"A comparative look at the "Old" and the "New" AR-2ax" - Now in Library!

[administrator]

Thanks to Brad Evans, the document "A comparative look at the "Old" and the "New" AR-2ax" is now available in the Library. This document also covers the AR-2x. Thanks also to Tom T. and Steve F. for assisting Brad with editing!

Mark

[Andy]

Nice job putting the info together. I've long felt that the 2ax is a collectors bargin, having exellent sound and a pair can often be found for much less then the 3,3a that folks ssem to be paying super high prices for. A 1966 high Fidelity Magazine reveiw of the 2ax said that it is a very nice sounding speaker, close to being indistinguishable from the model 3 in sound reproduction, with the it's bass not able to go as low being the noticeable difference.

A cabinet detail on the early version of the 2ax I'll mention is the change from solid wood front trim to vineer that wrapped around (at the serial no. in the 90,000 range) These later cabinets are subject to chipped front corners.

I just missed buying a very early pair of model 2's in mahogany at at yard sale, serial number 0000234 & 0000256, placing them at late 1956 or early 1957. I offered the buyer 10 times the $20 he paid, but he also was an AR collector and was keeping his find!

[tysontom]

>Nice job putting the info together. I've long felt that the

>2ax is a collectors bargin, having exellent sound and a pair

>can often be found for much less then the 3,3a that folks

>ssem to be paying super high prices for. A 1966 high Fidelity

>Magazine reveiw of the 2ax said that it is a very nice

>sounding speaker, close to being indistinguishable from the

>model 3 in sound reproduction, with the it's bass not able to

>go as low being the noticeable difference.

>A cabinet detail on the early version of the 2ax I'll mention

>is the change from solid wood front trim to vineer that

>wrapped around (at the serial no. in the 90,000 range) These

>later cabinets are subject to chipped front corners.

>I just missed buying a very early pair of model 2's in

>mahogany at at yard sale, serial number 0000234 & 0000256,

>placing them at late 1956 or early 1957. I offered the buyer

>10 times the $20 he paid, but he also was an AR collector and

>was keeping his find!

Andy, you are becoming a AR historian! You noticed a little-known detail about the cabinet construction regarding the edge molding. It is true that the early AR-2s, AR-2as and early AR-2axs had a separate, solid-stock edge molding -- regardless of the wood finish. I think the changeover to cabinets with veneer all the way to the edge occurred earlier than the 90,000 range, because I have a pair of Blond Birch AR-2axs in the 30,000 range that have the cabinets solid to the edge. It could be a finish-dependent condition. Pine cabinets, for example, were always Ponderosa Pine with solid-Birch hardwood molding, no matter the build date, up to the last production of the pine cabinets in this series. It is interesting that KLH always used the veneer-to-the-edge method (no separage molding) pretty much throughout their production (primarily to save costs), except for speakers such as the KLH Five, which had solid-walnut molding (convex) much like the AR-1-3-3a (concave), etc. Some late-50s KLH Sixes used a 11- or 13-ply marine plywood for their veneered finishes, but always had the veneer all the way out to the edges. Utility KLH Sixes may have had molding. The marine plywood used by KLH later changed to a medium-density particle board, which was less expensive but superior in "deadness."

Those early AR-2s you saw would have manufactured in the 1957, as production on this speaker did not begin until March of that year. They were probably manufactured in March or April of 1957, but production ramped up quickly during that year, as AR's sales went from $383K (1956) to $973K (1957), due primarily to sales of the new AR-2. AR's market share, incidentally, rose to 6% of the domestic loudspeaker market in that year alone.

Development on the AR-2 had begun during the 1955-56 period, and a prototype was shown in the 1956 New York hifi show I believe, but the delay in getting to market was (in part) caused by a mistake made by Henry Kloss in the production-design of the woofer's spider: it was not sufficient to keep the voice coil centered in the gap on long excursions. The earliest ones had a tendancy to "walk" out of the gap at high levels. Kloss left AR before Villchur remedied the problem, and these problems caused production delays.

--Tom Tyson

[Andy]

Tom, thanks for the details on the 2,2a......very interesting, looks like the series was an important speaker for AR in the early years. As you've mentioned in a earlier post, a large portion of sales in 1957-58 were models 2 & 2a, with the AR-3 taking off in early '59. i'm sure you are correct about the introduction of wrap around vineer on he 2ax being before serial no. 90,000.

Wanted to add my two cents worh on KLH cabinets. there were a few models which had solid wood front molding. Examples I have are....the small models, 11,14,15,19 and the 21 ext. speaker. Also the models 17 &20 had a beveled right angle molding that was sold walnut. the model 33's molding was much like the model 5's. Of course the model six, as you mention had the wrap around vineer like the models 13(rare), 24, 31, and 32- though i;ve seen a model 24 with solid molding. Finally, the most famous all solid wood speaker is of course the model 8 with a serial no. below 7900 when a change to vineered plywood took place.

Cabinet construction is a catagory in itself, a 1957 AR-2 is a very different animal then a late 2ax from the mid 70's, when I think I recall reading that VINYL was used! KLH did this as well with he model 6, and the model 56 from about 1975 is a sad exaple of acoustic suspension cabinet, thin light mdf covered in vinyl, end o an era and a way of building speakers!