This has been who they are for at least the last twenty years. I had a computer speaker setup by them back in 2001. Sounded pretty good for what it was, actually. Two stick-like things and a little sub box. I’d guess that somebody just bought the name?
I still use those.
Mine lasted about ten years, they were my work speakers that whole time. Sadly I listened to them about 9.9 years longer than my Boleros.I still use those.
With that bolero comment, you are beyond saving!
Reminds me of the ratatouille movie.
I had them with a Fisher X202b tube integrated and then they got bumped to a Sansui AU999 (a pair of Dynaco A25s that had been with the Fisher got that slot back, I think it was Kef 103.2 that took the slot with the equally short lived Sansui). They just weren’t my thing and I was flying through gear back then. My main speakers were either Sony SS-M7s back then, or Dahlquist DQ30s.With that bolero comment, you are beyond saving!
Curious as to what you paired them with at the time and what were your main speakers?
When I bought the ones I had, it was a good 7 or 8 years before I was aware of their more storied history. I wasn't really in the hobby yet, and certainly wasn't in the vintage end of it. It's interesting to me how one's experience with a brand affects personal feelings about what becomes of it. I've never loved a pair of Altecs even after knowing what they'd been, so seeing the name on computer speakers doesn't really mean much to me. For some reason McIntosh putting tacky green lights under their tubes and selling gaudy lifestyle systems and putting blue meters on a car stereo, even though they still make nice gear, is more offensive to me. Maybe -because- they still are the old company, instead of it just being a name they bought?
What I meant by that is, despite McIntosh having been bought and sold by different holding companies over the years, D&M, Clarion and their current evolution of what was Finesounds, they still exist out of Binghamton, NY, with onsite engineers, etc. There's a piece of McIntosh there that has always been there. A holding company can buy a company and profit from it/invest in it with varying degrees of interference or freedom without it just being a name that's bought and applied to something completely unrelated. I don't know the history of the current Altec brand but my guess is its just a name, with no relation to what came before.McIntosh is not the same company, though they do build in the same segment. In fact, I don't think any of the brands in the current McIntosh Group represent what they were prior to joining the group. Most are still thriving so at least there is that.
McIntosh Group - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Yikes. Bought and sold and bought and sold and moved and pulled and pushed.Altec has been nothing but a name for quite a few years now.
Altec Lansing - Wikipedia
Think of Garrard, Polaroid, Vivitar, Dual, Fisher, lots more. Original companies long gone.
Great read. Thanks for sharing that.
I can only guess based on my own experience with Altec Lansing, and buying those computer speakers back in 2001. I knew of the name, and that they'd been a known audio manufacturer, but at the time I didn't know what they had made. I don't recall why I bought those speakers, though if there had been two identical sets, one with Altec and one with a name I didn't recognize or a store brand, I assume I would have bought the Altecs because the name sounded familiar. It wasn't that I wanted Altec speakers, it was probably more that the name seemed legit to my untrained eye.
And with Shinola’s entry into audio with the Runwell turntable, the “Schiit and Shinola” jokes write themselves!
