Altec 805B Multicell Horn
Eight cells, 40° by 80° of controlled coverage, and a price tag that put it squarely in the professional market. Altec sold the horn to theaters and broadcasters, and audiophiles later adopted it for their living rooms.
Overview
Altec's 1976 industrial price list quoted the 805B at $264.00, sold "less throat." The buyer supplied the 30162 throat adaptor and the compression driver separately. It was a professional component, not a consumer accessory, and Altec listed it under Industrial Sound Products rather than the home hi-fi line. The horn was built in the United States and configured as eight cells in a 2x4 arrangement. It's a multicell design meant to spread midrange and high frequencies evenly across a wide room instead of beaming them at a single seat.
Altec rates the 805B at 40° vertical by 80° horizontal. Its low-frequency limit is 500 Hz, higher than the 300 Hz ceiling of the larger 803B and 1003B. That means the 805B was meant to sit above a dedicated midrange or bass system rather than carry the lower midrange itself. The 1976 catalog lists the dimensions at 17½ inches wide by 24½ inches tall by 13 inches deep, which converts to the 45 cm × 62 cm × 33 cm the metric column shows. It's a substantial piece of hardware, designed to be mounted above a bass cabinet and aimed at an audience.
The 805B is not a standalone speaker. It has no crossover, no cabinet, and no driver of its own. It is a horn, an array of eight small throats that couples a compression driver to the air, and its job is to control where the sound goes. Altec's own literature describes the design as minimizing reflection off walls, floor, and ceiling and focusing output toward the listening area. In a theater or a hall, that is what a system designer wants. In a living room it is a different proposition, and that is why the 805B has such a specific following among horn enthusiasts rather than general collectors.
Key Features
Eight-Cell Multicell Array in a 2x4 Layout
The 805B's defining trait is its cell count and arrangement. Eight individual cells, laid out two high and four across, each with its own throat, work together to shape the wavefront. That is the multicell approach, and it gives these horns their controlled dispersion: sound spreads evenly across a wide horizontal arc while the vertical window stays tight. The 40° vertical by 80° horizontal pattern is the result. It gives wide left-to-right coverage for a seated audience, and it is narrow enough top-to-bottom to avoid dumping energy into the ceiling and floor.
Owners report that the cells are covered with an acoustic coating that dampens them. The detail comes up in French-language collector forums, where users note the coating's presence and, in at least one for-sale listing, its partial loss. Check the coating on any example, because it is part of how the horn is supposed to behave, and a horn with the coating flaking off has not been stored well.
500 Hz Crossover and the 30162 Throat
The 805B's rated low-frequency limit is 500 Hz, which places it firmly in the midrange and up. That is the territory where a multicell horn earns its keep, and it is why the 805B was never intended to run full-range. Altec's 1976 catalog specifies the 30162 throat adaptor as the required coupling. The horn was sold without it, and a complete example today should have one. The adaptor is the mechanical interface between the horn and the compression driver, and its absence is one of the first things to check when evaluating a used pair. Audio Asylum Trader listings for the 805B routinely specify whether the 30162 adaptors are included, so buyers clearly care about that detail.
Designed for the 288 Family of Compression Drivers
The 805B is commonly paired with Altec's 288 compression drivers, and the 288-8G and 288-16G are the two models most often cited. An auction listing for a single 805B describes it with an attached 16-ohm Model 288-16G driver, a pairing that shows up repeatedly in the used market. The 288 is a large-format driver with an aluminum diaphragm and an AlNiCo magnet. It produces the sound; the 805B determines where that sound goes. A "pair of 805B horns" in a listing may or may not include drivers, and the price difference between horn-only and horn-plus-driver is substantial.
Molded Construction and Controlled Dispersion
Altec's own description of the design cites molded construction as a means of improving linearity and power handling. The horn's cell configuration is engineered to minimize sound reflection to walls, floor, and ceiling, focusing output toward the listening area. A multicell horn exists to control dispersion in a way a simple cone or a single-cell horn cannot. The 805B's 40° by 80° pattern comes out of that engineering, and the horn turns up in installations where coverage had to be predictable: theaters, concert halls, and outdoor public address systems.
Historical Context
The 805B was built for professional audio environments - theaters, concert halls, and outdoor public address systems - and Altec's 1976 literature lists it alongside the 803B, 1003B, 1005B, and 1505B as part of the company's multicell horn lineup. Each model in that family offered a different coverage pattern, so a system designer could choose a horn by dispersion rather than by guesswork. The 805B's 40° by 80° pattern sat between the narrower 803B at 35° by 70° and the wider 1005B at 40° by 100°. That gave installers a middle option for rooms that needed broad but not extreme horizontal coverage.
Collectors note that the "B" suffix distinguishes the 805B from the base 805, and that the B version turns up more frequently in the used market. The 805B also appears in documented Altec system builds. One listed system pairs it with a 288C compression driver, a 515B woofer, and an N500F network in what is described as an A5 Voice of the Theatre configuration. That is the context in which most 805Bs were originally used: as the high-frequency section of a larger, multi-component system, not as a standalone speaker.
Collectibility & Value
The 805B is considered highly collectible, earning an 8/10 on the vintage audio collectibility scale, and value depends heavily on condition, originality, and accompanying components. The horn is a passive component. There is no voice coil to burn out, no capacitor to leak, no diaphragm to fatigue, so the failure modes are mostly cosmetic and mechanical. The acoustic coating on the cells is the most commonly reported condition issue; at least one for-sale listing describes a horn as healthy but with the coating compound partially off. Bent or dented cells, missing throat adaptors, and corrosion on the mounting hardware are the other things to inspect.
A pair of 805-B horns with 30162 throat adaptors sold for $1,295.00 in excellent but not mint condition. eBay listings for pairs of 805B horns, most described as suitable for use with Altec 288 drivers, have appeared at $1,499, $1,200, $1,200, and $1,200, with one listing noting that no adaptors are included. A single unit with an attached 288-16G driver sold at auction on March 24, 2019, though the sale price for that unit is not documented. The spread between horn-only pairs and horn-plus-driver sets is the single biggest variable, so confirm exactly what is included before buying.
Owners note the 805B's impressive performance even by modern standards, and it is often praised in listening contexts where clarity and projection are critical. It has been used with single-ended triode amplifiers - 300B, 45, and 2A3 types - a pairing that makes sense given the horn's high efficiency. One reviewer, writing about the 805B paired with a 288-8G driver, described the combination as an entertaining and enjoyable listening experience while noting a slight horn coloration that masks some overall clarity and some masking of soundstage depth. The horns project with authority and dynamics, but they are not neutral, and anyone expecting a modern studio monitor's flat response will be surprised. A contemporary account in Audio-Express (March 2002, p.22) recommends combining the 805B with the 288-8K driver and an ES subwoofer for outstanding sound.
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