Thanks for the shout out Scott! You just brought us yet another great piece of audio history and those speakers have an actual provenance, which is so cool.Thanks for sharing!
You bet! These were a lot of fun. I had been wanting to do them for a while, but they were in the house, so once they got swapped out, they became "available" for review.
I mixed for 3 years in the early 80's on Big Reds in a studio control room They originally had them hanging by chains but I soffit mounted them and got tighter bass . I liked them because the kick drum sounded like it was in the control room with me. It's impossible to feel the power and wind blowing your hair from tiny 6 or 8 inch woofers although modern monitors are more accurate overall. They were powered by Crown DC300's. When a Crown blew all it's AC out one day it melted both horn driver diaphrams in the Red's. Lol. Expensive repair job. They make better amps too today with protection circuits that don't do that. The 604 horns have a honk in them that can't be EQ'd out but the Doug Sax crossover helped and I mixed a lot of good records on them. Back when we recorded by brute force. Enjoy seeing classic gear. Thanks!
Late to reply, but thanks for chiming in and adding some direct experience using these monitors. Many find it hard to believe early monitors were this size.
@@stereoniche Small modern studio monitors or more accurate but those things really packed a punch. After that I got some JBL 4430's which was even bigger but better sounding but been using small powered monitors for the last 25 years.
Reminiscent of the mighty 1950s Tannoy Monitor range. 15" dual concentric in big beautiful cabinets ,corner Yorks with Monitor Silvers being the finest combination imo. Of course, these Tannoys go for tens of thousands of euro/dollars when they can be found at all.
Wow! Thanks for the history lesson with the Big Red speaker pair. You’ve found a rare jemstone from the music biz. I’ve enjoyed your channel for a while now, and must add that this video was among your best… keep ‘‘em coming. Thanks.
Grazie mille per questo video,altec sono meravigliose le avevo molti anni fa, adesso ho comprato da un collezionista le Bozak "Sonora"sono molto contento di queste speaker,tu cosa ne pensi? grazie mille
Grazie per aver guardato! Anche se possiedo alcuni diffusori Bozak, non ho ancora avuto il piacere di ascoltare i diffusori Bozak "Sonora". Forse un giorno. Sulla base della tua nota, non vedo l'ora che arrivi quel giorno. Ti auguro il meglio!
Audio marketing Big Reds w /Mastering Lab Crossovers and height adjustable stands were my “ purpose built designed and built studios “ 1st control room A monitors back in the 1980s. Their lightness in the top ends proved to spell the end as the digital age approached. Digital seemed to be filled with high end and this move consumed the industry .: Stevie Wonder’s .”Talking Book” is one example. Was recorded on mine in fact. Nice presentation. SJ
Very interesting video Scott. If you've nailed the Altec's basic character, and it's rolled off in the highs, that might explain why Sheffield Direct to Disc lps are so crisp in character, if Doug Sax used the Altecs.for mastering their lps. He used the Stanton 881S (his favorite cartridge) for playing back the test pressings. The 881S was the opposite of bright, and even other non-bright cartridges like the Shure V15 V were crisper than the Stanton. So his mastering played with those speakers and the Stanton shifted his tonal judgement toward the brighter side of things. He was a very busy mastering engineer, even before Sheffield. It has been estimated that in 1971 20% of the top 100 albums on the Billboard charts were mastered by Doug Sax.
I might not be as colorful as those bright red speakers; but I have never been accused of "not being colorful." It surprised me to find out that Doug Sax mastered the classic rock albums Who's Next by The Who, Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones and The Wall and other Pink Floyd albums after it, by Pink Floyd. The Doug Sax mastered Sheffield Lab 1 and Lab 2 are albums that you actually would pull out and listen to them for their good music; even if it weren't for the amazing sound. Sheffield Lab 5, Discovered Again by Dave Grusin, also mastered by Sax, was nominated as the most palpably real sounding recording lp by the late Harry Pearson in The Absolute Sound. Although musically it doesn't stand up to Dave Grusin's Mountain Dance lp on the GRP label; which is classic.
I have the Altec Model 18 with 604-8h driver + Mantaray horn. 9 cu.ft. 620b Cabinet. Only slight toe-in needed for pinpoint imaging because of the mantaray horn. This speaker is overall an unbelievable performer for tone, presence, dynamics, coherence and rhythm. It is not the last word in deepest bass or highest highs.
Thanks Scott another great and very interesting video. Also interesting that the crossover is strapped on the back on the unit rather than inside like most speakers
I guess perhaps they were built in another location and then just sent over to the Audio Techniques company for final assembly. No idea really, but a cool bit of audio history.
You know you made a point in one of your videos saying that if you played the speakers in your videos that we would just be hearing our own speakers. That's not true. To a degree it is, but there's no question that one can hear differences and or similarities of different speaker sets through our own... Really kind of disappointing I don't get to hear these vintage speakers that you speak of
Possibly. And, I have considered this to be a factor, however, the issue is that you are in the small minority that probably listen to videos on a quality system. Negative comments come far too easy for many viewers, so that would invite a flood of those types of comments after they are disappointed in the sound of their computer speakers.
Please, what amp preamp did you use? I have Altec 605"s with a custom crossover in vented 7 cuft cabs and i just love them, but they really favor a good tube amp. For a transistor amp i have used my McIntosh 2505 like the one you have with a McIntosh c33 preamp and it is the best transistor amp match. Most of the time the amp is a Mc240 with the same preamp. A modified Dynaco also sounds fantastic with a tiny bit more top end "air" but less bass. Honestly you could probably hook those speakers up to an old decent boombox and it would sound great!
Ahh, that reminds me to add it to the information for the video.Thanks for the reminder! My current reference system: McIntosh MC2105 amplifier Pioneer Elite C-90 preamp Pioneer Elite DV-46AV CD player Mitsubishi LT-30 turntable
Hey, so watching your video I noticed that on your wall those two big speakers want us to the left of the red cabinet that your advertising right now in the video I own a set of those but mine don’t have the labels on the bottom and tell what namebrand they are, and I don’t know who made them if you can give me some detail on those speakers that would be greatbecause mine are excellent shape just like those are but might have a darker wood finish. Anyway, thanks for the video and any possible information you can possibly give me on those other particular speakers and I’m an audio collector myself but I’m getting rid of a lot of stuff, and I’ve got a lot of weird and unique stuff collectible and whatever so
From a size perspective, probably closer to a Cornwall or LaScala (actual internal dimension), but that is about as similar as they get to a Klipsch model. The Altec coaxial is quite special.
Niice! I have a set of AL605A's, from radio station owner's home office. I had read that 605's were the monitors used in EMI/Abbey Road control room Beatles era..interesting to hear older recordings thru a larger stereo spread with the style of speakers alot of it was mixed with. Cheers!
Awesome! When you mentioned these were often hung from the ceiling in the recording studio as studio monitors, it brought back memories of my first time in a recording studio (Audio-Trak in Rockford Illinois) in the late 1970s. They had a pair of Altec Model 19s hanging from the ceiling! I was so impressed by their sound, I bought a pair! I still have them and they still sound amazing!
There is a picture out on the next somewhere showing them hanging. I think my set was setup this way as well at some point based on the mounting holes still present on the backs of them. The 19's are on my list, haven't tried them yet.
@@stereoniche I found that picture! Studio A at the Power Station at BerkleeNYC has them! Still using them! Scroll through their Studio A Gallery photos. Studio C has them too, but no photos.
