tourmax
Super Member
About a week ago, i grabbed a set of ar-4x’s from a local guy. I wanted a set of decent “vintage” speakers to go with my Sansui 350. He had two sets, but the ones I bought were the more “unmolested” ones:
There had been a little messing around with them, but they had the original drivers, the original finish was good to excellent and the original paperwork was still on the back. Even the warranty cards were still there.
Of course, the pots needed to be cleaned/rebuilt. Someone had actually jumpered one of them inside. Fill had been crushed down, some was pushed up against the cones and while the “shroud” material was still there, it wasn't in its proper place or doing its proper job.
That was all pretty easy to set right and after turning on some soft jazz for a little oil rub on the outside, the were looking great! After letting them run overnight to “wake up” after thier long nap, they were sounding great too!
I was a happy, satisfied man.
Then, fate steeped in and a well neglected 8080DB crossed my path. Not working, blowing fuses and all manner of other issues. It was a hard luck case, and I’m a sucker for hard luck cases. Just like that, it was as mine.
But now I needed another set of good “vintage” speakers to go with the 8080DB once rebuilt.
Waitaminute....that guy had a second set of AR-4x’s! A quick text message and he’s still trying to unload them. Dropped another hundy and they were mine:
So they e been refinished in a darker stain than the first set. Missing one of the name plates, but the other is original. Cloth covering is fairly decent. He had replaced a dead tweeter, but it looks like the same type as original. The paperwork on the back of both is photocopies of orginals, but they both have the same ser number so who knows where it came from.
Haven't gotten in to them yet, but I expect at least some butchery and bugery.
Its all stuff I can fix and they will go nicely with the 8080DB once speakers and receiver are restored.
Wife says I’m done buying stereo stuff for a while now and I actually kind of agree. I need to clear these projects off before I move on to any more...
There had been a little messing around with them, but they had the original drivers, the original finish was good to excellent and the original paperwork was still on the back. Even the warranty cards were still there.
Of course, the pots needed to be cleaned/rebuilt. Someone had actually jumpered one of them inside. Fill had been crushed down, some was pushed up against the cones and while the “shroud” material was still there, it wasn't in its proper place or doing its proper job.
That was all pretty easy to set right and after turning on some soft jazz for a little oil rub on the outside, the were looking great! After letting them run overnight to “wake up” after thier long nap, they were sounding great too!
I was a happy, satisfied man.
Then, fate steeped in and a well neglected 8080DB crossed my path. Not working, blowing fuses and all manner of other issues. It was a hard luck case, and I’m a sucker for hard luck cases. Just like that, it was as mine.
But now I needed another set of good “vintage” speakers to go with the 8080DB once rebuilt.
Waitaminute....that guy had a second set of AR-4x’s! A quick text message and he’s still trying to unload them. Dropped another hundy and they were mine:
So they e been refinished in a darker stain than the first set. Missing one of the name plates, but the other is original. Cloth covering is fairly decent. He had replaced a dead tweeter, but it looks like the same type as original. The paperwork on the back of both is photocopies of orginals, but they both have the same ser number so who knows where it came from.
Haven't gotten in to them yet, but I expect at least some butchery and bugery.
Its all stuff I can fix and they will go nicely with the 8080DB once speakers and receiver are restored.
Wife says I’m done buying stereo stuff for a while now and I actually kind of agree. I need to clear these projects off before I move on to any more...
