Snell Type A Serial ' 1485, 1486

I know this is an old thread, but I wondered if you ever arrived at a clear delineator between A and AII. I'm thinking of buying a pair from someone. They have separately fused woofer, mid, tweeter. I used to own AII's (miss them dearly!) and they did not have separate fuses. This makes me think this pair must be AII's, because separate fusing seems like an improvement.

If there is a clear serial number cutoff I can find out serial numbers too.
Thanks for thoughts!

I have the 1511's and 1512's Carlos mentioned. Carl does great work and these speakers are in great shape. I, too, have too many speakers and have chosen to use my XA1900's in the room where I now have the Type A's. Carl also installed L-pads on the tweeters and mids so you can tune them to your room and listening taste. If anyone is interested I can be reached at asachs@mindspring.com . Thanks.

I checked both of my pairs last night. The AIIs I have are #1031 & #1032. The AIII's are #12815 & #12816. I agree with Carlos' comment on the crossover caps. I plan to freshen up mine, I just haven't focused on it yet. (be careful when/if you remove the grill...it's held on my brads ~6 inches on center)

Carlos...You have the woofer model presumably from the set you fixed. Do you know the specific model numbers & mfg of the tweeters & mids used on the AII? If you have the info, the makes/models of the woof-mid-tweeters (2 of them) used on the AIII's would be very helpful. The AIII's went to a 12 inch woofer so it is different. I also know the midrange changed between the AII & AIII. I'm not sure whether the tweeter changed. Adding the second tweeter is also new between AII & AIII.

ANY of this info would be greatly appreciated.

I recently repaired a pair Ser.#1511 & 1512. They were a right and left hand. The woofer cone is special with the added resin weight around the DC to lower its resonant frequency (by design). However, that won't affect the refoam job. The woofer is an Italian made RCF #L12P48.
You may want to think about recapping the mid and tweet sections. P. Snell used many bundled NPE caps that have now been well documented on the www as becoming problematic with age. The entire xover board is removable from behind a hidden panel located just below the mids.

You have something special. You won't need the Vandys any longer. I have two pairs of Type A's, one similar to yours & one pair of AIII's.

I'll have to recheck my serial numbers on mine...I think they are in the 1200's. Right around this time the AI's became the AII's. I think the AII's just had some wiring changes with the same parts as the AI's. With serial numbers in the 1400's I'd say you have AII's.

RE: the woofer surrounds...my AIII's need the same thing. I'm told (by Mark@Snell) the replacement surrounds should be a "light" material. I will have Tri-State Loudspeaker do the work on them. Dante at TriState suggested including as much of what's left of the surrounds in the packing to them so they can look at it & match it as closely as possible. Once you have new foams you'll need to break them in so they loosen up. Snell used to do replacement foams, but last I heard they stopped(they subbed it out anyway).

Value $$: It depends on how bad someone wants them. There was a pair of AIII's (9/10 condition, new surrounds) on ebay two weeks ago that went on a BIN sale for $2000. This might(?) be on the high side, but I can't say the buyer made a foolish deal. One way to look at it is that they are quite long in the tooth from an age standpoint. A more realistic way to look at it is how they sound relative to what's available today & at what price. AIII's with the right signal fed to them can be stunning.

Power: You should have enough, but the Type As are not afraid of power(4 ohm, 86dB, ~35-18500Hz). I run around 300-350 watts/ch into 4 ohms on my AII's. My amp is SS, pre-amp,CDP, DAC are tubed. I biwire only. I have the external crossover, but haven't used it, yet.

Once you're ready to light them up, let me know & I can give you some hints on setup. Make sure you have the correct top on each bottom...it matters.

Great score, you'll love them. I'd like to hear them with all tube power.

Hi,
Yes indeed a pair of true classics-- repair the surrounds--a common occurence unfortunately with the woofers, the other drives should be OK.
Definitely Bi Amp-as in my pic-Ha!-- take up the offer from the previous gentleman and procure the DB X over-it was rec' for the speaker. The JC Symmetry X over was superior but rare as hens teeth on the SH market now.

Take pride -a great speaker

Good Luck,

DesW
http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/team201/Snell_A.jpg

John,

I had a pair of Allli's and ran them in bi-amp mode. I loved the sound but my wife did not like the size of the speaks!
If you are interested I may still have the db systems external
crossover that I would sell reasonably.
At the time I ran a Threshold SA-E3 for the tops and a Perroux
amp on the woofers.
Snell always had a great customer service dept. I would give them a call for any help.

Best of luck!