LorneG

Thank you @newandold, that means a lot to me. It's been a fun restoration so far - I have a separate thread on that in this forum. All of the vintage audio that I acquire has a back-story which makes it so much more fulfilling than buying new. Most of what I've bought is the original owner's kids who typically want their parents beloved stereo equipment from the 60's -70's restored, taken care of and enjoyed the way their parents' did. My own back story on stereo equipment was that of my dad. He grew up on a farm on the middle of Iowa in the 40s & 50s and was infatuated with radio, because he could pull in stations from Chicago, Omaha and Kansas City. This is why he was a life long Cubs fan. When he got out of the U.S. Army in 1961, where he learned advanced radio operation and repair, he bought a Motorola 3-channel console - it was beautiful, and later a Harman Kardon receiver, Advent speakers and a Garrard TT which we were specifically not allowed to touch. My brother and I followed suit in the late 70's and early 80's when we hit our mid-teens and earned a few bucks, but we were sold on Japanese solid state big power - Pioneer, Yamaha, Technics and JBL speakers (thanks to Maxell). Anyway, I got away from it after college but started back down the vinyl path a few years ago. I went into a high-end audio store and blown away by how great it sounded but it also lacked any soul, feeling or warmth - the sound just kind of hit you in the face instead of smothering and soothing you with its warmth. They had a room of vintage stuff, and after I walked in, was taken back 40 years and knew I found home, plus it all sounded great, not perfect but listening to audio is as much about your ears as it is with your eyes and your memories.

Here is an update on my progress, albeit slow. I applied one coat of sealant to the cloth surround of the Early speaker while still in the cabinet, as it first didn't pass the push/rebound test. I also applied a thin coat of slightly water-diluted tacky glue to the top of the dampening ring to try and stop that deterioration (thanks RoyC for that advice). After sealant it did pass the push test, so I moved on to taking the woofers out. I got them out, but it does take a lot of patience getting the putty out and prying them up. I used a small flat screwdriver/putty knife to take some of the putty out around the woofer and then a larger flat screwdriver and paint can opener worked best for removing the driver. The Early woofer was much harder. I had fiberglass insulation in the Late, and rock wool in the other. I think I will replace the rock wool? New Crinoline fabric has been ordered to replace the fabric protecting the woofers, which had completely disintegrated. The Late woofer has been re-foamed, which was all really straight-forward except cutting the dust cap - I hated to doing that. I did a lot of research on this aspect, and used a 1.5 in. diameter guide for cutting with a brand new X-Acto blade. I think the 1.5" is a bit too small, and I would go a little larger next time. Shimming was done and new surround was glued into place, then the dust cap was glued back down. New caps will come next and then onto the pots. I was fortunate to get four "Inspection Department" stamps on the Early speaker! BTW the wood grain inside the Early is just beautiful and much more detailed than the late. The quality of wood used on these, especially the Early, amazes me.

I have one Early and one Late edition AR-2ax and am restoring the pair - these have never been use until a few weeks ago just to test - both woofers, mids and tweeters produced sound with coaxing of the crunchy pots. If you want to hear the story of how this odd couple got lost together go over to https://community.classicspeakerpages.net/topic/16072-ar-2ax-time-capsule-mystery/ So the foam looks shot on one the Late, which is no surprise but the cone and cap look great. The Early with the cloth surround isn't so bad with everything seeming to be still glued tight, except the dampening ring appears to be deteriorating? Is the dampening ring an issue? I don't see anything on it in the restoration guide or past topics?

I got the grills off today, lots of patience. I will start another thread with restoration questions.

@JKentI don't think they were ever sold, since they were never taken out of the boxes and unwrapped. I'm guessing they were sitting in Allied's Pontiac store when Tandy said replace everything in-stock with Realistic and then got lost in the shuffle? @AadamsYes, I've printed the AR3 Resto guide and read it with several of the threads in CSP. I think the big question will be do I restore the original pots or buy new controls from Larry?

New member here, and while I collect and restore vintage audio – mostly late 70’s and early 80’s Japanese receivers and turntables. I’ve never been a vintage speaker person, until now. My friend Jeff, who picks a lot of old stereo gear, let me know he had two AR-2ax still in original boxes that had never been played. He got them ten years ago from a friend, who found them at a swap meet/flea market in the Detroit area. I’ve always loved AR speakers but never had the chance to own them. That’s the extent of the backstory that I have, but when I heard about the pair, I snapped them up. Here is the condition – both boxes had been opened and one speaker was taken out of its box, unwrapped and then returned to the box, some of the wrapping remains. The other was still wrapped in brown wax paper and sealed with cellophane tape that showed its age, and appears to have never left the box. I’ve unpacked both and was able to get good sound at very low volume on both. Pots are all crunchy and impact the output of the high and mid. Both woofers produce good sound. Cabinets and grills are 10/10, and on the back warranty cards are still present; however, one detached probably do to repacking which damaged the papers on the back. They are both gorgeous, and it was amazing to hear them finally perform for the first time in their lives. Here is the mystery, and maybe this forum can help me investigate. These are two different AR-2ax – one is an early model and the other a late. Serial numbers are AX114837 and the other is AX127844. I’m thinking 1969 production on the early, and 1970 or ’71 for the late? Serials all match on boxes, warranty cards and documentation on the back. Both were delivered to Allied Radio in Pontiac Michigan. The most obvious tell on the differences are the badging, but shining a flashlight through the grills show the different tweeters and woofers one foam, while the other looks like a cloth surround. So how could these two have ended up together on a 50-year journey just waiting to sing? Here is what I know so far. Allied Radio was acquired by Radio Shack in 1970, and all Allied storefronts shifted to carrying only Realistic products. The Justice Dept. ordered Tandy to divest most of the Allied Radio stores in late 1971. Richard Schaak bought 36 Allied stores from Tandy, as part of the settlement, including all six Michigan stores. In early 1975, he closed 11 stores including all Michigan stores. I have no information on the Pontiac store? So how did these two get put on this journey together – inventory mix up; the shift to Realistic that caused them to get misplaced; warranty returns that were never re-delivered? I do intend to fully refurbish both speakers back to their original states and run them together. I will never sell these. After this long journey together, they deserve to get the chance to perform as they were meant to but not apart. I realize these are two completely different speakers – tweeters, woofers and different cross-over frequencies, but I have to let them play together. Any ideas on how this mix-up happened?