The main fixture of our listening lounge is our horn loudspeaker system featuring vintage Altec Lansing components with the rest of the components subject to some change.

The story behind this approach to Hi-Fi reproduction begins in the cinemas of the golden era of film — 1920s to 1970s, the movie houses and auditoriums that often were built around these same components that have found new life in the boutique audio scenes in places like Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France in the 1970s and 80s as an abundance of equipment was decommissioned from theaters with the rise of Dolby and surround in the 1980s.

A horn-based speaker system is highly efficient, plays with very low distortion, and is capable of incredible dynamics. These attributes have created a cult-like following of audiophiles and music lovers all around the world who praise them for their ability to convey the emotional messages and impact of amazing recordings particularly from vinyl’s Golden age — 1950s to 1970s.

Our speaker cabinets probably began their life in a theater somewhere in Iowa. Altec calls this cabinet the 825 and each is loaded with an Altec 416 - 15” woofer.

The Muticellular horn model 1505b and compression driver 288 have a very special origin story.

In 2025 we acquired the Altec horn array from the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in downtown Des Moines. The pair of horns in use at our shop was the very same that the legendary groups of the 1970s and 1980s would have performed through!

The system is completed by hand-made crossovers from Germany, and a Fostex super tweeter from Japan.