Altec in general? Nostalgic, but not inherently superior. Impressive physically, but equaled in performance by modern production of comparable quality. Worth the money? Hard to say when you have to trade around to get parts that aren't beat to death - fragile, right-angled diaphragm leads being a huge problem.

The two way speaker? I'm back to a horn-over-reflex 2-way that really makes me happy right now. The elusive midbass slam is back. Brass sounds like brass, brushed drums sound "scratchy". I think Lansing's Iconic was probably the right idea after all, but... that will last until I'm off on something else again. But for right now I'm considering building a nice pair of cabinets for the current components - put in some effort instead of my usual quick-and-dirty.

• Today's Nirvana