Altec 755A....The Interest keeps Growing

[Andy]

Are these really that amazing, prices seem to keep going up? ebay # 320049232289. What did this speaker cost back in 1955, I recall Edgar Vilchure saying in an interveiw that they were exspensive, but limited in high frequency response. I guess I should have purchased the pair I saw at an antique radio show last month, offered for $75. !

[tysontom]

>Are these really that amazing, prices seem to keep going up?

>ebay # 320049232289. What did this speaker cost back in 1955,

>I recall Edgar Vilchure saying in an interveiw that they were

>exspensive, but limited in high frequency response. I guess I

>should have purchased the pair I saw at an antique radio show

>last month, offered for $75. !

Andy,

As we’ve said before on this forum, the Altec 755A was a very good, but not exceptional, 8-inch full-range speaker that became available around 1947-1948. It was one of a series of Western-Electric designs that did feature high-quality construction and precision craftsmanship, but Edgar Villchur and Henry Kloss chose it because it had relatively low distortion and uniform frequency response. It was used because it was one of the best tweeters available at the time for the AR-1. Incidentally, when most loudspeaker engineers were designing their speakers primarily by listening tests ("voicing"), Villchur was hard at work measuring for distortion and frequency response. He strongly believed in quantitative measurement techniques, and the results were that the 755A was a good performer. Villchur also used a couple of Western Electric 728B 12-inch woofers (a similar design to the 755A) that he modified to make the first acoustic-suspension woofer.

One feature of the 755A was its inner cone (separated by an additional corrugations) that would actually "decouple" slightly to allow the speaker to respond to higher frequencies than the entire cone assembly. This was akin to the "wizzer" cones used by Electro-Voice and others, and the "Diffusicone" diaphragms used by University Loudspeakers. Some audiophiles contend that the cone material used in the 755A rendered a special quality to the sound that other similar speakers did not possess. In any event, it was certainly one of the better speakers of its type during the early 1950s.

It is also important to realize that the 755A was much inferior to the AR-1 woofer, in terms of overall performance, and it was widely regarded this way in the press. However, due to the efforts of Walt Bender (a leading authority on old Western Electric products) and others, the Western Electric 755A and the Altec Lansing 755A have attained cult status among collectors, especially in Asia.

--Tom Tyson

[dynaco_dan]

Hi there;

I do not remember the exact price difference between an AR-1 and AR-1W, but, I believe it was less than $50.00 per speaker cabinet.

The AR-1 did have the pot, cap, coil, tweeter and other work and materials involved with a 2-way system.

Expensive back then, in the '50's, may have been less than $25.00, for just the tweeter alone, factory OEM cost.

[dynaco_dan]

Hi there;

Thanks to, Carl, recently downloading the AR-1/AR-2 ads, I can now correct myself.

The cost difference between the AR-1 and AR-1W is, or rather was, in 1954, approximately $53.00 US.

This would cover, extra labour to cut holes, install extra wiring, extra crossover components, extra terminal strip, the Altec 755 driver of course and markup.

Unless someone can come up with an old Altec price list, $25.00 US OEM for the tweeter, is looking not too shabby for a guess.