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Seeking Speaker Recommendations

Greetings,

I've been away from the hobby for quite a while, but am now ready to slowly edge my way back in.  Many moons ago I sold my Altec Model 19's, and have never been able to find a replacement for them.  Their dynamics, their liveliness, their punch, the way they recreated the music on a grand scale.  Even at lower volumes their dynamic swings were amazing.  They sounded so lifelike.  I'm sure their measured performance was likely abysmal, but the sound they generated, to my ears, was like sitting at a performance.

Having been to the CES/Comdex show many, many times years ago, I had seen and listened to hundreds of speakers by hundreds of manufacturers.  What I liked was significantly out of my price range.  I've personally owned systems by Thiel, Von Schweikert, Martin Logan, Magnepan, Legacy, Focal, and the list goes on.  I even went to great expense and custom built a pair of Altec 604 based speakers.  All have left me wanting my old Altec 19's back.

I know they can be had today, and you can even build a "new" pair with the cabinets and drivers available, but I can no longer house a pair of speakers larger than a washer/dryer!  What I'm looking for is a small to medium sized floor-standing speaker, preferably under $3,000/pair, that will recreate that Altec Model 19 magic.  I assume it would have to be high efficiency and horn based.

Can anyone kindly recommend a system that might come close to what I'm seeking?

Thanks!!
seadweller

Showing 2 responses by auxinput

auxinput
2,920 posts
 

Too all who have suggested many different conventional speakers - the OP has clearly stated that he likes the character of horn-based speakers.  There are many conventional speakers that I think sound absolutely amazing, but I do not think any of them will reproduce the type of "horn" signature that the OP's Altec 19 will do.  Horn speakers just have a different way of broadcasting the midrange and highs that no standard speaker can do.

I think it's going to be very difficult to get the same sound as the Altec 19, because that type of midrange sound really requires such a large horn.  If you wanted smaller speakers, you could look into Klipsch RF7, which is just under 14" wide.  It has a horn that is crossed over very low (at 1300hz).  The Altec horn is crossed over at 1200hz, which is very close.  The Klipsch won't exactly reproduce the type of midrange of the Altec, but I think it's probably going to be the closest you can get and still have a very small footprint.

The Klipsch Cornwall has a much better midrange horn, but the speaker cabinet is 25" wide, maybe not as big as your Altec, but approaching.  Unfortunately, it takes a larger horn to get that big "throaty" sounding midrange.

The Klipsch speakers will have more high frequency response than the Altec.  The Klipsch Chorus could be a compromise.

I think you'll just have to determine how much of a compromise you want with regards to horn speaker size.  Smaller horns will not have as "throaty" midrange presentation.

auxinput
2,920 posts
 
I should say that you need a long throw horn.  That's why the Klipsch Cornwall is nice and throaty.  The horn itself is not extremely large/wide, but it is definitely a longer throw than the RF7 (and probably even longer throw than the Chorus).
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