theaters still using altec VOTTs

[fluw]

hi y'all

i am iching to hear the VOTTS again in a theater but i do not know of any. does anyone know of some or any in the US?

regards
todd

[Mr. Widget]

There was an "Art House" theater here in San Francisco that still had A-7s in one of their auditoriums... it was horrible sounding. No bass, lots of screeching mids and no treble... fortunately they upgraded about 5-10 years ago.

Those A-7s were pretty good back in the days of glorious monaural optical sound that had no range.


Widget

[Tom Brennan]

A couple or so years back I saw Roger Ebert's showing of the restored Lawrence of Arabia at the Virginia Theater, a restored old movie palace in Champaign Illinois. Robert Harris, the fella that restored the movie, was there and Ebert had a couple of crack projectionists in from Hollywood so the picture would be displayed properly, Harris said it never looked better. People were oohing and aahing at the quality of the picture.

The sound, from Altec A4s with freshly diaphragmed 288s on Mantarays, was almost as good as the picture. It sounded just like..... Lawrence of Arabia.

[Loud & Clear]

Yep! The theater right here in town is using three a7's. They sound like crap right now. If only I could get the owner to realize I know what I'm doing, and let me have a go at that theaters sound. I would double his business. They are running everything with Peavy amps . They got rid of there BIG Western Electric tube amps *BIG MISTAKE* . I wish I could have got my hands on those, I think they may have thrown them away . Tell ya what, when they had the WE's hooked up to the system, and everything was in phase. OH! what a sweet sound, bring's tears to my eye's . The VOT A7's are built for great sound in an entire theater environment. There isn't a bad seat in the house. Here's why: The VOT A7's are a combination of a port for nearfield, and a horn for longer throw. Makes everybody happy that is watching the movie. I am a big fan of the Altec Lansing VOT speakers. Thanks for letting me vent...

[Storm]

Loud -

Find yourself a home version of the VOTT and you will be in heaven.

I have the 846U which is a home version of the VOTT and I could not be happier. They are hooked up to my receiver and I use them everyday - movies, Tivo, and music.

Before you know it, there won't be any around or the prices will be high. Grab a pair now for under $1500 and you will never have to buy another pair of speakers in your life!

-Storm

[Cyclotronguy]

Colfax, California; Colfax Theater. Very old and small movie house, Vitavox era equipment in the lobby.... now up to date with the best house sound system the 1950's had to offer.

Took the family there for the last "Star Wars" opening. Went late at night, sound was way better than that at the brand new ciniplex. Vocal were clear and articulate... good extension.... highs were adequate for movie soundtracks.

With all due respect to Widget, who can hear and shows excellent taste in everything I've seen him do (picks a great place for lunch too).....I'm guessing the implementation is all in the details.

Cyclotronguy

[Loud & Clear]

Colfax, California; Colfax Theater. Very old and small movie house, Vitavox era equipment in the lobby.... now up to date with the best house sound system the 1950's had to offer.

Took the family there for the last "Star Wars" opening. Went late at night, sound was way better than that at the brand new ciniplex. Vocal were clear and articulate... good extension.... highs were adequate for movie soundtracks.

With all due respect to Widget, who can hear and shows excellent taste in everything I've seen him do (picks a great place for lunch too).....I'm guessing the implementation is all in the details.

Cyclotronguy

Yep! Those old theater Craftsmen, were not looking at the dollar like we do today. They designed things Right, and with pride. Even those older theaters were a Masterpiece in design. The one we have here in town is Awesome. I've always wished, that one day I could own it. Imagine the audio tinkering you could do. I'd try for a full house every night. If not every night, every weekend. My hat is off to the Ole' Boy's that did it Right...

[Mr. Widget]

With all due respect to Widget, who can hear and shows excellent taste in everything I've seen him do (picks a great place for lunch too).....I'm guessing the implementation is all in the details.

Thanks...

With all due respect to the mighty A-7... I am sure that the Lumiere had pretty awful implementation.... for one thing, I knew I was listening to an A-7 because it was in the first row of seats!


Widget

[Loud & Clear]

Thanks...

With all due respect to the mighty A-7... I am sure that the Lumiere had pretty awful implementation.... for one thing, I knew I was listening to an A-7 because it was in the first row of seats!


Widget

Put garbage in, and garbage comes out. Perhaps, like here in my town. They replaced the good amps etc. With equipment from a crackerjack box...

[louped garouv]

Loud -

Find yourself a home version of the VOTT and you will be in heaven.

I have the 846U which is a home version of the VOTT and I could not be happier.

http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/.../1980-vott.htm


I too really dig the sound of old ALtecs, but are the 846s really considered VOTT?

I thought the only VOTT cabinet ALtec Marketed for home use was the Magnificent...

RE: the 846s
are the components of the same era & type, yes
were they ever called VOTT by the factory, ??? I dunno....

but had thought that the VOTT line was typically named things like:
A1, A5, A7, A8, etc.... with whatever variation giving an idea of the specific load/crossover components...

[Steve Schell]

I have a sad story, one I think I have told on the forum before. I work monthly in a small town up in the mountains. There is a small theatre that has been in the same location since 1953. It had a simple single speaker sound system. I asked the proprietors, two sisters, and was told that their dad had said the speaker had been there since 1953 and was an Altec. I asked them one time if I could see the speaker and they gave me a key to the rear entrance, a hatch accessed from a ladder. When I opened it up I found the entrance sealed with plastic; they had gotten a new screen a couple of years earlier and the installers had likely done this. I didn't want to disturb the weather seal, so never did see the speaker. It was probably a model 800 or early A7 VOTT.

I had always marveled at the sound of that speaker. Not much bandwidth on either end, but very good clarity and superb intelligibility of speech- best I ever heard in a movie theatre. Following the dialog in a movie was effortless.

A couple of years ago I visited the town and noticed that the theatre looked all fixed up. When I went to the movies that night I learned that there were new owners who had poured a bunch of money into "improvements." There was a new surround sound speaker system, which sounded too loud, confusing and had flabby bass and titanium highs- yuck. After the movie I asked about the old speaker and was told that it had been moved to the parking lot out back, sat out in the rain and snow for a couple of months until someone asked if they could have it.

So the little Altec performed flawlessly and probably without service for fifty years until it was hauled outside and discarded as refuse. Lovely.

[slxrti]

About 15 years ago I heard a pair in a small theater @ great america.
It was Dynamic with plenty of bass. Very impressive.

slxrti

[SEAWOLF97]

went to TGIF for lunch. They had some small BOSE speakers on brackets near the ceiling. They sounded even worse than normal blose speakers.
Took a look. they were turned inward , grills touching the wall. Kinda kills the highs (if there ever were any)

[CONVERGENCE]

I was lucky to see the Wind Jammer in Cinerama on a 90 foot curved screen equiped with 5 A-2X . That's 2 Cell horns with 2 drivers each on top of the front loaded basss horns. Then the next best films were The Sting, Cabaret, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and The Sound Of Music . These were shown on 70mm with A-4 ,3 behind the screen.

I saw Moulin Rouge on JBL in a THX certified cinema. Someting wrong here
1: To Loud; 2 Vocals not as clear as on A-2 .

The large frame film is making a slow comeback . To be cost effective there needs to be 300 cinemas.

THe new equipment will be available in 48FPS or 24FPS. At 48FPS one can sit anny were in the cinema and have a spectacular view.

As for the venerable VOTT . These cinema's have all closed in the late 80's to early 90's. Perhaps one of the major reason was Suburbia. New Megaplex cinema's had to be built were there were none .

The last film on VOTT was "FINAL ANALYSIS" in a small theatre equiped with Altec surrounds and most probably Altec A-5 behind the screen. The A-7 Were not a common theatre speaker for some bad experiences but that is another long story.

.................................................. .......................

[mikebake]

I have a sad story, one I think I have told on the forum before. I work monthly in a small town up in the mountains. There is a small theatre that has been in the same location since 1953. It had a simple single speaker sound system. I asked the proprietors, two sisters, and was told that their dad had said the speaker had been there since 1953 and was an Altec. I asked them one time if I could see the speaker and they gave me a key to the rear entrance, a hatch accessed from a ladder. When I opened it up I found the entrance sealed with plastic; they had gotten a new screen a couple of years earlier and the installers had likely done this. I didn't want to disturb the weather seal, so never did see the speaker. It was probably a model 800 or early A7 VOTT.

I had always marveled at the sound of that speaker. Not much bandwidth on either end, but very good clarity and superb intelligibility of speech- best I ever heard in a movie theatre. Following the dialog in a movie was effortless.

A couple of years ago I visited the town and noticed that the theatre looked all fixed up. When I went to the movies that night I learned that there were new owners who had poured a bunch of money into "improvements." There was a new surround sound speaker system, which sounded too loud, confusing and had flabby bass and titanium highs- yuck. After the movie I asked about the old speaker and was told that it had been moved to the parking lot out back, sat out in the rain and snow for a couple of months until someone asked if they could have it.

So the little Altec performed flawlessly and probably without service for fifty years until it was hauled outside and discarded as refuse. Lovely.

You are polite and respectful, I am more insistent; I'd have opened the hatch, and resealed correctly if necessary. I would have HAD to know what was in there.