Altec Lansing 911A?

Since your main goal is to upgrade your vinyl playback, maybe you should keep the 911A and get a turntable and phono stage (Cambridge 640P or Musical Fidelity V-LPS) and plug it into the Aux input. You could still use the built-in Garrard to play 78s if any come your way. Other than the rolloff in bass power (that's about 2.5 dB down from the midrange peak power) it's a nice unit--clean, smooth, and as I said, great tuner.

Do you have the 887A speakers that came with it? If not, what speakers are you using with it? One year in college I powered a pair of Altec 9845As with the 911A unit with good results. It's the battleship grey monitor at the front right in the picture. I was in a music group that used a pair for our PA system and we "stored" them in my dorm room when not gigging. When we disbanded we sold them to a theater. That's how much output they had.

Thats a good idea Johnny, who knows what Ill end up with when its all said and done.

I currently have the AL connected to some Cerwin Vega series 26 speakers, not the greatest sound, but they get the job done. I will be upgrading speakers as well, but it will be after I get the system upgrade. It didnt come with the original AL speakers, but I would be interested in hearing what they sound like with the matched head unit.

I still think that you should take it off my hands Johnny.....

I currently have the AL connected to some Cerwin Vega series 26 speakers, not the greatest sound, but they get the job done. I will be upgrading speakers as well, but it will be after I get the system upgrade. It didn't come with the original AL speakers, but I would be interested in hearing what they sound like with the matched head unit.

The speakers packaged with the 911A were OK 2-way bookshelves to help get them out the door as an all-in-one audio system, but the 887A's weren't that great of a match with the main unit. They were acoustic suspension and the bass power rolloff of the 911A produce the current required of the 887A's in the lower bass. I found that out when I hooked 'em up to a high current SAE power amp (Mk XXXIb) of the same era and got what seemed like an extra 1/2 octave of bass.

They did sound good with the Altec 874A Segovia 3-ways. These were 4-ohm acoustic suspension "large bookshelf" (14"x12"x25") which had a relaxed feel to them and good deep bass response. I also had great success connecting them to VOTT studio monitors. Generally I think the 911A matches better with a large high-sensitivity ported speaker, and with your Cerwin-Vegas you're probably on the right track. The current Cerwin-Vega CLS-215 floorstander has gotten enthusiastic reviews both from The Abso!ute Sound
and Soundstage. They are about 95dB efficient, have a Scandinavian-sourced 6-1/2" cone midrange, and two 15" woofers reaching down to about 26 Hz. Being CV's, economy of scale makes these full-range efficient speakers available for about $1K/pair.

I still think that you should take it off my hands Johnny.....

Well thanks, but I already have too much old gear including an old Sherwood receiver, some EPI speakers from the early '80s, four VSP Labs TransMOS amps, the matching preamp, an Outlaw 950 pre/pro, an Amber Model 17 preamp, a Vector Research receiver, an old SAE amp, etc., etc. And that's what's in the garage. I have four active and working sound systems in the house besides. So nostalgia will have to take a back seat for me. I'm outta space!

I'll never forget the excitement when I brought that system home and unboxed it, but 38 years later I don't need a visual aid for the nostalgia. :-)