Crystal clear highs and great bass along with enough power to full a Hall

Size , two speakers could fill a complete van

In the 1960's ,my folk singing group use two Altec- Lansing A-7-500 Voice of the Theater Speakers in clubs and on tour. We used a pair of Sennheiser condenser mics and a Converted Scott Stereo Amp ,to make up one of the best PA systems heard. The speakers were so clear and the sound so fine that you could even hear us breathe on stage .We used these speakers for 4 years and I sold them to a recording studio to help pay for my wedding . I would love to have those monsters back ,they would hard to beat with anything on the market today. The End.

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I have 4 Model 19s (home version of the Voice Of The Theater) backed with 1200 Watts which creates a large very dynamic soundstage. Didn't know what I was missing until I added two for surounds. Tremendous power handling capacity.

I don't have room for two more. They weigh 150 lbs each.

I've owned 2 model 19s since 1977. After getting into home theater, I really appreciated them even more. Recently I added 2 more for surounds and the dynamics and sound of my system improved dramatically. I plan to keep them forever.

highest efficiency speakers available, enormous soundstage

the size of refigerators

wonderful speakers from that age. with very little amp wattage you could completely deafen yourself. with a 35 watt amp we would play the who's magic bus off the live of leeds album once and walk to school with our ears ringing, thrilling but not advised.

horn enclosure provided an amazing ability to fill a room completely with music no matter where one sat or what size of room. beautiful sounding for most music types, not a great classical speaker, but were able to sometimes make your hair stand up on end with certain recordings. a great nostalgic speaker.

now a days they are not practical for most homes because of their large size.

ours went through several changes, home made crossover, home made enclosures to make them fit into a corner, not many speakers allowed you to boost about being about to crawl through the port hole to wire the woofer! bi amped 35 w on top 70 w bass, then as most they got banished to the basement to be replaced by more sane sized music reproducers.

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klipshorn

authentic Sound in classical, very stong base response

Cabinet are monsters

These are outstanding speakers. I purchased them new in 1974 and have had no problems. I've used them with all kinds of music, rock to classical and I have yet to hear any speaker system that I like better. I just recently added a surround-sound receiver and these things continue to amaze me. The whole house shakes during Sci-fi movies. The cabinets are a very dark mediterranean stained wood with a dark grill cloth. They are a base reflex design, 15" low frequency speaker 35Hz to 800Hz and a large sectional horn 800Hz to 22,000Hz. The only down side is they are very large cabinets 29 5/8H X 27 3/4W X 19 7/8 D. I have them in our 23 X 25 living room and they will really make the whole house shake. My wife is wanting some of those Dinky Bose, cause they look better, but I'm still holding out. I can't imagine giving up this great sound.

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Incredible,smooth highs,huge soundstage,excellant imaging.
Reproduce every small detail in the source.

Very large cabinets,will scare the neighbors.

These are the P.A. voice of the theatre's.They have
the 808-8A high frequency drivers,511-B horns,E/V 15" woofers,and altec N501-8A dividing network.They are wider
than a door frame and over four feet tall.My point is
they are not small speakers.I really need a bigger room
for them.I had new authentic drivers put in the speakers
as they needed replacing when I bought them.The speakers
sound better than any speaker I have owned or used.They
are very efficent and can be driven to very loud volumes
with amps with 5-10 watts per channel.The sound is so
life like it makes you feel your are listening to the band
live or in the studio.The altec horns have the sweetest
highes I have ever heard,and will put chills down your
spine with the Donald Fagen Nightfly or Steely Dan Aja
CD.I have them hooked up to a yamaha M45 power amp,
Audio Research SP6-B tube pre-amp,and a old pioneer CD
player.I am in the process of upgrading the CD player and
amp.I have a adcom 545 amp that sounds alot better than
the yamaha,but I don't use it in this system because it
only has one pair of speaker inputs and I have multiple
speakers in the room.I am going to try and go straight
tube.If you can find a pair of VOT's I highly recommend
you buy them.You would have to spend at least 3-4 thousand
dollars to find a pair of new speakers that would come
close to the VOT's,and even then I don't think you would
do better.

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Klipsch KG2,Thiel CS3.5,Altec Lansing monitor fifteen,
JBL L7's,B&W DM series.

very low distortion, crisp transients, low power requirement
closet to real live sound

large heavy cabinets

Well my dad used to build these things back in the 70s
when he was into audio a lot back then. Then times change
and he decided to sell his last pair, other priorities
can take over (wife acceptance factor, living room space...)
He would always talk about how nothing came close to
reproducing live sound like the altecs vot's.
Well walking by a used audio store he saw a pair of
511b horns sitting there. It sparked up the nostalgia of
the old days and (with a new wife) built a today's version
of the A7. The cabinet is basically the same except that
he used rocksill (sp?) insulation which is now available
today for damping. The 15" woofer is a 4 ohm good quality
car audio component. The 511b horns have the
802-8d symbiotic compression driver and a 500 Hz cross over.
He had to build all the templates for the shaping of the
bass horn but it was all worth it. Having listened to them
all summer, he agreed to let me have them, for the price
of the components. Hooked to a 120 watt harmon kardon amp
with dayton wright preamp. The 511b horns were damped with
plasticine (they were know to ring a bit).

What do I think of them? I absolutely love them.
They are some of the most realistic sounding speakers I have come across. They
are loud enough to rock a huge house party with everyone
commenting on the great sound. Even my DJ friend who
played at the party said it was the best system he had
played on. It would crank out everything you gave to it,
shaking the walls and windows with 120 watts! It was a great moment.

Then there are the times where I like to listen to classical
at very low volumes. Wow! You can still feel the music.
Every nuance of the timpanies or great big bass drums is
there as if you were at the concert.
The imaging is quite good. You can "see" the opera singers on a stage in Mozart's Don Giovanni.
I am quite sold on horn systems. It just makes sense:
high effiency-> low travel of speaker -> low distortion
and realistic transients. Result: the rock band is
playing in your living room. Music sounds live.
It makes listening to your music a "feel great" experience.
I can't wait to watch a DVD on these babies.

The total bill for these including the luxman CD player:
$2500 canadian. I challenge anybody to show me a system
that will sound as good for that price.

Size and weight are the only compromize. How do you
recreate a realistic sounding base drum or pipe organ
with a little hi-fi system?

I rate them 4.5 starts 'cause nothing is perfect (size).
That rounds up to 5.

Wide sound staging. Clear steady mid-high frequency sounds. Very efficient.

Drop off at the high end. Sloppy mid-bass. Virtually no low bass.

A single pair of VOTs used to be installed in 500 seat threatres. It's too bad I can't afford to live in one because the sound of these small VOTs need a very large room to hit its stride. VOTs are not for the faint of heart kind of listener. VOTs are for listeners with an attitude whether listening to chamber music, organ music or DVD movies.

In normal sized rooms the woofers should be replaced in my opinion. Although I've never hear my VOTs with 515's the 416As I had were not precise but rather sloppy. Perhaps its because the paper of the cones were too thin, too flexible or just plain old. Also, the woofer magnets probably lost some of their power. These things are at least 30 years old.

Additionally, the woofers' incomplete dust cap may have something to do with the VOT's inability to articulate cellos and bass in something like the Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

At least one 15inch sub-woofer makes a (modified) VOT absolutely awesome.

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Various JBL home systems. Vandersteen.

TOTALLY AWESOME! NOTHING ELSE COMES CLOSE!

The large cabinet size is the only weakness. BUT I don't mind that at all.

Absolutely Awesome! There is no real describing the sound you hear from the A7's! Another friend of mine had the A-7's mounted near the ceiling of a cocktail lounge. He used them strickly for vocal p.a. I am also a lead vocalist and can really appreciate the depth and range of the sounds from the historic speakers. The lounge singer sold them because of the large cabinet size and he wanted new speakers with the latest technology. I used to be in awe of his singing voice... until I heard him sing without the Altec Voice of the Theater speakers. It was entirly the VOT's !! So.... now I have the VOT's and nothing I have ever heard even comes close to matching their sound. NOTHING! I am 52 years old and a singer for 25 years professionally... Nothing sounds so full and sweet. I power them with 1200 watts, and sing through the lastest mics. GIANT KILLERS! FAR FAR FAR BETTER THAT YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE IF YOU NEVER EXPERIENCED THEIR SOUNDS! YOU DON'T JUST LISTEN TO THESE SPEAKERS.... YOU EXPERIENCE THEM!

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Everything! Tried them all over the last 25 years.

Full rich broad BIG sound

Could be cleaner

I owned a pair of these for about five years. Um, hello, can you say block party? I had a very weak system behind them, a run-of-the-mill kenwood amp. But they could knock you down with the powerful, clean, beautiful sound. Have I heard better speakers, yes. But I find myself in the market for some new speakers and it could easily cost me 10x what I paid for these to get something comparable.

The horn and the bass driver blend perfectly in the midrange. The low end is smooth and natural (0 boom), tapering off slightly at very low frequencies. Top end is strong, could be a little cleaner. Overall a very smooth range of sound from top to bottom.

I would compare these in sound to a high end jbl or carver (electrostatic) speaker in that they have a very natural, open, broad sound that will really fill a room.

Why did I sell these??

they make all other speaker systems seem dead!!!!!!!!!!!
ive owned most types over 26 years.i gave away my lascalas

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they are alive,large.the only other speakers that i would listen to are pro jbl binns and horns.all other speakers are wimpy wannabes,jokes.some dont sound bad quiet.i would take my vots in any room against all,with 100 watts ,play different music,,,,you wont even here the others.the low freq alone would take care of this small job,the horns,511b
altec are smooth,my system x over at 1.2 khz,some go at 800 and 500hz.i run 250 watts p/channel ,25 watts on these will clean house.the new super wizzbang units floating around
most shops seem dead.our past shows how to do it right!
they are big,but they wail. altec made baby brothers to these, 416 cabinets.my son has a pair i gave him,very close
i hope you can enjoy a pair
Brad

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