AR-1 and JansZen Woofers

[tysontom]

Some time back, Mihn described a woofer that was for sale on eBay that he thought might have been an early AR prototype, since the woofer had flat sides like the AR woofer. Here is an image of that woofer:

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/2189.jpg

I am pretty sure that this woofer was from the JansZen 600 system, which matches this appearance. Why the flat sides I'm not sure, unless there was thought to use an AR-1W woofer in the early versions. The second image is the front of a JansZen full-range speaker (KLH also had a prototype speaker similar to this):

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/2191.jpg

--Tom Tyson

[tysontom]

>Some time back, Mihn described a woofer that was for sale on

>eBay that he thought might have been an early AR prototype,

>since the woofer had flat sides like the AR woofer.

First of all, it is Minh, not "Mihn" that I mentioned above -- please excuse my mistake, Minh! It was Mr. Luong that brought this flat-sided woofer to our attention quite some time ago. At the time, it looked like an early AR-1 woofer. As it turns out, it is a JansZen woofer. I also noticed that the woofer has 6 screws rather than 8, so there would be no interchangeability. Why the flat sides? Anybody have an idea? Of course, the large cabinet means that the JansZen woofer would have had different characteristics as well. Years ago I remember comments to the effect that the 600 had good deep-bass response, but it had significantly higher distortion than the venerable AR-1 (but then what didn't?). I believe that Arthur JansZen worked briefly at KLH in the late 1950s, and it was there that he designed the famous KLH Model Nine electrostatic. He did some table-radio design work as well. Perhaps the prototype KLH speaker was JansZen's design except for the Model Seven woofer system.

--Tom Tyson

[Andy]

Some notes on Janszen; I have a 1960's add for their speaker line-up which list four different woofers. I don't know if the following will be of any help, but here it is....

Z-960 speaker which contains the 350D woofer that is hermetically sealed in an enclosure.

Z-600 speaker having a 350B woofer

Z-700 speaker having a 350C dynamic woofer.

JZ-800 with a 350A woofer

Z-900 speaker having two 350D woofers

The photo of the 350B woofer in this add shows a woofer without the flat sides on the speaker basket with six mounting screws.

Andy