Altec Lansing
Encyclopedia
Altec Lansing is a line of professional, home, automotive, computer, and multimedia audio products first developed in 1936. They were used in many studios as monitor speakers. Altec Lansing loudspeakers were used in the sound system for the Woodstock Festival
in 1969.
The current incarnation of the company, called Altec Lansing Technologies, is an OEM supplier to many computer makers such as Asus
, Dell, Compaq
, Hewlett-Packard
, and Gateway.
's Western Electric
established a division for the specific purpose of installing and servicing their loudspeakers and electronic products for motion picture use. Called "E.R.P.I." (Electrical Research Products, Inc.), it was purchased as part of a consent decree in 1936 by a group of E.R.P.I. executives, including George Carrington, Sr. and Mike Conrow. They changed the name to "All Technical Service Company".
The All Technical Service Company purchased the nearly bankrupt Lansing Manufacturing Company (named after its founder James B. Lansing
) and melded the two names, forming the Altec Lansing Corporation on May 1, 1941. James Lansing went on to found the James B. Lansing Company (JBL
), another manufacturer of high-quality professional loudspeakers , which competed with Altec. The first Altec Lansing power amplifier, Model 142B, was produced that same year.
Altec produced a line of professional and high-fidelity audio equipment, starting with a line of horn-based loudspeaker systems. First developed for use in motion picture theaters, these products were touted for their fidelity, efficiency and high sound level capability. Products included "biflex" speakers where frequency range was increased by a flexible "decoupling" of a small center area of the speaker's cone from a larger "woofer
" area; the 604-series of coaxial speakers
employed a high efficiency compression driver mounted to the rear of the 604's low-frequency magnet, and exited through a multicellular horn that passed through center of the woofer's cone. An updated version of this speaker is still being built today by Great Plains Audio in Oklahoma City using the original Altec tooling.
They also made the Voice of the Theatre systems. The smallest of these, the A-7, used a medium-sized sectoral metal horn for high frequencies which featured dividers (sectors) to provide control sound dispersion, plus a medium-sized wooden low-frequency enclosure, which functioned as a hybrid bass-horn/bass-reflex enclosure. The most often used Voice Of The Theatre system was the A-4, many of which are still in use in motion picture theaters today. The efficiency of all of these products originally provided high sound pressure levels from the limited amplifier power available at the time, but it was also found to contribute to overall sound fidelity due to the minimal induced levels of distortion contributed by the loudspeakers themselves.
The early products were revised and enhanced over time with the addition of rubberized speaker surrounds and other modern features. Altec speakers remained in use well into the '70s.
The original main Voice Of The Theatre series of loudspeaker systems consisted of the Altec A-1, A-2, A-4, and the A-5. The A-7,and A-8 were designed for smaller venues.
purchased the Altec Corporation from the ailing George Carrington, Sr., in 1958. By the time he spun them off in 1974, his company, LTV
-Ling-Altec, had assimilated a great deal of bad debt, which went with the Altec Corporation (established in 1964) as part of the spinoff. In 1984, Gulton, Inc., purchased the Altec Sound Products Division from the Altec Corporation, which was operating under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, due to difficulties paying off debts incurred when they were spun off by LTV Ling-Altec in 1974. Included with the purchase were the tooling, parts and product inventories, distributor network, designs, patents, and assets of the Sound Products Division of Altec Lansing. The motion picture theater sound installation and repair business, Altec Service Co., the descendant of E.R.P.I., was sold to J. Bruce Waddell, then Head of Altec Service, and Robert V. Gandolfi, who was their Comptroller at the time. They established it as A.S.C. Technical Services in Richardson, Texas.
The Altec Lansing Corporation was formed by Gulton as part of the purchase, and headquartered in Oklahoma City, the site of the University Sound factory built by Jimmy Ling when he moved there from White Plains, New York. Altec Lansing had relocated there prior to the Gulton purchase in an effort to reduce operating costs, selling their Anaheim, California facilities.
Altec Lansing Corporation enjoyed a brief resurgence within the professional audio industry from the middle 1980s until 1995, when Telex, who had purchased Altec Lansing's parent company, EVI Audio, Inc., in 1997, consolidated all of their electronics manufacturing facilities into one location in Minnesota. By 1998, the original Altec Lansing was gone.
Through a series of negotiations, ALT was able to acquire the "Duplex" trademark labelling the 604 loudspeakers.
The actual entity called Altec Lansing was never sold by Telex/EVI. All other claims notwithstanding, THE Altec Lansing company no longer exists - only the brand names do.
. The center focused on advanced multimedia technologies such as USB audio, surround sound and wireless audio. The center was closed in 2001 and the development activities moved to the Milford PA headquarters.
for approximately $166 million dollars.
Product lines include the inMotion Series-Etymotic Exclusive (2005), the Upgrader Series-Ultimate Ears Exclusive (2006), and both the Muszx and Backbeat Series introduced in 2009.
to be much like the ER-4 series headphones. The inMotion 716 and 616 looked and performed much like their Etymotic cousins but were marketed toward the average listener looking to replace their free bundled portable earbuds with higher-performance earphones. The eartips used were the same style as the ER-4 and ER-6 series with some minor adjustments to fit the iM716/616. The iM716 and im616 contained some Etymotic-made parts but were not identical to an ER-4.
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
in 1969.
The current incarnation of the company, called Altec Lansing Technologies, is an OEM supplier to many computer makers such as Asus
ASUS
ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated is a multinational computer technology and consumer electronics product manufacturer headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Its product range includes motherboards, desktops, laptops, monitors, tablet PCs, servers and mobile phones...
, Dell, Compaq
Compaq
Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....
, Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, and Gateway.
Conception and Early Products
In 1928, AT&TAT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
's Western Electric
Western Electric
Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...
established a division for the specific purpose of installing and servicing their loudspeakers and electronic products for motion picture use. Called "E.R.P.I." (Electrical Research Products, Inc.), it was purchased as part of a consent decree in 1936 by a group of E.R.P.I. executives, including George Carrington, Sr. and Mike Conrow. They changed the name to "All Technical Service Company".
The All Technical Service Company purchased the nearly bankrupt Lansing Manufacturing Company (named after its founder James B. Lansing
James Bullough Lansing
- Early years :He was born in 14 January 1902, in Greenridge, Nilwood Township, Macoupin County, Illinois to parents Henry Martini of St. Louis, Missouri and Grace Erbs Martini of Central City, Illinois. His father was a coal mining engineer which meant the family moved around quite a bit in James'...
) and melded the two names, forming the Altec Lansing Corporation on May 1, 1941. James Lansing went on to found the James B. Lansing Company (JBL
JBL
JBL is an American audio electronics company currently owned by Harman International. It was founded in 1946 by James Bullough Lansing. Their primary products are loudspeakers and associated electronics. There are two independent divisions within the company — JBL Consumer and JBL Professional...
), another manufacturer of high-quality professional loudspeakers , which competed with Altec. The first Altec Lansing power amplifier, Model 142B, was produced that same year.
Altec produced a line of professional and high-fidelity audio equipment, starting with a line of horn-based loudspeaker systems. First developed for use in motion picture theaters, these products were touted for their fidelity, efficiency and high sound level capability. Products included "biflex" speakers where frequency range was increased by a flexible "decoupling" of a small center area of the speaker's cone from a larger "woofer
Woofer
Woofer is the term commonly used for a loudspeaker driver designed to produce low frequency sounds, typically from around 40 hertz up to about a kilohertz or higher. The name is from the onomatopoeic English word for a dog's bark, "woof"...
" area; the 604-series of coaxial speakers
Coaxial speakers
A coaxial loudspeaker is a loudspeaker system in which the individual driver units radiate sound from the same point or axis. Two general types exist: one is a compact design using two or three speaker drivers, usually in car audio, and the other is a two-way high-power design for professional...
employed a high efficiency compression driver mounted to the rear of the 604's low-frequency magnet, and exited through a multicellular horn that passed through center of the woofer's cone. An updated version of this speaker is still being built today by Great Plains Audio in Oklahoma City using the original Altec tooling.
They also made the Voice of the Theatre systems. The smallest of these, the A-7, used a medium-sized sectoral metal horn for high frequencies which featured dividers (sectors) to provide control sound dispersion, plus a medium-sized wooden low-frequency enclosure, which functioned as a hybrid bass-horn/bass-reflex enclosure. The most often used Voice Of The Theatre system was the A-4, many of which are still in use in motion picture theaters today. The efficiency of all of these products originally provided high sound pressure levels from the limited amplifier power available at the time, but it was also found to contribute to overall sound fidelity due to the minimal induced levels of distortion contributed by the loudspeakers themselves.
The early products were revised and enhanced over time with the addition of rubberized speaker surrounds and other modern features. Altec speakers remained in use well into the '70s.
The original main Voice Of The Theatre series of loudspeaker systems consisted of the Altec A-1, A-2, A-4, and the A-5. The A-7,and A-8 were designed for smaller venues.
Altec Service Co. and Altec Lansing Professional audio products
James LingJames Ling
James "Jimmy" J. Ling , from Hugo, Oklahoma, was a US businessman and former head of Ling-Temco-Vought corporation. While at its helm Ling used LTV funds to purchase a large number of corporations, and was one of the more famous of the 1960s conglomerate managers...
purchased the Altec Corporation from the ailing George Carrington, Sr., in 1958. By the time he spun them off in 1974, his company, LTV
Ling-Temco-Vought
Ling-Temco-Vought was a large U.S. conglomerate which existed from 1969 to 2000. At its peak, its component parts were involved in the aerospace industry, electronics, steel manufacturing, sporting goods, the airline industry, meat packing, car rentals and pharmaceuticals, among other...
-Ling-Altec, had assimilated a great deal of bad debt, which went with the Altec Corporation (established in 1964) as part of the spinoff. In 1984, Gulton, Inc., purchased the Altec Sound Products Division from the Altec Corporation, which was operating under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, due to difficulties paying off debts incurred when they were spun off by LTV Ling-Altec in 1974. Included with the purchase were the tooling, parts and product inventories, distributor network, designs, patents, and assets of the Sound Products Division of Altec Lansing. The motion picture theater sound installation and repair business, Altec Service Co., the descendant of E.R.P.I., was sold to J. Bruce Waddell, then Head of Altec Service, and Robert V. Gandolfi, who was their Comptroller at the time. They established it as A.S.C. Technical Services in Richardson, Texas.
The Altec Lansing Corporation was formed by Gulton as part of the purchase, and headquartered in Oklahoma City, the site of the University Sound factory built by Jimmy Ling when he moved there from White Plains, New York. Altec Lansing had relocated there prior to the Gulton purchase in an effort to reduce operating costs, selling their Anaheim, California facilities.
Altec Lansing Corporation enjoyed a brief resurgence within the professional audio industry from the middle 1980s until 1995, when Telex, who had purchased Altec Lansing's parent company, EVI Audio, Inc., in 1997, consolidated all of their electronics manufacturing facilities into one location in Minnesota. By 1998, the original Altec Lansing was gone.
Sparkomatic acquires trademarks
In 2000, the Altec Lansing Professional division was closed by the Telex corporation and Altec Lansing Technologies (formerly Sparkomatic), purchased the rights to the following trademarks:- Altec
- Lansing
- Altec Lansing
- Voice of the Theatre
- Voice of the Highway
Through a series of negotiations, ALT was able to acquire the "Duplex" trademark labelling the 604 loudspeakers.
The actual entity called Altec Lansing was never sold by Telex/EVI. All other claims notwithstanding, THE Altec Lansing company no longer exists - only the brand names do.
Altec Lansing Professional makes brief return to market
The Altec Lansing Professional line was relaunched in 2002 by Altec Lansing Technologies using former executives of the old Oklahoma City-based Altec Lansing Corporation, but it did not fare well. Reduced to being a supplier of off-shore built high-fidelity ceiling loudspeakers and associated electronics, Altec Lansing Professional's Oklahoma City offices were closed in late 2006 and all remaining activities relocated to the Milford, Pennsylvania headquarters.ALT continues to expand
In 1996, Altec Lansing Multimedia established an R&D center in Kfar Sava, IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. The center focused on advanced multimedia technologies such as USB audio, surround sound and wireless audio. The center was closed in 2001 and the development activities moved to the Milford PA headquarters.
Acquisition by Plantronics
On July 11, 2005 Altec Lansing Technologies announced that it was to be acquired by PlantronicsPlantronics
Plantronics is an electronics company producing audio communications equipment for business and consumers. Its' products provide unified communications, mobile use, gaming and music...
for approximately $166 million dollars.
Company Redesign
On September 10, 2008. Altec Lansing went through a major company rebranding; the logo was changed from a "whirlpool" logo to the current logo based on the tip of a hat to the lines of a multi-cellular horn that Altec Lansing is proud of. The company's colors also changed from the traditional blue and white to gold and black.In-Ear Monitors/Earphones
Altec Lansing introduced their first line of earphones in 2003, including the inMotion brand Etymotic Exclusives, and later partnered with Ultimate ears in 2006-2007 to introduce another line of newer earphones. Altec Lansing later discontinued signing contracts with other companies, and instead introduced their earphones in 2008.Product lines include the inMotion Series-Etymotic Exclusive (2005), the Upgrader Series-Ultimate Ears Exclusive (2006), and both the Muszx and Backbeat Series introduced in 2009.
Partnership with Etymotic Research
Under the inMotion brand, Altec Lansing Technologies sold headphones that were created in partnership with Etymotic ResearchEtymotic Research
Etymotic Research is a United States audio company specializing in the research, design, and production of high fidelity in-ear products. It is notable for being one of the earliest and foremost manufacturers of canalphones for consumer use....
to be much like the ER-4 series headphones. The inMotion 716 and 616 looked and performed much like their Etymotic cousins but were marketed toward the average listener looking to replace their free bundled portable earbuds with higher-performance earphones. The eartips used were the same style as the ER-4 and ER-6 series with some minor adjustments to fit the iM716/616. The iM716 and im616 contained some Etymotic-made parts but were not identical to an ER-4.
Partnership with Ultimate Ears
In 2007, in partnership with Ultimate Ears and within the Upgrader Series of Altec Lansing's earphone and headphone category, Altec Lansing launched the UHP306 (based on the Ultimate Ears MetroFi 2 and MetroFi 200) and UHP336 (based on the Ultimate Ears SuperFi 3 Studio). After acquiring the technology and parts from Ultimate Ears, Altec Lansing made further modifications to the designs.Backbeat
In early 2009, Altec Lansing launched a new series of earphones called the "BackBeat Series", very similar to the 2008 models of Ultimate Ears MetroFi and at a similar price. Altec Lansing also offered the UHP906, which was a wireless noise-isolating set of earphones.External links
- Altec Lansing's Unofficial Homepage - Large library of vintage Altec literature.
- Altec Lansing User's Board - Discussion forum for users of vintage Altec Lansing products, including application techniques and other technical advice.
- Altec-Lansing Forum at Vintage Audio (Many classic scans)
- Altec Lansing History Another website with history and pictures of Altec Lansing.