genek

This Cambridge is a suburb of Boston in Massachusetts. Cambridge ARs would not be later models. OTOH, they appear to have particle board backs rather than plywood. Curiouser and curiouser.

Freek appears to be posting from Belgium, so even if the cabinets in question are of a wood whose name we know, the grain is likely to look different from what we would expect to see on a US AR. The side face pictured appears to have four slipmatched bands of veneer covering it, which means the veneer came from relatively young trees that would tend to produce straighter grained veneer (my late 60s 3a's have only two bands on their side faces, the veneer is more figured and is bookmatched). So we are most likely looking at Euro style cabinets produced fairly late in the game for 3a's. PS: the "ranking" is something that showed up in a recent forum SW update, and it appears to be based on member activity since the feature was added.

Teledyne acquired AR in 1967 and owned it for the last eight or nine years of the "classic" period. The AR-3a, 5, LST 1/2 and the 10pi and 11 that would take a hornless dome mid are all "Teledyne models." If I was making these, I'd lower the bottom end to reach down into the 500Hz range and make it possible to mount either the horn or the ring and screen to the front plate to create a "universal replacement."

AR speakers of the classic era were designed to deliver their best overall performance from a 2pi position (midway between ceiling and a standard 8ft celing, 4ft from corners, to produce a hemispherical output).

I was actually thinking about the wall behind the speakers.

Distance from the back wall is going to affect your bass response more than your mid and HFs. Best thing to do is try it. See how the toe-in affects your listening position and other locations in the room. If you never get up from your chair, my guess is you won't notice much of a difference, but if you walk around the room a lot you'll find that the "sweet spot" has become narrower.

Is the grain that straight on all the cabinet faces? Moisten the surface and post a pic of how that looks. It's possible that you have mahogany.

I acquired my 2ax's new in 1975. They were the last of the Norwood models with all backwired drivers, which probably makes them sort of "3rd generation." Comparing them to my 3a's, which the 5 was designed to emulate in its mid and upper frequencies, the major difference is that the 2ax has a higher midrange output that requires dialing the mid level control back a bit, but has a narrower "sweet spot," probably because the sound in the 650-5000Hz range is coming out of cone drivers (the woofer and mid) rather than domes.

Turning the two cross-fired mids into two front-firing ones probably makes the midrange too strong and very "beamy." Hopefully, the level controls are still functional so you can control it. The tweeter sort of resembles some "replacement tweeters" I've seen offered over the years, but the fact that there's a new tweeter board means it's probably not. The mids with surrounds are totally wrong. No AR-2 series model ever had acoustic suspension mids. How do they sound? Probably nothing like they did originally.

Yes, the idea that Kloss advanced was that we could save up our pennies and buy our own big screen TVs without having to have them supplied by bookburning totalitarian states.

I credit Kloss with evangelizing the idea of really big TVs that people could actually afford to put in their homes and watch as if they were in a theater. Prior to Kloss' marketing of his Novabeam system, big screen TVs were things I only saw in bars and magazine articles about Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion.

Villchur was the inventor and the primary evangelist for the technology, while Kloss was the hands-on manufacturing engineer and production manager. Villchur was probably more responsible for making acoustic suspension famous, while Kloss deserves the credit for actually getting it made. The true monument to Henry Kloss as visionary is the big screen TV on your living room wall.

BTW, I've used both hard tipped markers and the brush tipped ones in the video. The brush tips are much better for creating realistic grain patterns.

I'd just go forward with the pens and color/grain the patch. Trying to replace the epoxy is a lot of work and risk. But order pens specifically designed for touching up wood finishes, don't just use any old felt tip marker.

The top patch looks fine as-is and the corner is already recontructed. I'd start by leveling the side patch with a bit of filler, sanding it all smooth and then doing the touchup. Trying to dig out either patch risks doing more damage to the surrounding original veneer.