Altec Lansing 828B (1955–?)

A 102 dB enclosure that turned a single 15-inch woofer and a compression horn into one of the loudest, most articulate two-ways ever built for a living room.

Overview

The Altec Lansing 828B is rated at 102 dB with one watt at one meter. That is enough to make a single-digit-watt tube amplifier sound like a small PA. Altec introduced it in 1955, developed through the middle of that decade, and marketed it as a two-way, bass-reflex loudspeaker for both professional monitoring and high-end home playback. Only a handful of mid-century American designs pulled off that dual identity. The trapezoidal cabinet, the angled baffle and the rear-firing port all served one goal: getting a 15-inch paper-cone woofer and a compression driver to behave like one instrument.

The numbers are what make the 828B interesting. A 16-ohm nominal impedance makes it an easy load for the high-impedance tube gear of its era. The crossover is a passive first-order design set at approximately 1,200 Hz. That is a low split for a two-way, and it lets the 15-inch driver carry a lot of the midrange before handing off. High-frequency response is quoted up to around 16 kHz. The cabinet measures 42 inches tall, 30 inches wide and 24 inches deep. It's big, but not the refrigerator-sized monster some Voice of the Theatre systems became.

Altec's own documentation from the period lists the 828B as a low-frequency horn enclosure carrying a single 15-inch driver. The company's 1976 product sheets show it used under the A5X and A7-8 systems, paired with the 515B or 416-8B woofer and topped with an 811B or 1505B horn. So the 828B wasn't sold as a finished speaker in every configuration. It was a building block, and a lot of what people call an "828B" today is an 828B cabinet with whatever drivers the original owner dropped into it. The driver complement varies from unit to unit in ways the cabinet never did. Contemporary classified listings, such as those in Audio (April 1975, p.71), show that Marantz, Fisher, and other vintage tube tuner and amplifier gear of the sort commonly paired with high-efficiency Altec systems kept circulating on the used market well into the mid-1970s.

Key Features

The Trapezoidal Bass-Reflex Cabinet

The shape is the first thing you notice. Altec engineered the trapezoidal profile to reduce internal standing waves and cabinet resonance. The front baffle is angled slightly to help with time alignment between the drivers, which also tightens stereo imaging when a pair is used together. The cabinet is internally braced, lined with acoustic damping material, and built from 24 mm plywood. Finish is usually described as walnut veneer, though at least one European source lists an ash veneer variant, so confirm what a given pair actually wears. The bass reflex port fires out the back, so the 828B wants clearance behind it. Pushed against a wall, the low end gets thick and the midrange loses the openness the design was built around.

515-8G Woofer: 15 Inches, 3-Inch Voice Coil

The low-frequency section is built around the Altec 515-8G, a 15-inch paper-cone woofer with a large magnet structure and a 3-inch voice coil, rated at 25 watts program. That looks modest until you factor in the sensitivity. At 102 dB (1W/1m), the 828B doesn't need watts, it needs clean ones. The 515-8G traces its lineage to Altec's Voice of the Theatre series, which was designed for cinema sound systems where reliability and high output were non-negotiable. In the 828B, owners describe the bass as tight, fast and well-integrated for a speaker of its era. It is not the deep, subwoofer-style extension modern listeners might expect.

802B Compression Driver on an Exponential Horn

Up top sits the Altec 802B, a 2-inch titanium diaphragm compression driver mounted on a large exponential horn. It's often called "the screamer," and the nickname is affectionate. The 802B is famous for high sensitivity and dynamic punch, and it's one of the drivers that defined what people mean when they talk about the Altec midrange. Response extends up to around 16 kHz. The 802B is a driver, not a fixed part of the 828B. Different 828B systems shipped with different high-frequency complements, depending on which complete speaker they were built into.

First-Order Crossover at 1,200 Hz

The crossover is a passive, first-order network set at approximately 1,200 Hz, using paper capacitors and air-core inductors — period-correct parts that are also the most likely restoration candidates today. A first-order slope is gentle, and that gentleness is a big part of the 828B's character: it preserves phase coherence and minimizes signal loss, which is why the speaker sounds open and transparent rather than clinical. Modern listeners accustomed to steeper slopes may find the transition between drivers more audible than they expect, but that transition is also where a lot of the 828B's personality lives.

Historical Context

Altec Lansing introduced the 828B in 1955. American audio engineering was at a peak of confidence then, with high-efficiency, high-sensitivity designs built for professional rooms and later adopted by home listeners who wanted the same thing at lower volumes. The 828B was originally marketed as a professional monitor, and it found its way into radio broadcast studios, recording facilities and movie theaters. Its ability to reproduce speech with clarity and presence made it a favorite for voice monitoring. Over time it migrated into high-fidelity home systems, often paired with McIntosh, Fisher, or Marantz tube receivers from the 1950s and 1960s. That was a natural match, since the 828B's high sensitivity lets low-power tube amplifiers produce substantial volume without strain.

Know the 828B's place in the Altec line before buying. Altec's own 1976 product sheets show it as the low-frequency cabinet under the A5X and A7-8 systems. DIY plans for the enclosure were redrawn from Altec drawing 3D483-03, dated 17 March 1972, and those plans appear to have been used to build at least one documented pair of A7-500 speakers date-stamped November 1976. The cabinet also appears alongside the 825B in some listings, though the exact relationship between the two isn't documented in the sources available here. What's clear is that the 828B was a modular component in a larger system, not a sealed product.

Collectibility & Value

The 828B remains in demand, and original units in good condition can command high prices on the vintage audio market. Condition is the catch. The foam or cloth surrounds on the woofers and the crossover capacitors are the two areas most likely to need attention. Surrounds degrade, and paper capacitors drift. Re-coning services are available from specialized vintage speaker repair shops, and many enthusiasts upgrade the crossover components with modern equivalents while preserving the original sonic character. That's a reasonable compromise if the originals are too far gone. Complete pairs do surface occasionally. One Japanese dealer listed a pair of 828B enclosures as sold, and an active auction listing for an original pair has appeared on Yahoo Auctions. Specific market prices aren't documented here. The eBay search results for "828B" are dominated by Sony television parts that share the model string, so search by "Altec 828" or "Altec A7" instead.