I see this was posted a couple of years ago but thought I’d chime in. Due to a divorce settlement I had to sell the house and finally got it sold it last year. This meant that while moved into temporary housing (3 bedroom apt) I had virtually all my audio gear put into storage, except for a couple of sources and a few cables.
At a local used stereo store in Eugene (Thompson’s Electronics, great folks!!!) I found a pair of AR 2ax (circa 1969) speakers in so-so condition for $100 and online I found a Marantz 2070 receiver for a couple hundred more. I restored the ARs with fresh doping compound (sort of a white latex that dries clear) for the cloth woofer surrounds and replaced the caps and rheostats in each speaker. I also put new Nichicon filter caps in the Marantz and, I have to say, I am really enjoying the musicality of this system (using Anti-Cables speaker cables). The crossovers in these speakers are so simple in design, just caps and resistors, nothing fancy, so they must be low order. The sound is not unlike my Thiels in their ability to convey what seems to be time and phase coherence. Plus, their bass extension is surprisingly deep; I can clearly hear and feel the bass organ pedal on "Saturn" from the London recording of the Montreal Symphony’s rendition of Holst’ The Planets. Mids and highs are simply sweet with great definition. Timbres sound quite accurate.
In any case, I’ve sort of had an unexpected but satisfying opportunity to discover, restore and now enjoy some vintage gear and have become a convert of Kloss’ and Vilchur’s earlier speaker designs. A friend recently found a pair of KLH 23s, very cool sounding speakers! Kloss & Vilchur knew what they were doing!
Steve
At a local used stereo store in Eugene (Thompson’s Electronics, great folks!!!) I found a pair of AR 2ax (circa 1969) speakers in so-so condition for $100 and online I found a Marantz 2070 receiver for a couple hundred more. I restored the ARs with fresh doping compound (sort of a white latex that dries clear) for the cloth woofer surrounds and replaced the caps and rheostats in each speaker. I also put new Nichicon filter caps in the Marantz and, I have to say, I am really enjoying the musicality of this system (using Anti-Cables speaker cables). The crossovers in these speakers are so simple in design, just caps and resistors, nothing fancy, so they must be low order. The sound is not unlike my Thiels in their ability to convey what seems to be time and phase coherence. Plus, their bass extension is surprisingly deep; I can clearly hear and feel the bass organ pedal on "Saturn" from the London recording of the Montreal Symphony’s rendition of Holst’ The Planets. Mids and highs are simply sweet with great definition. Timbres sound quite accurate.
In any case, I’ve sort of had an unexpected but satisfying opportunity to discover, restore and now enjoy some vintage gear and have become a convert of Kloss’ and Vilchur’s earlier speaker designs. A friend recently found a pair of KLH 23s, very cool sounding speakers! Kloss & Vilchur knew what they were doing!
Steve