Altec Lansing 843A "Malibu"
Surviving information on the Altec Lansing 843A "Malibu" is thin but real: one period lab review, a few full-page ads, and a clear sense of what Altec was trying to do with it. The 843A was a full-range speaker system in a large enclosure - 40 by 25 by 18 inches - priced at $356. Altec's ads from late 1964 through early 1965 pitched it as the home-friendly member of the professional "Voice of the Theatre" family. It had the same speaker components as the big theatre systems, now "fully clothed" in a finished cabinet for the living room. An ad in Audio (December 1964, p.32) made exactly that pitch.
High Fidelity (June 1965, p.59) actually tested one. The reviewer found that the Malibu handled a rather large room well. It responded cleanly and evenly down to 35 cps at better-than-normal listening levels, with what seemed to be a gentle slope at the bottom end. The rolloff below 40 cps only became apparent when abnormal amounts of power were fed to the system. The same speaker elements were also offered in a monitor-type housing as the Model 844A, at 31 by 24 by 16 inches and $327.
Beyond those period pieces, the record goes quiet. The 843A appears in a handful of Altec ads between November 1964 and March 1965. The High Fidelity review is the only detailed test that survives, and little else about its production run is documented.
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