Altec Lansing 879A Santana (1970)

Name: Altec Lansing 879A Santana
Brand: Altec Lansing

A floor-standing sealed speaker system with bi-flex bass driver and exclusive tweeter, released in 1970.

Overview

The Altec Lansing 879A Santana is a floor-type speaker system released in 1970, notable for being Altec's first large sealed cabinet design. It uses a 38 cm special cone type driver (420A) for low frequencies and a 7.5 cm cone-type tweeter designed exclusively for this model. The system was originally sold in Japan with a walnut-finished cabinet and a hand-polished Mexican raw stone top plate in natural sooted black.

Specifications

Type	2-Way, 2-Speaker, Sealed Type, Floor Type
Units Used	For All Bands: 38 cm Special Cone Type (420A); For high pass: 7.5 cm cone type
Impedance	8 Ω
Frequency characteristic	35 Hz to 18 kHz
Lowest resonance frequency	27Hz
Allowable input	45W
Output sound pressure level	100dB/W (New JIS, 1m on axis)
Crossover frequency	2.5kHz
Enclosure Material	American Pine Plywood
External dimensions	Width 520 x Height 650 x Depth 430 mm
Weight	35kg

Design

The 879A features a 38 cm 420A bi-flex speaker with a dual-stiffness cone formed by a multi-damped corrugation, combining a large cone and a 16 cm diameter inner cone. A light alloy dome radiator covers the high-frequency range at the center of the cone. The voice coil is 75 mm in diameter, wound with aluminum ribbon wire in an edgewise configuration. The magnetic circuit uses a 4.9 kg Alnico V magnet producing 11,400 gauss, designed to avoid over-excitation for consistent performance. A strong aluminum die-cast frame minimizes distortion and resonance. The tweeter is a 7.5 cm cone-type direct radiator, designed exclusively for the Santana. The cabinet is an airtight floor-standing design made of American pine plywood, with a marble top plate—specifically hand-polished Mexican raw stone in black finish for the 879A.

Context

In Japan, four versions of the 879 series were sold: the Altec-original 879A and domestically made variants 879-TW, 879-TB, and 879-WG. The 879A had a walnut cabinet and natural sooted black marble top, while 879-TW featured a white marble top and cheek-finished cabinet, and 879-TB had misty black marble. The 879-WG was a custom model with jade green marble and an off-white cabinet.