Altec 307
Little is documented about the Altec 307, or more precisely the 307A. What survives comes almost entirely from a single announcement in High-Fidelity (January 1959, p.23), which introduces it as an FM tuner priced at $96. The same basic ad appeared in several other periodicals through late 1958 and early 1959, including Audio (November 1958) and HiFI-Stereo (September 1958). Those earlier placements promoted a broader Altec stereo line and didn't detail the 307A specifically.
Altec pitched the tuner as a logical, no-frills entry. Practical engineering and efficient production kept the price down, and the circuitry used fewer components than typical designs, which Altec claimed meant fewer maintenance issues. It included between-station quieting, a muting feature then found mostly on costlier tuners, and was FCC-certified for radiation limits. Beyond those sparse facts, no specifications appear in the period record - no sensitivity, frequency response, channel separation or output level. No schematic, no service literature, and no user impressions have turned up in the Archive's research.
It isn't clear whether "307" denotes a chassis number, a preproduction designation, or a brief catalog listing before the 307A suffix became standard. The 307A exists largely as a two-inch ad column.
Known details:
- Model: 307A (FM tuner)
- Introduced: 1958; advertised through early 1959
- Original price: $96
- Features: between-station quieting; FCC certified
- Claimed service advantage: simplified circuitry with fewer components
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