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Altec A7 What to do

Hello all, a Friend of mine has had Altec Lansing A7's sitting in his basement for several years, just couldn't put them in his current room setting. Many may know that I've been building for about 35 years. I built him a set of MTM's and delivered them for Christmas. He was thrilled. Well, today, he dropped off a pair of A7's and said they're yours. I sat them up and listened, thoroughly looked them over, looked up crossover design (500hz model) and now need to decide what to do with them. I have a decent size living room, but these are still huge. They do a lot of things right, but just aren't as refined as my current speakers. So, I've decided to sell them. I'm in no hurry to do so, but I know that I won't keep these forever. So, are these more desirable to sell as is... stock, upgrade parts in the crossover and sell them, redesign and trick out the crossover, cleanup, sand, minor fill and painting cabinets or some combination of the above. I have no doubt that a complete crossover redo, a bit of cabinet bracing and a good refinish and these babies would be incredible. The problem is... will people that don't know me accept or trust just how good they are? That being the case I'm looking for some advice. Please tell me how you would handle it in my shoes. Tim
timlub
isochronism
2,893 posts
 
Not that this helps although I found it interesting. I just did a quick search "Altec A-7 Modification" and found an article titled "Legend Reborn", and it turns out that Altec has Reissued the A7' a couple years ago. At the time of this article (at least) they are priced at $8600 pr. shipped.
Many years ago a very good friend's older brother had a pair for his home stereo.
I was a fan ever since:)
timlub OP
2,039 posts
 
Thanks to all of you guys. I have just opened the back for the first time. The tweeters impedance is not marked, but DC resistance is 8.1 ohms. The woofer is an 16 ohm 416A...
The Crossover is an N500G. I can do little to the crossover, everything inside is covered in some sort of goo, at first I thought it was epoxy, but it isn't that tough. Caps look to be film & foil low voltage parts, then there is 1 - 2mfd mylar...
I'm going to go ahead and put 400v poly props in place of the film & foils and 1mfd poly & 1mfd styrene in place of the 2mfd mylar, put some high grade wiring in and start there. I appreciate you guys. Tim
timlub OP
2,039 posts
 
Broke away the encasing, measured all the parts, Measured all new parts and put together matched pairs for both crossovers, replaced the aluminum foil caps (very rare), and mylar cap, replaced resisters with mills, hot melted all in place in the first crossover. The parts are all matched & soldered for the second crossover, I'll tackle that in the next day or two and let everyone know. All I've done is replace crossover parts with High quality parts. If I get the gumption, I'll take full measurements and possibly add compensation circuitry... Don't know.
gvasale's avatar
gvasale
99 posts
 
The last iteration of the A7 you found was done by Altec *.* Technologies, if I got the name right. They were the sucessor to Sparkomatic. Their speakers were done by Great Plains Audio. I doubt they ever sold one at that price. Regardless, that version is no lobger. I think the brand name is owned by yet another company at this time.

What's out there is still tons of fun.
timlub OP
2,039 posts
 
Hello all, as discussed earlier, I have replaced all the caps & resistors in the crossover with upgraded hand spec'd parts with less than 1% tolerance from one channel to the other. The improvement is not subtle. I've given these a couple hours of listening and they continue to improve..If anyone out there has A7's, this is a modification well worth the few dollars, clear improvement in the upper midrange through the treble region as well as a some improvement in soundstage and noticeable improvement in detail also.
I know that the recommendation by one above is to "get over it" and keep them, but they are just too big. So I'm back to the original question. Am I spinning my wheels and wasting my money to do any more work on these, or am I just better off to sell them as is?
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