
Ted888

You can't really upgrade speakers.

Are these the speakers you have?

Those are not really home speakers, but for commercial cinemas.

They are iconic speakers, and collectors will pay $4000.00 or so for a good pair.

So you could sell them and get yourself some really nice speakers.

 

[Swerd]

I did a quick Google search for "loudspeaker repair near Baltimore" and found these three shops.
I've never done business with any of them. Call them.

Just Audio
https://shopjustaudio.com/pages/repair
11615 Crossroads Circle, Suite A
Middle River, MD 21220
410-882-4360

Sound Projects

Sound Projects HomePage

Speaker Repair Baltimore, speaker repair Washington DC, sound systems baltimore, sound systems washington dc, festival sound

www.soundproject.com

410-254-9080
443-803-6671

Maryland Sound International

Maryland Sound

https://www.marylandsound.com/about-us/contact-us
4900 Wetheredsville Road Baltimore, MD 21207
Toll-Free: 800-76-SOUND
Phone: 410-448-1400
Fax: 410-448-1467

 

[lovinthehd]

What's wrong with your A7s?

 

[TLS Guy]

What's wrong with your A7s?

I suspect the speakers are fine, but have bored a hole in the OP's head. Using those in home situation is functionally cruel.

 

[lovinthehd]

I suspect the speakers are fine, but have bored a hole in the OP's head. Using those in home situation is functionally cruel.

Depends what you use 'em for perhaps. Many seem to enjoy them.

 

[TLS Guy]

Depends what you use 'em for perhaps. Many seem to enjoy them.

Well, they really were an earful, when used with the passive crossover. Most of these speakers went into cinemas, and were active. Shure made the active crossovers, the SR 106. Going active with the SR 106 improved the speakers enormously.

As it happens I have quite a few Shure 106 crossovers boxed up.

So if the OP wants, I can actually upgrade those speakers for him, and it is a huge upgrade. However he will need two, two channel power amps. I don't know how he is powering those speakers now.

 

[TLS Guy]

In 1966 I bought two Altec Lansing A7 Voice of the Theater speakers and I am now looking for a firm in the Baltimore Maryland area that might consider doing some up grades. So far I have had no luck, Any suggestions PS The new LegecyA7s are out of my price range at $4000 each
Ted888

Make sure you see my last post, as I can help you do a massive upgrade to those speakers, but you will need four power amps and not two. PM me if you are interested.

 

[Swerd]

@Ted888

You ought to contact TLS Guy. Those Shure SR 106 electronic crossovers are no longer commercially available. They might very well be what you need to improve those aging Voice of the Theater speakers.

I see people selling SR 106s on eBay, asking $50 each. I believe you'll need two of them, one for each speaker.

For more info about the Shure SR 106, see page 5 of this:

https://content-files.shure.com/KnowledgeBaseFiles/cjrhnpk380syn0189omkw3mwc/1976_20SR_20Professional_20Sound_20Reinforcement.pdf

 

[TLS Guy]

@Ted888

You ought to contact TLS Guy. Those Shure SR 106 electronic crossovers are no longer commercially available. They might very well be what you need to improve those aging Voice of the Theater speakers.

I see people selling SR 106s on eBay, asking $50 each. I believe you'll need two of them, one for each speaker.

For more info about the Shure SR 106, see page 5 of this:

https://content-files.shure.com/KnowledgeBaseFiles/cjrhnpk380syn0189omkw3mwc/1976_20SR_20Professional_20Sound_20Reinforcement.pdf

Yes, I think I paid about $40 to $50 each for mine. I bought a number as they make a great starting point for active crossovers. The inside is mainly open space, and the board is wide open, so they lend themselves to all sorts of useful mods.

I do know that those Altec Voice of the theater speakers work really well if you set the crossover to 800 Hz, you do need a volume control on at least the HF amps to tame those horns. In years passed I have biamped those speakers for arenas etc. That goes back over 50 years now. To be honest they sound pretty awful with their passive crossovers. They have always begged for active crossovers.

 

[highfigh]

Well, they really were an earful, when used with the passive crossover. Most of these speakers went into cinemas, and were active. Shure made the active crossovers, the SR 106. Going active with the SR 106 improved the speakers enormously.

As it happens I have quite a few Shure 106 crossovers boxed up.

So if the OP wants, I can actually upgrade those speakers for him, and it is a huge upgrade. However he will need two, two channel power amps. I don't know how he is powering those speakers now.

You didn't like the Altec 'dividing networks'?

 

[TLS Guy]

You didn't like the Altec 'dividing networks'?

Affirmative!

 

[highfigh]

Affirmative!

I went in for my shift at the stereo store and as I walked in, the owner said in a tempting voice (not THAT way!), "Did you see what I took in trade?". I looked, kept walking to hang up my coat and punch in, then he asked if I was interested. As usual, I said "No.......How much?". Not the typical cabinet and I don't remember the model of the woofer, but was the teal metallic paint, not black crinkle coat or the off-white frame. The horn and dividing network were black, the network was screwed down and the horn was screwed into its own L-shaped plywood mount on the top.

Eventually, the owner asked me to take it home- my dad was amused by it.


Those sounded OK. Outside. From a great distance.....

 

[fmw]

Here is a shot of the home version of the A7.

 

[TLS Guy]

Here is a shot of the home version of the A7.
View attachment 60830

I have never encountered one of those, but they look very nasty. See bottom picture, the rest is furniture not a serious speaker.

 

[fmw]

Trust me, it was a very serious speaker in its day. It was the equivalent of a high end speaker system today although it might make Wilson Audio stare at the ceiling. I owned Klipschorns which were even more serious but they were designed to stand in a corner and they were huge and heavy. But serious for the 1960's. Incidentally Klipsch still sells them or at least a modernized version of them.

 

[TLS Guy]

Trust me, it was a very serious speaker in its day. It was the equivalent of a high end speaker system today although it might make Wilson Audio stare at the ceiling. I owned Klipschorns which were even more serious but they were designed to stand in a corner and they were huge and heavy. But serious for the 1960's. Incidentally Klipsch still sells them or at least a modernized version of them.

Yes, but the physics of that speaker are all wrong.

 

[fmw]

Yes, but the physics of that speaker are all wrong.

They are all wrong for today perhaps but they were SOTA back then. It is a matter of perspective.

 

[TLS Guy]

They are all wrong for today perhaps but they were SOTA back then. It is a matter of perspective.

They were not SOTA in the UK. Back then we make endless fun of American Speakers. The one exception was the large Klipschorn.