Altec Nineteen or VOTTs

Like buses you wait for ages and then it all kicks off.

I currently have some 15" Tannoys but have long hankered after trying the big Altecs and JBLs. But they are like hens teeth here in London.

Now all at once I have the chance to buy either a pair of VoTTs or a pair of Nineteens. And no shipping costs or import taxes.

So which would go for and how much would you pay?

 

Difficult. Ideally you'd need to listen to both.

I have VOTTs and love them. I heard Chris' Valencias which are not too far from the 19. To a certain extent, it's swings and roundabouts between the two. The advantage of the VOTT is that the drivers are time-aligned. This results in a coherence and timing security that I find attractive. On the other hand, the horn in front of the 15" driver tends to vibrate and so colours the sound a little. Chris's Valencias were significantly less coloured than my speakers are, but I have no way of knowing how much of that was due to other modifications he did to the speakers (crossover, adding a tweeter etc.).

With the VOTT, a lot depends on the exact specification (which hf horn, which drivers etcs.).

 

Nineteens are a SERIOUS blast and seriously cool. VoTTs aren't too bad either.
Here in Japan a pair of mint 19s can cost upwards of $5K, about a third less in the US I think. VoTTs are a big moving target since there were so many types over such a long period.
I'd go with the big Nineteens, especially if you have any Led Zeppelin albums in your collection...

 

No Led Zep (involuntary shudder), but no shortage of reggae , funk, soul, jazz, hip hop and my daughter is a big fan of indie guitar bands.

I am sooo very tempted by the Nineteens. I can't imagine there are very many in the UK. I've certainly never seen or heard of any. They most definitely are cool. And I might be able to see and hear them in a few weeks.

 

Hi Messengerman

As Joel says, with Altec speakers a lot depends upon the exact horn, compression driver and bass unit used.

This varied - especially on the VOTT.

I would try to find out this piece of information before you buy.

Secondly, to really hear what these speakers can do, you need a large listening area. If you have a small british listening room they will do certain things magically - but you'll never get the most out of them.

If all drive units were the same, I'd personally go for the VOTT, but as mentioned the 19's are more likely to have the best drive units in them - and more likely to be in good shape, as the VOTT is often a gigging speaker.

As for price, well that's not something I could really say. Like the sound, it depends on condition of the cabinets and drive units used.

 

Thanks all for your help. It was actually all your various postings on PFM which put me onto large old HE speakers in the first place!

This is the sellers description of the VOTTs:

N8500-8A Crossover - 8 ohm. Features switchable 500/800 hz crossover point and high frequency level control.

511-B 1" black throat horns 500hz

808-8A Drivers, Alnico Magnets, 1" Throat - Factory 8-ohm Simbiotek diaphragms.

416-8A - 15" Woofer. 8 ohms. Alnico magnet.

I've asked about the Nineteens...

 

You wil love the Altecs*. Don't worry.


*the big Yam 1000x or 2000 provide much of the funk & groove of the big old Altecs / JBLs, but with the low distortion of Quads and near BBC levels of low-colouration.
How good does that sound...

 

For reggae and hip hop, I think there are better speakers out there (the Altecs don't do real deep bass, 50 Hz is about the lower minimum). For funk, soul and jazz, it would be rather difficult to top a good Altec. That said, I haven't heard the Yammies that Joel likes to rave about ...

What's the rest of your system, and how far away from the speakers can you sit?

 

sounds like a A7 cab, which is, ahem, the compact model
I think this would date the units to sometime in the mid-seventies (Chris. Markus?) - possibly younger than the Nineteens, but 19s are just the coolest speakers ever made...

 

Neither do most hiphop records for that matter... Altecs and big JBLs work exactly where it counts. If you don't believe me, a walk around the many JBL-equipped dance record shops in Shibuya (and Shinjuku and Kichijoji) is in order...

NP Blacksheep - 8WM Novakane

 

I'll shut up now.

 

Some of my hip hop records (the few that I own, it's not my cup of musical tea) have very deep synth bass in the 20-30 Hz region, as I discovered when I had the ATCs. Some of my electro tango stuff also features awesomely deep bass, again synth-based. But for anything played by acoustic instruments (that includes e-guitar and e-bass, of course) the Altec woofers do just fine.

 

Quite possibly true.

 

Very good , I'll add them to my watch list.

I do have another angle on these old speakers in so much as I quite like the idea of restoring them as well as listening to them. In fact I have just started digging the foundations for what will be my new workshop in which I intend to build some GRFs - and a great long list of furniture.

 

The room is about 18' x 15' with very high 10' ceilings.

At the moment I sit between 8' and 2' of the speakers depending on which end of the sofa I sit on! But I can re-arrange things if I need to. There is no messengerwoman to please and my kids are of the bigger the better persuasion in all things. In fact I just put up a 4' deep 15' diameter "paddling" pool. You have to edge round it to cross the patio!

The rest of my music system is in a state of flux. I tend to leave it alone for years then buy three things at once to try before selling on a couple.

Currently I have a LP12, Marantz CD63 and a Squeezebox.

I have a Audiolab 8000A and pair of Tannoy Mansfields.

The Audiolab is not a great match and will shortly be supplanted by an Accuphase P-102 which is winging its way to me from Italy.

And just to prove that when I get these urges I really get them I also have the chance to bring in from the states a second hand Berning ZH270. A chance which I will probably take up!

 

ah.

I believe you'll really love the treble/mid of the altecs, which is clear, dynamic and punchy. Bass is there down to 40hz, but won't wow you with it's 'fatness' so to speak!

Yamaha's are not really high efficiency speakers, and I have little experience of them, I confess.

18x15 should pretty much do it. Firing length ways, a couple of feet into the room should put you about 13-14 feet away from them, which they need. Even your big room (by UK standards), is about on the touch-and-go side for these big speakers, which can be used for live events, and often are..


Another topic, the Berning. It's crystal clear, powerful, and all round 'great'!

However, the top of Altec's can seem a little strident (which you can work on with various tweaks) - but still, I'd reccomend a warm-sounding amplifier, like a classic Audio Research, or the right 300B amp - the top end of the Berning would (I feel) not be a good match for the Altecs.

Incidentally, you mentioned JBL speakers earlier in the thread. Once again, an entirely different sonic character. More bass led than the Altecs, with less emphasis on the horn I feel (the one's I've heard).

I don't know the Mansfields.

I compared my previous Altecs With Tannoy corner GRF's when I bought them, and prefered the Altecs. Again, this was due to the Altec treble/mid, which is a stand-out character.

Incidentally, the previous owner also had some Tannoy Autographs, and also prefered the treble/mid of the Altecs, but could have happily lived with either speaker.

If you want to know what 300B amp I used with the Altecs, it was the Glasshouse 300B SE. It's about a grand, or a couple of hundred more made-up.

I've always felt the Audionote Meishu would also be a good match for them, and it's an attractive amplifier. I've seen them used for about £1,500.

Basically, you don't need the power with Altecs, or not much at all. The sonic character of the amp used with them is more important in getting a good sound.

Cheers
Chris

NB
I like the sound of the drive units in the VOTTs. I don't know what the cabinets will be like ? Often these speakers have a hard, hard life..

 

The Mansfields weren't made for long. I think they were effectively Lancasters for the later HPD's. They are about that size and mine have 15" drivers. I bought them because I had - and still have - some Tannoy Dorsets (10" HPD plus one of these bass repeater thingies). These were by far the best speakers I had come across and I thought bigger would be better. In fact the Mansfields are not as good. Something which I imagine has much to do with the cabinets....

The VOTTS have apparently been taken straight from a cinema. So the cabs might not be too knocked about. OTH the drivers will probably be nicely run in...

 

fantastic


speakers really just don't get much cooler than Altec's in my view.

genuine, bonafide legends.

 

Minmum listening distance with a VOTT is about 8', much below that you'll hear the woofer and tweeter as separate sound sources. I like to listen to mine at a distance of about 15', the integration is better than at shorter distances (my room acoustics play a part in this,too).

I'll be interested to hear how you'll be getting on with the Accuphase.

If you ever tire of the Berning, may I raise my hand for it? I'd be quite interested in getting one of these into my system, Stereo Mic has whetted my appetite.

 

Me too. I should put him and Bottleneck and Joel all on my ignore list. It'd save me £££££s.