The following links provide connections to sites with further
information related to Lansing Heritage or are favorite audio links of
this website's authors
James B. Lansing's legacy lives on strongest
in the company that bears his name. JBL maintains two web sites - one
devoted to their
consumer products
and
one devoted to
professional products.
Anyone interested in the legacy professional systems should check out
the
vintage products
page
at JBL Professional.
The parent company of JBL,
Harman
International, has a web presence with sections on all of their
current brands.
Harman Japan
is a more obscure site, but one of interest to anyone with a yearning
for products that maintain the legacy of the classic JBL systems. Japan
remains a viable market for classic horn speaker designs and JBL is
happy to supply that market with such current products as
4344MKII. The site is in Japanese, but the product illustrations are
worth checking out.
Altec Lansing Technologies
owns
the trade name rights to Altec. They were formerly known as Sparkomatic
before they purchased Altec's consumer division in 1982 and developed a
completely new product line that focused primarily on multimedia
products.. In 2000, they acquired the remaining trade name rights that
had been held by Altec Lansing Professional from
Telex Communications Inc. On
February 1, 2002, the
Altec Lansing
Professional
brand was relaunched as a division of Altec Lansing
Technologies.
There are a number of websites devoted to preserving the heritage of Altec.
Todd W. White runs
The Unofficial Homepage of Altec Lansing
that is
working to preserve the heritage of this storied company. Scott Pratt
runs the new
Voice of the
Theatre Homepage
that contains detailed product literature for a
number of classic Altec speakers. Sound Practices maintains a very
worthwhile
Altec
resource page. Lee Sound Design has opened a
fascinating photo archive of
classic Altec
Lansing pictures. If you are looking for a repair
facility that can work on virtually all of the vintage Altec
loudspeakers, check out
Great Plains Audio. It is run by a former Altec designer and
technician that owns much of the original tooling used in the production
of these systems.
A new development in 2003 is the
formation of a company dedicated to replicating and furthering the
technology embodied in classic Altec Lansing loudspeakers.
Iconic Manufacturing
has been founded by a number of former Altec sound contractors and
employees. They have access to the original tooling used in the
production of Altec speakers and are building on this to bring new
levels of performance to the classic designs.
Anyone interested in systems that update the vintage JBL designs of
the 1950's and 60's should check out
Classic Audio
Reproductions, and in particular their Hartsfield reproduction.
A French site is under development that tracks the progress of a
project to build a Hartsfield from scratch. Those interested in preserved examples of the classic home speakers of
the 40's and 50's can do no better than visiting
Kerry Brown's Vintage Audio Trader's Page. Tom
Brennan's Horn Loudspeaker and Home Theater Page
is a great place to
visit if you want to how one "Horny" has incorporated vintage speakers
into a home theatre system.
There are a number of interesting sites devoted to loudspeaker
history in general. Dr. Steven E. Schoenherr has a section of his
comprehensive website devoted to the
history of loudspeakers. This site also has a fascinating section
devoted to
motion picture sound. The UK based Association of Motion Picture
Sound has a page devoted to
movie
loudspeakers. Emory Straus has begun an
ambitious website
to document
the history of audio technology.
ProSoundweb
has a number of
history articles on Electro-Voice
here,
here
and
here.
There are a growing number of vintage
audio sites devoted to companies that were contemporaries of Altec
Lansing and JBL. Roger Russell maintains a detailed site that focuses
on his involvement in originating and developing
McIntosh Loudspeakers. The
Vintage H.H. Scott Hi-Fi
Stereo Archive
is an interesting heritage site devoted to another
audio pioneer. The legacy of
Dual turntables
is kept
alive at a site by Alen Moore. The history of
Phase Linear amplifiers and
speakers
is comprehensively documented at Anthony Young's site. Ben
Blish runs the
"Classic-Audio"
website
profiling vintage Marantz, Technics and Pioneer gear. For
product literature on a wide variety of vintage audio companies, there
is
Hifilit.com
run by Ken
Hagelthorn.
There are a number of sites where you
can join discussion groups that feature Lansing products. Of course you
should start with the
forum on this site
(Plug! Plug! Plug!). You'll find most of the "hornys" hang out at
the
Audio
Asylum High Efficiency Speaker forum. Todd White runs an
Altec forum
associated with his site.
AudioKarma
is a new forum site with a strong emphasis on vintage
audio, including speakers.
A promising new development for horn
lovers are regional clubs and audio fairs. Mike Baker hosts the
Midwest Audiofest
in Lima
Ohio and Tom Brennen (see above) is involved with the
Chicago Horn Speaker
Club's
Horn Bash.
For those who can read Japanese, you should check out the home page
of
Stereo Sound (Japan).
This magazine has documented the products and history of JBL better than
any other periodical. They have devoted entire issues to JBL and have
some of the best photo documentation of vintage JBL, Altec and Lansing
speakers. Anyone interested in obtaining issues of this magazine can
find contact information
here.