AR3 woofers for my janszen Z-200 - NOT!

February 14, 2007

got outbid on yet another pair, i give up :-(

recently found a pair of AR3 woofers locally, but they went for, gasp, $207!

i posted here a while back about trying some AR3 woofers in my 1958 janszen Z-200. to keep it period, i was looking for some early alnico ones.

the Z-200 are pretty rare. janszen's first complete speaker. big solid wood cabinet (no particle board) with thick walnut veneer. looks similar in the materials and construction to the AR3's i used to have. the 130U ESL arrays slide into the top of each cabinet, like KLH Model 1. bass is okay, but nothing to get excited about. woofer integration with the arrays is pretty good though.

the stock B250 12" woofers have squared off edges like the AR woofers, so i thought it would be an interesting experiment. the cabs are 3 cubic feet, but i was going to use blocks of specially cut styrofoam to get the AR3 internal volume.

i think my best bet is to retain the original integrity of the speakers and use my REL Q100 for deep boom.

attached are pics of the Z-200. some moron drilled an undersized port and stuffed foam around the VC to load the cone. i pulled the foam, but still need to plug the port (using socks for now). the legs were removed at one point too. but, these speakers are rare enough to find, so i can't complain with the $275 to get them

they are more enjoyable than my KEF Calinda and KEF 104/2 in there huge soundstage.

see ya,

Robby