lakecat Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 Sometimes the sun is at your back. Last month there was in a local CL, a vague ad for AR's...so of course I call. Got them from a deceased uncle and wasn't sure what to do with them. Less than ten minutes from me so I get my butt over there. It was the 3a...slightly aged from being stored forever but nice...and best part...there was the AR boxes for them. I see they are the early 3a's by the early serial numbers...and see the grills have never been off. I made him an offer and he said, "By the excitement I see in your eyes...they are yours."...lol. Flash to a month later as I replaced caps, cleaned pots, and only a refresh on cabinets...and I'll be damn if they aren't the best sounding 3a's I have had go through here. Never had I had the mids turned halfway on pot as it was always three quarters in my room. The tweeters are down a notch instead of full on. I kept shaking my head...thinking my mind is playing tricks...but they are badazz...and as close to factory specs as one could get today on OEM drivers. I had an audio buddy from Indy stop by on Thursday. Now this guy has the audio fever bad and has over fifty speakers at his house. He loves the ADS lines and has most of them except the 2030. He has AR LSI...and the 11's....Magnepans...Boston Acoustics..Dynacos...Polks...so knows a little about sound. Anyways.....I told him he has to hear these 3a's. Now...he had a pair of early 3a's that he got screwed on and has left a bad taste in him....so he was gonna be very critical on these..... soooo... I played a few songs and turned it up to around 70-80 watts on the McIntosh 2205. He had that stupified look on his face and just shook his head. He got up and stood about five feet from them...and was just staring hard into them....really taking it in. I turned the music down...and he went and sat down shaking his head. I asked, "Whatcha think my good man?".... And he looked at me with that incredulous look and said, "That friggin' midrange is the best I ever heard!"..lol. I high fived him and said, "Whew!...I'm not crazy!" But somehow, this pair has the magic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakecat Posted February 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 Ughh...this site won't let me download pics from this phone. I will take some later on my camera and send thru laptop. Weird... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 Nice score! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stupidhead Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 look forward to pics. sounds like good synergy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD70 Posted February 7, 2018 Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 You are on a speaker roll! Can't wait to see the pics too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD70 Posted February 7, 2018 Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 On 2/4/2018 at 10:16 AM, lakecat said: Sometimes the sun is at your back. Last month there was in a local CL, a vague ad for AR's...so of course I call. Got them from a deceased uncle and wasn't sure what to do with them. Less than ten minutes from me so I get my butt over there. It was the 3a...slightly aged from being stored forever but nice...and best part...there was the AR boxes for them. I see they are the early 3a's by the early serial numbers...and see the grills have never been off. I made him an offer and he said, "By the excitement I see in your eyes...they are yours."...lol. Flash to a month later as I replaced caps, cleaned pots, and only a refresh on cabinets...and I'll be damn if they aren't the best sounding 3a's I have had go through here. Never had I had the mids turned halfway on pot as it was always three quarters in my room. The tweeters are down a notch instead of full on. I kept shaking my head...thinking my mind is playing tricks...but they are badazz...and as close to factory specs as one could get today on OEM drivers. I had an audio buddy from Indy stop by on Thursday. Now this guy has the audio fever bad and has over fifty speakers at his house. He loves the ADS lines and has most of them except the 2030. He has AR LSI...and the 11's....Magnepans...Boston Acoustics..Dynacos...Polks...so knows a little about sound. Anyways.....I told him he has to hear these 3a's. Now...he had a pair of early 3a's that he got screwed on and has left a bad taste in him....so he was gonna be very critical on these..... soooo... I played a few songs and turned it up to around 70-80 watts on the McIntosh 2205. He had that stupified look on his face and just shook his head. He got up and stood about five feet from them...and was just staring hard into them....really taking it in. I turned the music down...and he went and sat down shaking his head. I asked, "Whatcha think my good man?".... And he looked at me with that incredulous look and said, "That friggin' midrange is the best I ever heard!"..lol. I high fived him and said, "Whew!...I'm not crazy!" But somehow, this pair has the magic... Awesome that 50+ year old speakers can impress like the 3 & 3a's do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakecat Posted February 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 1 hour ago, GD70 said: Awesome that 50+ year old speakers can impress like the 3 & 3a's do! Hi Glenn....I know! Something I was not expecting...at all. I haven't had time to take any new pics with Super Bowl....and hangover to deal with and this friggin' cold ass weather. Weird how this site won't allow my phone pics to download. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakecat Posted February 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 Okay....finally got the pics. All original with boxes except for the caps. I didn't even have to refinish cabs....just cleaned them well and applied new oil. Also...the 2x I just finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD70 Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 Those are gorgeous! You truly lucked out with these! Early too with the desirable Alnico woofers! Keepers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 Freeckin' AWESOME !!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakecat Posted February 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 11 hours ago, GD70 said: Those are gorgeous! You truly lucked out with these! Early too with the desirable Alnico woofers! Keepers? Thanks....it is killing me as what to do with them. Every time I play them, I think these aren't going anywhere.....but then I see the LST's...the original first 3a's I have that Roy helped me with....the AR12's...the three pair of Heathkit AS-103's....the early AR 2ax's....the AR 303's that are here....and think...yep...I am becoming a hoarder!....sigh....so may be cleaning other stuff out first. These sound so good that I just can't see myself selling them....but who knows!? Oh...I forgot the one AR3 in cherry I have redone that I been waiting for two years to find a match for....and a pair of walnut AR3's that I got with only tweeters and mids in it...that I will redo in spring. Roy fixed one mid but other was bad...so gots to find a solution to that also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD70 Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 Original mids may take a while to find. I share your dilemma. It takes years to collect fine examples, restore them, and finally enjoy the fruits of your labors. I basically have two bucket list speakers, otherwise I'm very content with the current herd! One never knows though what's lurking in a neighbors basement or garage dying to be found to sing again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glitch Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 On 2/7/2018 at 4:55 PM, lakecat said: Okay....finally got the pics. All original with boxes except for the caps. I didn't even have to refinish cabs....just cleaned them well and applied new oil. Also...the 2x I just finished. What is wrong with me? I'm looking at the pictures and contemplating how nice those shipping cartons are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakecat Posted February 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 1 hour ago, Glitch said: What is wrong with me? I'm looking at the pictures and contemplating how nice those shipping cartons are. LOL!.... the date on them is April, 1970 and was shipped from a music store in New York. Pretty rare to find them in this nice shape if at all. Even has the serial numbers on the boxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD70 Posted March 14, 2018 Report Share Posted March 14, 2018 Are the serial numbers sequential? That would be an added bonus! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakecat Posted March 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2018 On 3/13/2018 at 10:32 PM, GD70 said: Are the serial numbers sequential? That would be an added bonus! They are close but not sequential. About fifty apart.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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