A Trio of Vintage Soldiers ...or this never happens to me!

Mrpajamas

New Member
Yesterday morning I woke up and decided that since it was about 13 degrees I'd go out and get myself a coffee. I set out in the cold, fired up the car and off I went. As I'm returning home I'm literally a block away from home when I see these "three soldiers" on the curbside standing tall. As I drive by they look familiar but the dark grills throws me off ....I slow down and pull over and low and behold ... 3- AR 3a's getting cold!

Here's the interesting part, As I look at these thrilled, I notice that 2 are in the Walnut finish and the 3rd is Unfinished Pine but varnished. I look closer and observe the Bakelite knob in the upper right corner with a spectral Plate/Switch from an AR LST. Flipping to the back side it appears to have the LST Crossover with the Large Fuse holder. I then notice the at the top of the back it is written AR 3F ? ( AR 3 front?)

It gets better. I remove the front grills, all intact not broken to discover (See below) - Tweeters in excellent shape along with midranges not missing and woofers all intact! (Tweeters appear to be later models as they have tabs for rear /internal connection and AR logo is molded in faceplate. Wires were run from front mount tabs to the "ears" protruding)

How cool is this - Never has this happened to me, but it gets me thinking.

Who had these? An ex - AR employee? A customer who special ordered from AR (Not out of reason as I live 12 miles away from the old AR factory in Cambridge) What was the application? A 3 speaker system with the AR 3F used as a center channel or perhaps an experiment or prototype by the ex AR person?

It even gets more strange. I lived across the street literally for 15 years and never saw a speaker come and go from this home as an elderly woman lived there. My neighbors knew that I was in the audio industry and a hifi nut but never said a word? (The woman passed away 2 years ago and my neighbors son moved into this home a year ago). He never said a word about old speakers in the home. This is a mystery as to how these appeared on the curbside ...... I probably will never know!

The plan is to remove all the drivers, check continuity and sweep test. I'll reform the woofs. I'll strip the cabinets and refinish as they are in remarkable shape and will clean up nice. I plan on stripping the unfinished pine cabinet and leave it in the " natural factory skin" as I think this will look cool!

Recap may be in order as well. I'll rebuild and clean up all the controls. They'll finally end up in my demo room in rotation and enjoy this find!

Never will this happen again! A trio of AR 3a for free on the curb!


I'll add to this thread as I move thru the restoration and add photos.

Update: All drivers are functional ! Confirmed that the AR LST transformer is mounted inside the cabinet.


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:yikes: Wow, just..... WOW!

Lots of stars aligned for this one, indeed. The chances that any audio buff happened to come by between when these were put out and the garbage truck coming was fairly small, so this is REALLY great you were able to save such iconic speakers. Given you were so close to the actual factory, this modded one could very well have been some test mule they were using in their labs and perhaps was sold at some factory sale??? We can only guess.

Looking very much forward to your ongoing updates. Congrats on the SCORE!
 
Wow, that is a grand tale of AudioKarma

Did you recently put too much time and effort into some vintage ausio gear and this is the reward?

The people over there didn't know, but the speakers did and found you
 
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Really interested in the future of this thread! Thanks for sharing this most unusual experience and what fun it must be.
 
Wow. After a find like that, I'd have to hide under my bed for a year, for fear of space debris falling on my head! All the Karma in my body, lost on one SCROE!!! Congratulations. And I'm truly interested in the story behind the AR-3F. This should be fun.

Also, in the hope of gathering additional insight, I posted this story, over at the CSP AR Forum. I hope that's acceptable? Many AR Guru's there, that I feel would enjoy this find too. :)
 
THAT sure made your weekend!
Amazing and interesting find. What's interesting is there is no paperwork on the backs at all, nor any indication there ever was! No old glue marks or staples, nothing!
The son saw these old boxes and figured they were trash, out they went! Probably listens to a Sonos system if even that! Any chance that the elderly woman's family is near by that could shed some light on these?

You should post this over on the CSP site if you're a member there. Lots of AR historians and experts there.
I'll alert them and post a link, someone may have some insight.

In the mean time, photo document everything!

Congrats on a wonderful score!

Glenn
 
And where, pray tell, does one find AR speakers sitting out on a curb these days? Certainly not where I live.

Congrats, btw. Now go play the lottery.
 
And where, pray tell, does one find AR speakers sitting out on a curb these days? Certainly not where I live.

Congrats, btw. Now go play the lottery.

Apparently, 12 miles from the original manufacturing site! :biggrin:

I believe that is the key part of the story for the one with LST parts. It was probably some prototype and was sold without any thought at the time. Nowadays, with instant internet fame, no current electronics manufacturer would do such a thing, they are all destroyed, I would assume.
 
Can't wait to see whats inside that 3F!
Handle everything very carefully with these!
 
Nice!!

I think we live in the same-ish area. I keep hoping to find something like this on my daily commute.
 
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