Former Altec employee here (1973-74), and I have the engineering prototypes of the University E8s that served me well for 40 years - the surrounds are still good! I also have the engineering prototype of a 100WPC power amplifier companion to the 721(?) tumer/preamp that someday I intend to make work. Neither of those models ever made it to production, alas.
It's a shame that both Jim Lansing and his company died about the same time. I loved the old Altec gear as a kid but could never afford any of it. Some years ago I was looking at a schematic of one of their 1593 amps and suddenly realized the topology was a literal translation of a tube amp schematic to a transistor amp. The company seemed to lose traction when transistors became commonplace and. someone got the brilliant idea that there was no need of an output transformer when a transistor is inherently a low impedance device to begin with. Shaved off ten pounds of iron and a lot of $$ from the price. JBL lives on, though.
As I later learned, “LTV Ling Altec” was saddled with considerable debt around the time I was hired there. I’m not entirely sure when “Altec Lansing” changed to Ling, but I suspect it was around 1970. John Eargle was head of marketing when I hired in, but he left for JBL within a year. I suspect he knew things the engineering staff didn’t, and that’s why he bailed. The knuckleheads that replaced him cancelled every engineering project for the next hear, just as the prorotypes were built. I was let go on December 13, 1974. The engineer I worked with was let go five weeks later.
The power amp will require a new design. The original circuit’s SNR was about 60dB, and I’m pretty sure I know why. With that much noise, not to mention crossover issues, I’ll probably just use the chassis, power transformer, meters, heatsinks and cabinet.
