Altec Biflex (c. 1955–1959)

The Altec Biflex survives in the historical record mainly through its advertising. Little else is documented - no service literature, no measured reviews, no confirmed production dates. What the record shows is a line of single-cone loudspeakers built around a principle Altec called "multiple concentric compliances." The cone was split into two segments joined by a flexible connection. Altec claimed this gave smoother, more extended response than any other single-cone speaker. The claim appeared in the company's ads in Audio (November 1956, p.14) and High Fidelity (November 1955, p.91). The latter insisted the Biflex outperformed anything else at a comparable price.

The one model with real numbers in the ads is the 415A, guaranteed at 30-14,000 cps. Pricing drifted between ads. It was $63.00 in Audio (January 1958, p.85) and High Fidelity (December 1957, p.42), then rose to $67.00 in High Fidelity (March 1958, p.15). A 412B appears alongside the 415A in the same advertisements, but no specifications for it survive in the available record.

This is a real Altec model family from the mid-to-late 1950s, promoted heavily and documented thinly since. Anyone holding a surviving 415A, 412B, or original period literature could fill in the record.