A pair of Altec's most useful 12" woofers ... these hailing from the very late golden era of Altec in the 1970's -- before they switched over to ferrite (yes, these are real Alnico)... The C letter designation does not, indicate ceramic (at least for Altec)  -- that's a misnomer circulating these days --- the "C"  in this case, was the chronilogical progression from the "B" version of the 1960s. These C's have an extra wide accordian edge, allowing an even longer excursion for more power handling and more lower frequencies in program material.

This is a pair of low resonance 12 inch woofers... The 414 16C is the last update to Altec's supper efficient 414...finished in a solid cast aluminum, and black eggshell paint. The 414 16C's found excellent use in many famed Altec studio monitors. These C versions while still very, very efficient and easy to drive with medium powered tube amps -- are setup to produce the deepest bass, with the longest excursion of all the classic 414 woofers. If you want authentic woofers for 1960s era  Soul or 1970's Rock and Disco -- these should be your choice....Despite their bass excusion centric design, these are still accurate, detailed and well balanced woofers, with a nice Low free air resonance of under 40hz...making these the best deal of all the 414's for many applications.

 All throughout the 1960s and 70s .. the 414 graced all of Altec's best sounding single and twin woofer setups... like the Seville, Avalon, Malibu (which used the older 414B and Z) and the 9844 -- the later systems housed these nice black frame models -- 2 of these paired with an 811A (or 511) and was one of Altec's best ever sounding options, like the rare Model 12 (from the Stone Henge / Moon Lander era brochures) and  various custom Studio Monitors -- which were used to master some of the best recordings of the 1970s..

The cones and speakers play perfectly, centered OK, no rubs when pressed on center  -- they were swept 20- 20,000 hz, and I heard no problems.

Excellent, near mint cosmetics on both, truely the lovliest set I've seen in a long while.

The paper on both units is supple and nice, no tears or flaws I could find. These particular Altec 414's came from clean Studio Monitor, and were kept beautiful in tightly sealed cabinets, saw very little use, and always in climate control  -- are clean, very old and sound nice. 

The 414-16C is the much rarer 16ohm version -- not many of these out here, as most in the 70s were the "8C" which is 8ohm of course.

Original cones and 16 ohm edgewound, copper voice coils and original cones (see cone #'s in photo below).

Cosmetics of the cones are excellent (see exhibit B,C) the frames are of the black, half I casting type, indicating these are the redisgn from  late 1970s, and ceased production in the early 80s in favor of the lower cost ferrite. 

Speakers DCR unit #1 is 11.1 ohms, unit #2 is 14.5 ohms. Nominal impedance is 16 ohms for these, and unloaded on the bench they exhibit normal and expected behaviour with peak resonance in the 35 ~ 40hz region (see charts with Impedance vs Frequency curve). They sounded very nice.

 You've probably seen the 414 A, B and Z's  as well .. these 414 16C  less well known, as they were only used in the increasing rare home HiFi that Altec seldom sold during this period, as well as Studio Monitors that cost a fortune, and only used by studios with deep pockets...  The entire 414 lineup were excellent performers, thanks to the unsually heavy Alnico V magnet's that concentrated 10,000 gauss in the coil gap -- unusally high for any woofer -- and especially a 12". The powerful motor structure of the 414 gave it excellent dampening, for nice bass dynamics.

Fortuantely, these are all original cones -- reaping all the benefit of the classic quality of vintage Altec. These are fast and efficient woofers, they are not full range -- these will pair excellently with many varieties of high efficiency horns, like the Altec 802 / 811A, Jensen cone mids, Magnavox, JBL 175, and  even Electrovoice 8HDs. 

Check out Exhibit A,B & C -- you'll see what a nice pair this is.  These are perfect for your next 2 or 3-way high efficiency DiY project. 

The have been fully swept, down to 20 cyc -- to 20,000cyc….   

 Top-notch, as good function no rattles, no buzzes. 

Please seeing my 100%, five star feedback from happy overseas customers.

All speakers are professionally packed in heavy double box with full protection, and shipped out ASAP after payment has been received. These Altec 414 16C woofers are very heavy, 42lbs packed in strong double box, bolted face to face.

Give them a try, even though these don't have original Altec cones, they sound nice -- you won't be disappointed if you need good 12" woofer.

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