I have three VOT A-7 speakers with 811 horns and 802D drivers and 515Bwoofers with ALTEC 500 Hz crossovers. These speakers sound great considering
they where built back in the sixtys. They have tremendous midrange impact and
very high sensitivity 104db at 4 feet. Seems like the older they get the better
they sound. I have been told that the ALNICO magnets sound better with age.
I use them in my DOLBY DIGITAL home theater as LCR. They reproduce movie
soundtracts very well. I find my self jumping out of my seat,when playing
SUPER SPEEDWAY. The only fault I can find is the bass starts rolling off
fast at 55Hz, But that is to be expected from most bass horns. The subwoofer
takes care of that anyway.

Ever since I was a kid back in the Philippines, I was fortunate enough to have a father who was at the advent of the stereo revolution - was sent to the U.S. for training in electronics communication in the mid 50's, and got hooked himself into audio. in the mid 70's I uncovered the great tube and audio legend books, one of the was the "Hows and whys of Loudspeaker Design". From then on I've dreamt of having horn-loaded speakers. 20 years later having migrated to the U.S., I ran across a pair of Altec Milanos - home versions of the Voice of the Theaters. The bass was there, the mids were glorious but unclear, and the highs were not there. After collecting some great information from great do-it-yourselfers in the web, I have modified the enclosure and crossover of these vintage 1972 speaker components, and I cannot justify myself to buy any of the new high-end speakers - for the price they want which sounds not too far off from my $400.00 deal. It sounds great when fed by a tube amp, can't wait to hook it up to single-ended triode amps! The presence of the singers, orchestra, rock, you name it. There are nights I've listened to an old vivaldi mono record, and enjoyed.

I attended a small engineering college in Marietta, Ga called Southern Tech (Graduated 1979). In the library, down in the basement, where all the record albums were kept, there were a two pair of Altec VOT speakers stacked. The library kept these speakers playing whenever the library was open. I used to sit and listen to these speakers while I read the latest Stereo Review and High Fidelity mags. They usually played classical music. I tried to get a glimse of the electronics but all I could see was an Empire turntable with a massive tonearm. Anyway I wasn't very impressed with these speakers primarily because they always played them at background listening levels. They would NEVER crank them up. However, one Saturday when I was visiting the library the guys operating the music room had them cranked up some and WOW they sounded pretty good. They guys actually put some rock and roll on turntable. Instead of a muted, muffled sound they actually came alive! I heard the bass, I heard the treble. However, I decided the Library needed to get some Advents and move these Altec VOT speakers to the auditorium where they belonged!

Not sure these bad boys are made anymore but the blueprints are bound to be around and some old beat up cabinets left over from a Rolling Stones tour. I friend of mine and his dad used to build these behemoths in theri basement. Their first pair was for a high school r-n-r band. They used tube heads from lesser guitar amps and drove these things. The sound was awesome. I do not think there was ever a better balls out rock & roll speaker/sound reinforsement than the VOC's. Skate rinks and movie houses everywhere had these things and they rocked. Klipschorns and Rogers are a close 2nd and third for the sound you grew up with and wondered what happened to. Absolute zero on the wife approval meter. Yeah!

I replaced my Cornwalls with a system based on the famous Altec VOT. From 500hz up is an Altec 806 compression driver mounted on an Altec 511B horn, below 500 is a heavily modified Peavey (yes, Peavey!) folded bass horn. The 806-511 combo makes the best midrange I've heard; very smooth, with palpable lifelike presense and very low distortion, even at VERY loud levels. The 806 makes clean, lifelike highs though it is a little bit rolled off. I consider VOT mids superior to Klipsch mids, and I've owned and liked several classic Klipschs. Efficiency is very high of course, about 105db1w1m for the 806-511. The Peavey does it's job well, supplying huge quantities of realistic, undistorted bass. The tradeoff is that the f3 is high, around 50-60 hz, pretty much unavoidable with most basshorns. However the impact and clean sound make it a viable tradeoff for me, I'd rather hear 50 clean than 30 dirty.

killer sound, great dynamix!

very heavy enclosure

This is defenitely *THE* speaker for any audioenthousiast. We use this for PA applications, but this also sounds gr8 at lower levels in livingrooms applications... lately I bought 2 of them for approx. $75,00 cheap bargain? yeah!

Just had to say something about these speakers. Wow are they big..........Wow do they sound BIG.........Wow If you have not heard these...........WOW if you have. Altec made what are possibly going into history as the best and most realistic sounding speaker systems on the planet. I don't know what it is, size, design, components, whatever it works and works so much harder than other systems. The first time I heard one was in 60's at a battle of the bands. We and every other band were finished and the final act went on. I was never so amazed in my life at the clarity and punch of the sound coming from a pair of A7's! After being devastated by these I packed my meager equipment and tail and headed home. But I had seen the light or had heard it and have been richer for the expierence. Thank You Altec!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You've got to be kidding?

The Holy Grail and worth every moment of search.

Similar Products Used:

Lot's of Junk

FULL THEATRE SOUND. AMAZING TO THIS DAY, THESE SPEAKERS ARE ALMOST 35 YEARS OLD!!!

Not sure if they make these speakers any more.

The Voice of the Theatre speakers that we own came standard with our Morton Delson designed house. He was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. Morton built everything in. He designed the 2nd "new" wing at the Guggenheim in NYC.
These speakers are in cabinets made from Philippine Mahogany, a rain forest wood, now unavailable.
They aren't going anywhere, as they are part of the furniture.

They are fantastic for symphonic music, or even dub, if you're into that like I am.

Similar Products Used:

Nothing even comes close

ALTECLANSING VOICE OF THE THEATRE ARE AMAZING, STRONG
BASS, INCREDIBLE SIZZLING HIGHS,ACCURATE, EXCELLENT.

ONE KNOWN WEAKNESS: NEIGHBORS WIFE THINKS THERE TO
BIG. AFTER MY NEIGHBOR DIVORCED HER, THERE ARE NOW
NO KNOWN WEAKNESS.

FIRST OFF LET ME SAY THAT TO MY EAR THESE SOUND
EXCELLENT, AND THATS ALL THAT MATTERS. THEY WERE
A GIFT FROM AN OLD FRIEND. HE TOLD ME THEY ARE
CUSTOM MADE ALTEC VOICE OF THE THEATRES IN A CUSTOM
FURNITURE GRADE BOX, WITH DOORS THAT MAGNETICALLY
CLICK OPEN, WHICH REVEAL A GRILLE CLOTH. EVEN WITH
THE DOORS OPENED, NO ONE YET HAS KNOWN THEY WERE
SPEAKERS. THE WOOFERS HAVE MODEL NUMBER 416 Z8 ON
THEM, THE LARGE HORNS HAVE MODEL 806-8A. THEY
HAVE A DIAL TO ADJUST THE HIGH FREQ. OUTPUT ON THE
BACK. THE FURNITURE GRADE BOX IS ALL WALNUT AND
LOOKS LIKE A LARGE DRESSOR OR TABLE END FOR A LAMP.
WELL ANYHOW, I WANTED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE SPEAKERS, WHICH I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT, EXCEPT FOR THERE GREAT REPUTATION, SO I SEARCHED THE NET AND FOUND, WWW.ABROWN.COM ,ACTUALLY THEY ARE CALLED 'A BROWN SOUN' IN CALIFORNIA, THEY REPAIR VINTAGE SPEAKERS, IF YOU CHECK
THE SITE, THEY FIX SPEAKERS FOR BANDS LIKE PEARLJAM ETC.
THEY SAID THESE ALTEC WOOFERS ON THE ASIAN
MARKET SELL FOR $1000.00 EACH. HE SAID IF IN MINT
CONDITION I COULD SELL THIS RARE SET OF COMPLETE SPEAKES FOR 4-5 THOUSAND DOLLARS. HE HAS NEVER SEEN THIS SETUP. IM
SENDING HIM PICTURES.
THE SPEAKERS SOUND EXCELLENT, THEY LOOK STELLAR,
THEY ARE WORTH A TON , ESPECIALLY TO A COLLECTOR.
I DONT KNOW MUCH ABOUT THEM, BUT IM TRYING TO FIND
OUT MORE. I HAVE SIMILAR KLIPSCH PRODUCTS.

I DRIVE THEM WITH
MCINTOSH MC2270
ADCOM 5800
SONY ESD 2000 PREAMP
SONY REF CD

IF YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO BUY OR MAKE THEM, I WOULD
NOT HESITATE, VINTAGE ALTEC LANSINGS LIKE THESE
ARE AWESOME. IF ANYONE KNOWS ABOUT THIS SETUP I
HAVE, OR JUSTS WANT TO EMAIL ABOUT THE VOICE OF THE THEATRE SPEAKERS, I HAVE BEEN TOLD THEY ARE VOICE OF THE THEATRES, BUT I DONT KNOW FOR SURE IF THEY ARE. MY EMAIL IS AS
FOLLOWS
VR6GTI@MSN.COM

Similar Products Used:

KLIPSCH HERESEY II ,LASCALA, KLF-20