Which Snell Type A do I have? A-I or A-Original?

$395 is an absurdly good deal for A-IIIs. I have owned two pair of A3s and paid three times that very recently. Take a look at the woofers when you get them out of storage to make sure the surrounds have been replaced or are intact. They are an incredibly capable speaker with huge Dynamics and bass and room-filling sound. The earlier versions do not have the deep bass capability that yours do nor the high frequency extension but I like the mid-range better. All three versions have extraordinary strengths and compete very well with expensive modern speakers. For listeners whose goal is organic musicality it is striking how little speaker design has evolved over decades.

And before they poured resin for woofer mass Snell used a heavy clay! That's what mine have.

I thought there was only one original type A as well! But I have seen reference to two of them. It could be wrong because they're is a fair amount of incorrect information floating around about the Type A. But I would swear the original As I had twenty years ago had a different looking tweeter.

Erik: yes the woofers can sag over time. I am fortunate living in St Louis that there is a top-notch speaker guy named Lloyd Faulkner. He was able to rebuild my woofers, replacing the spiders as well as the surrounds with no problem. 

Does anyone have a picture of an original type a tweeter? I am also interested to know if they all had felt pads attached next to them.
Stu

That is a great story. The funny irony is maybe 5 years ago I ran my type A speakers with a Conrad Johnson MV-60 amp And premier ten preamp. The sound was amazing. I was a huge fan of cj, but not these days since they moved more toward "neutrality"... ;)

It is funny they didn't like the Snell's. Go figure.

And I just remembered my very first pair of type As was bought used in 1994 from a Chicago dealer for exactly $750 and it happens that I ran them with a Conrad Johnson mv-52!

Pater Snell made a number of early prototypes, playing with possibilities. I had never heard  of the rear facing woofers!

Yes the little pad hanging from  the grille cloth in front of the tweeter was a production feature to knock back the treble slightly. It appears to be standard house insulation with light fabric sewn around it with black thread. Very homemade looking. But the speakers work like few others I have heard..I just compared head to head my Snell's and some $8k Wilson Benesch that have gorgeous fit/finish, and the Snell's were clearly superior in musicality, realness, meatiness of sound. The Wilsons had more treble energy but not nearly as convincing. 

I'm not sure what the white stuff is. It has been awhile since I've been inside of my snells. I assume you are not talking about white putty around the woofer itself around the dust cover... That is mass loading that needs to be replaced if you have the woofer spiders worked on.

when you say the foam is gone I assume you're talking about the woofer surround foam. If so I highly recommend you have a professional replace it. The woofer has tight tolerances and I've heard many stories of people putting surrounds on them and things don't align quite right. I've heard others who seem to have no problem with it but I know at one point Snell corporation stopped providing resurrounding services, and someone suggested it was because it was very difficult to get right.

There is a guy here in St Louis named Lloyd Faulkner who is a guru and he can do it. anyway when you find someone you trust to do it they can assess the need for the spider to be replaced. These speakers are totally worth fixing. More musical than 80% of the speakers on the market today.

Regarding removing the fabric covers, two things:
1. They can be removed if you're very careful and use a dull knife to insert where the grill meets the baffle and gently pry a little tiny bit at a time all the way around. Go around and around gradually and try not to damage the cabinet. If you search on the forums there are a couple of people who describe this process a little bit better than I just did.
2. Be aware that replacing the grille fabric is no easy task. It requires sewing so the fabric turns at a right angle on the corners of the grill. it's not just stretching fabric around it like most speakers. Pain in the neck especially if you don't know how to sew.
Stu

Agree on all counts Roberjerman! I have heard plenty of six figure systems that sound like hifi. The Snells, even driven by modest electronics, sound like music.

Yes now I remember the white stuff... Putty to seal the woofer chassis. I remember peeling it off, re-rolling it into an even rope again, and putting it back to seal well. Yep just reuse it.

 And don't rethink anything about the speaker... Like removing the little fabric square hanging on the grille, or removing the diffraction bar from the tweeter, or pushing down the insulation to fully expose the mid-range driver. I have heard people on forums say they have done all these things because they thought it would improve the sound. Each is needed. The insulation I believe was intended to reduce floor bounce -- that effect where mid-range sound bounces off the floor AND comes directly at you, and the timing difference causes cancellation that makes the mids sound thin and sterile. I have always believed this is one of the secrets to the Type A having one of the best midranges of any speaker I have ever heard, regardless of cost. Scary real. Peter Snell had ears and brains, not to mention a lot of patience to experiment!

Another thing is the crossover. If you ever have to replace any caps or other components, replace them exactly the way they are configured. If there are several smaller value caps stacked, replace them exactly that way. Repair people will get you it is the same as having one cap equaling the total value of the small caps. Not true. Trust Peter Snell in all cases. He did nearly everything for good reasons.

I guess the power discussion is like it always is. All things equal more power is usually better. but being a tube guy I will always take 50 watts of tube power over 250 watts of solid state power any day ... With rare exceptions ;)

I ran my first pair of type A-I's ones with a 45 watt Conrad Johnson tube amp and it was magic. But I believe the AI''s were 89 DB efficient. The A2s might have been 88 and the a3s I believe were 86. So as time went on the point about power became more true. The type A is such a dynamic speaker though, that I think it plays fairly well even without a ton of power but, as pointed out, if you can give them power they are that much better. The A3 is really a different speaker in my mind then the ones or twos. it can really blow a room away and has bigger extension on the top and bottom and crazy dynamics. But the mid-range is more neutral and thinner to my ears. Unless I could use equalization, I would always opt for the A1 or A2 over the A3. but that's because the mid-range and tonal balance are my top priorities.