Aadams Posted March 21, 2020 Report Share Posted March 21, 2020 20 minutes ago, DonT said: So is this something you guys have seen before in AR cabinets? There may also be a time period relationship for the miters. Below on the left is a plywood case AR2a and on the right is a Birch AR3 with a Korina AR2a at bottom left. The 3 has a clear grain with no plys. The Korina 2a shows no plys. All of the visible miters are the same type. By the late 60s the miters looked much like the KLH5s in the above post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffS Posted March 22, 2020 Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 Congratulations on your find. This pair looks to be in great shape. I'm placing my vote for lacquered walnut as the finish. While I wouldn't rule out cherry, the picture of the short sides of the cabinets that you show in your original post certainly looks like walnut grain. I'm including a picture of an AR-2a I own in lacquered walnut, which looks very similar. I'm also including a picture of an AR-1W lacquered birch cabinet for comparison. I find that I prefer the look of the lacquered walnut cabinets, what AR termed "Standard Walnut". You may want to consider simply applying a couple of coats of Johnson's Paste Wax to bring the sheen back and protect the finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonT Posted March 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 1 hour ago, JeffS said: Congratulations on your find. This pair looks to be in great shape. I'm placing my vote for lacquered walnut as the finish. While I wouldn't rule out cherry, the picture of the short sides of the cabinets that you show in your original post certainly looks like walnut grain. I'm including a picture of an AR-2a I own in lacquered walnut, which looks very similar. I'm also including a picture of an AR-1W lacquered birch cabinet for comparison. I find that I prefer the look of the lacquered walnut cabinets, what AR termed "Standard Walnut". You may want to consider simply applying a couple of coats of Johnson's Paste Wax to bring the sheen back and protect the finish. I don't think it is walnut. I have several pieces of walnut on hand and the grain of them is just not right. Here is a pic of one of my large walnut boards (Going to make a gun stock) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonT Posted March 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 Also here is a pic of my KLH Fives and they are walnut. They look totally different than the light color of these AR 2A's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lARrybody Posted March 22, 2020 Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 I checked those Korina AR2a's. The corner miters are the same as your Ar2a's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonT Posted March 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 1 hour ago, lARrybody said: I checked those Korina AR2a's. The corner miters are the same as your Ar2a's Cool. And looking at the wood it also looks to be sold to. I wonder if they did that a lot on earlier models? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonT Posted March 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2020 Well I took the other one apart and just kept going HeHe! I removed the pots and capacitors on it and got it up and running again. I must say it does sound REAL nice, Much better than the OLA's I have and definitely in the running with my KLH Fives. The capacitors are just fine. I couldn't see the value of the center one because they are glued together but they tested at 4.5 uf and 6.5 uf. Also did AR ever sell speakers to the military? Look at the stamp on the Capacitor. Well now I have to do the other one. I am real happy both covers came off real easy. Oh and thanks to all the help and info on removing the woofer (I got this one out). The pots where real corroded. I disassembled them and cleaned them with my Dumore grinder (Dermmel on steroids) and got them back to nice shiny brass inside and working fine. I will say I am very impressed with just how one sounds by it's self. I can't wait to hear the pair together! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted March 24, 2020 Report Share Posted March 24, 2020 Legend is ol’ Henry Kloss used to shop the stores on Canal Street for military surplus electronics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genek Posted March 24, 2020 Report Share Posted March 24, 2020 A lot of the electronics components on the market in the 1950s was WWII surplus. But the place to shop for it wasn't Canal St, it was Cortlandt. Before NYC tore it down to build the World Trade Center in the 60s, that part of town was known as Radio Row. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankmarsi Posted March 24, 2020 Report Share Posted March 24, 2020 I grew up in the big city unlike many here. LOL. I was on Cortland Street almost every lunch hour I had as my first job on Wall Street in 1967 allowed me to be in that area. If you were into electronics back then (?), maybe you can imagine the great fun that was? Between the my ages of 9 years and eleven years old, my father had already taken me there several times so I would know where to go to buy electronic stuff such as tubes and other goodies that he was into as he was a old radio ‘fixer-up-per’ from the late 1940’s into the 1960’s. He was on a very limited budget and fixed many discarded tube radios he would find and bring home. Actually, I believe yous guys were not members here yet and probably still enjoying your Radio Shack Optimus III speakers and receivers LOL. I covered most of that whole story on this site over 13 years ago, I guess yous guys missed it. Canal Street also was a main hub for anything electrical though, mostly odd lots of junk like those old capacitors shown which could be found almost everywhere back then but. Cortland had hi-fi and stereo stuff so it commanded my attention even more. Anyway I bought my first raw speaker cabinets there in late 1967 and began my journey with a target of someday owning AR speakers and Crown amps. Back then Crown was mostly known for their excellent 10 inch tape recorders but their early D300 was one of the first S.S. available until Phase LInear entered the field and knocked out Crown mercilessly. The photos shown above of those old capacitors are very familiar to me as when I was in the USN, we would throw out large numbers of them because they were being phased out of stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonT Posted March 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2020 2 minutes ago, frankmarsi said: I grew up in the big city unlike many here. LOL. I was on Cortland Street almost every lunch hour I had as my first job on Wall Street in 1967 allowed me to be in that area. If you were into electronics back then (?), maybe you can imagine the great fun that was? Between the my ages of 9 years and eleven years old, my father had already taken me there several times so I would know where to go to buy electronic stuff such as tubes and other goodies that he was into as he was a old radio ‘fixer-up-per’ from the late 1940’s into the 1960’s. He was on a very limited budget and fixed many discarded tube radios he would find and bring home. Actually, I believe yous guys were not members here yet and probably still enjoying your Radio Shack Optimus III speakers and receivers LOL. I covered most of that whole story on this site over 13 years ago, I guess yous guys missed it. Canal Street also was a main hub for anything electrical though, mostly odd lots of junk like those old capacitors shown which could be found almost everywhere back then but. Cortland had hi-fi and stereo stuff so it commanded my attention even more. Anyway I bought my first raw speaker cabinets there in late 1967 and began my journey with a target of someday owning AR speakers and Crown amps. Back then Crown was mostly known for their excellent 10 inch tape recorders but their early D300 was one of the first S.S. available until Phase LInear entered the field and knocked out Crown mercilessly. The photos shown above of those old capacitors are very familiar to me as when I was in the USN, we would throw out large numbers of them because they were being phased out of stock. Very nice story. I bet that was a lot of fun. Growing up in Indiana on a farm I didn't see much as far as electronics go, But I really loved and still love music. I am basically a nube as far as these great speakers go. I happened across a pair of KLH Fives at an estate sale dirt cheap a few yeas back. After bringing them back to life I have been sold on anything Kloss made and these are just another prime example and sound GREAT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankmarsi Posted March 24, 2020 Report Share Posted March 24, 2020 Hi DonT, after living most of my life in the big city, it taught me much about the rest of the world however, more often than not, I wish I did grow-up on a farm as I believe it builds good people. I met countless folks who knew nothing but farm life while I was in the military so I have an idea. My father did but across the ocean. The big city has the best of the best and the worse of the worse, I learned that early on. Thought, if you wanted a big selection of anything available in life, you couldn't beat the city. These days to me the city is merely a shadow of what it once was and many I know who have similar experiences, would agree. it's better history is being kept alive by the media and hollywoodville only, it's not like it was and had it's last days of glory in the late 1980's. I have friends that still live there and say it's like being in a third-world city, only worse. Though, I would never dismiss the city life and its ability to teach certain aspects of life for some reason I think a 'natural-life' in the country might be best for most of us. Good luck with your speakers though for maximum enjoyment, I would recommend hooking-up additional high-frequency drivers to supplement areas those speakers may be lacking in. I'm also a believer in driving low-efficiency speakers with higher than normal amplifier power. The AR2 line of speakers would benefit with judiciously used 150-200 WPC plus for realistic sound levels. P.S. with this current virus problem it's best to stay as far away from cities as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genek Posted March 24, 2020 Report Share Posted March 24, 2020 Yes. back then Canal St. was where you went if you wanted things like motors and such, Cortlandt if you wanted electronics. And sometimes you could find the same stuff in both places. After Radio Row was vacated some of the dealers relocated to various places around Manhattan, including Canal, but there was no place that ever recaptured what was lost. A lot of the dealers just went permanently out of business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankmarsi Posted March 24, 2020 Report Share Posted March 24, 2020 "Canal St. was where you went if you wanted things like motors and such, Cortlandt if you wanted electronics." Exactly right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankmarsi Posted March 24, 2020 Report Share Posted March 24, 2020 Extra Reading: Strangest feelings as I stood approximately 2000 feet away and watched the second jet plane hit tower number one while I was stranded in place I then watched tower number one collapse, about an hour later. As I was being covered with white dust and then black dust and the ground vibrating beneath my feet from the collapse I thought of walking on Cortland St. back in the early and late 1960’s as I did so many times. At that same moment I had the memory cross my mind of the wrecking ball actually knocking down those old apartment buildings that were used as stores on the first floors for all that electronic stuff and thought gee, this is twice that I’m watching that block of buildings being knocked down. And while witnessing and thinking of that profound situation unravel in front of me, I knew the world would never be the same again. Extra Reading: https://www.qcwa.org/radio-row.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonT Posted March 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 Anyone know of a guy named Peter who worked for AR? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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