Altec Lansing Speakers

[mnmeckel]

Hello audio lovers, I was given these really nice Altec Lansing speakers by a friend who owns an AV company. I’ve tried googling them, but I was not able to find much info on them. If anyone has any specific information on them I’d love to hear about it!

Also disregard my janky speaker placement. I am a college student and have very little space to work with.

 

[lovinthehd]

Hard to know without a model number. Grill off might help if you don't have one.

 

[TLS Guy]

View attachment 63611View attachment 63612View attachment 63613View attachment 63610Hello audio lovers, I was given these really nice Altec Lansing speakers by a friend who owns an AV company. I’ve tried googling them, but I was not able to find much info on them. If anyone has any specific information on them I’d love to hear about it!

Also disregard my janky speaker placement. I am a college student and have very little space to work with.

I can not be certain, but I think they are Altec Lansing Model 83 acoustic suspension three way speakers. These should not be confused from the System 83 speakers. By this time Altec were in advanced decline and sold for "shirt buttons" for their name. Their speakers from this era were not very good. If those speakers are what I believe they are, then they fetch around $100 or less on the used market.

These came from the eighties when Altec were in advanced decline.

After the fire sale long time employees formed Great Plains Audio to manufacture and restore Altec speakers from their glory years.

 

[mnmeckel]

Hard to know without a model number. Grill off might help if you don't have one.

 

[mnmeckel]

I can not be certain, but I think they are Altec Lansing Model 83 acoustic suspension three way speakers. These should not be confused from the System 83 speakers. By this time Altec were in advanced decline and sold for "shirt buttons" for their name. Their speakers from this era were not very good. If those speakers are what I believe they are, then they fetch around $100 or less on the used market.

These came from the eighties when Altec were in advanced decline.

After the fire sale long time employees formed Great Plains Audio to manufacture and restore Altec speakers from their glory years.

I do not believe they are those. I looked those up and they're too small to be the ones I have. Thanks for the info though! Love hearing about anything to do with music and audio! Also I replied with a picture with the grill off. If that helps you possibly narrow down what they are that would be great!

 

[mnmeckel]

Thank you all for giving me info on these. I just did some digging and found this site: https://classic-hifi.net/product/altec-lansing-model-14-4/

These look exactly like the ones I have with the grill off so this is probably as close as I am getting.

Thanks again!

 

[TLS Guy]

Thank you all for giving me info on these. I just did some digging and found this site: https://classic-hifi.net/product/altec-lansing-model-14-4/

These look exactly like the ones I have with the grill off so this is probably as close as I am getting.

Thanks again!

Those are from the early eighties and right at the time of the Sparkomatic buyout of Altec. They do not look like Altec drivers, so they are quite likely Sparkomatic speakers with the Altec logo.

There is a pair for sale on eBay under Buy it Now for $275.00 but no takers. I don't know how long they have been for sale. My opinion is these are likely Sparkomatic top to bottom.

 

[mnmeckel]

Those are from the early eighties and right at the time of the Sparkomatic buyout of Altec. They do not look like Altec drivers, so they are quite likely Sparkomatic speakers with the Altec logo.

There is a pair for sale on eBay under Buy it Now for $275.00 but no takers. I don't know how long they have been for sale. My opinion is these are likely Sparkomatic top to bottom.

Thanks for the info! I appreciate your knowledge on the history of this stuff!

 

[MrBoat]

Thanks for the info! I appreciate your knowledge on the history of this stuff!

More importantly, how do they sound? Sometimes it doesn't matter all the particulars if they are at least fun to listen to.

In spite of everything being more technically/measurably correct these days with speakers, there is no shortage of mixed reviews and troubleshooting of what amounts to room/treatment dependent, and otherwise finicky designs. If for just mainstream music, they may do fine.

What are you powering them with?

 

[mnmeckel]

More importantly, how do they sound? Sometimes it doesn't matter all the particulars if they are at least fun to listen to.

In spite of everything being more technically/measurably correct these days with speakers, there is no shortage of mixed reviews and troubleshooting of what amounts to room/treatment dependent, and otherwise finicky designs. If for just mainstream music, they may do fine.

What are you powering them with?

Thank you so much for making that point. I love hearing about the history of it, but at my core my passion is music.

In my opinion, they sound phenomenal! I actually got a pioneer sx-780 at work to pair with them today and it sounds so good!

 

[AltecUK]

Some people are talking nonsense here. These speakers are Model 310’s made by the original Altec Lansing Corp Professional Division in Anaheim California which didn’t shut down until 1995. I’m not 100% sure when they entered production but they appear in the 1993 Altec Lansing Professional catalog. They are 100% original Altec drivers. They are technically professional speakers. At this time the original Altec Lansing Corp was only manufacturing Pro Speakers while SparkomaticAltec were manufacturing Altec Lansing branded home speakers. However what many people don’t realise when they slate SparkoAltec is the SparkoAltec speakers of this era were actually using designs & drivers from the original Altec Lansing Corp. So you could argue SparkoAltecs of this era are still Altec’s. For example I have a pair of speakers from the Maestro Series. They are 100% made by the Altec Lansing Corp but several speakers in this series had home versions made by SparkoAltec using the exact same drive units/specs everything. The Model 55 is a SparkoAltec home version of the Maestro M55 made by the original Altec Lansing Corp, the Model 85 is a SparkoAltec home version of the Maestro M200 made by the original Altec Lansing Corp & the Model 205 & 305 are SparkoAltec home versions of the Maestro M300 made by the original Altec Lansing Corp.

But that’s going off topic. Your speakers are Model 310’s made by the Altec Lansing Corp not Sparkomatic Altecs. The label on the back even says Anaheim Calif. Sparkomatic Altecs were made in Milford PA.

 

[cpp]

Some people are talking nonsense here. These speakers are Model 310’s made by the original Altec Lansing Corp Professional Division in Anaheim California which didn’t shut down until 1995. I’m not 100% sure when they entered production but they appear in the 1993 Altec Lansing Professional catalog. They are 100% original Altec drivers. They are technically professional speakers. At this time the original Altec Lansing Corp was only manufacturing Pro Speakers while SparkomaticAltec were manufacturing Altec Lansing branded home speakers. However what many people don’t realise when they slate SparkoAltec is the SparkoAltec speakers of this era were actually using designs & drivers from the original Altec Lansing Corp. So you could argue SparkoAltecs of this era are still Altec’s. For example I have a pair of speakers from the Maestro Series. They are 100% made by the Altec Lansing Corp but several speakers in this series had home versions made by SparkoAltec using the exact same drive units/specs everything. The Model 55 is a SparkoAltec home version of the Maestro M55 made by the original Altec Lansing Corp, the Model 85 is a SparkoAltec home version of the Maestro M200 made by the original Altec Lansing Corp & the Model 205 & 305 are SparkoAltec home versions of the Maestro M300 made by the original Altec Lansing Corp.

But that’s going off topic. Your speakers are Model 310’s made by the Altec Lansing Corp not Sparkomatic Altecs. The label on the back even says Anaheim Calif. Sparkomatic Altecs were made in Milford PA.

And a good place in the US for some info is Great Plains Audio https://greatplainsaudio.com/about-us/

 

[isolar8001]

ID these Altec Lansing Speakers???

Can anyone identify these speakers. The owner says he doesn't know much about them except they are big Altec Lansing speakers. If they can be ID'd, are they any good? Thanks in advance.........

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