Interesting Early AR 2

[Guest SteveG]

Interesting AR 2 appearwed on ebay. Others have probably noticed it. i wondered if there had been something strange at AR and they had produced some early or occasional pieces with the wide trim of the AR 3. As usual, Tom Tyson canme through with the insight. Below is the email exchange we had. Thought others might be interested.

Tom,

This looks more like a 3a, in the width of the front trim. Have u seen AR2’s like this? Is this an early example? Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks as always Tom.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Acoustic-Research-AR-2...1QQcmdZViewItem

Reply from Tom-----

Thanks for copying me on the eBay posting! You should put your findings out on the Classic Speaker Pages forum.

I looked at those images closely and determined that this was a single walnut-finish AR-2 built somewhere in the 1959-1960 time-frame, and the owner apparently decided to add an AR-1-style grill panel to the front of the speaker, for whatever reason (perhaps a cat ripped the original grill cloth). If you look at the grill carefully (a material that AR never used), you can see the stretch marks where it was stretched and stapled to the front of the original AR-2 or the back of this newly crafted frame. The grill panel was then glued to the original speaker. The edges of the AR-1-style grill molding are also rounded off slightly, something that AR did not do, leaving a straight edge all the way around. AR never put an AR-1 molding on an AR-2, but molding pieces could be obtained from AR in the 50s. I was given an early AR-1W from a fellow in New York back in the late 1960s, and was an unfinished AR-1W with no moldings attached, but with the individual pieces still in the shipping carton. I had a carpenter friend of mine attach them, but now I wish I had left it alone. I still have that speaker in the original box, and have never used the speaker other than to test it back then.

--Tom