Howard's magic rubdown

Can you tell which is a priority in our household?

As you can see the speakers survived the road trip,

and somehow became fixtures in the house.

Here's the trick for swaying the wife,

to have washer and dryer sized speakers!

The craigslist ad showed only one beat up speaker.

The owner had described the other,

so I was expecting exactly what you see here -

sun bleached, burnt and water damaged wood.

That burn mark was from one of his parties,

stoagie or roach,

this was a mark of honor not of shame!

Still bummed I didn't meet the guy.

Thanks again Martell!

Most important was the sound.

Wow!

Crisp and airy,

they filled the garage without feeling forced.

Now for the secret weapon.

Our landlord had left a couple almost empty cans of this stuff,

Howard Restore-A-Finish.

I'm usually suspect of quick fixes,

but this stuff worked wonders on our floor,

as well as an earlier speaker project.

A successful test spot convinced me it was worth the $20.

I went big on the stain, wax and some fine steel wool.

A couple hours later,

and the speakers were transformed.

Having them hooked up really helped.

There's a lot of area to rub out!

Luckily the plywood veneer was in good shape.

The steel wool helped to feather in the dry spots.

The wax was easiest applied by bare hands.

The wood loved it after all those neglected years.

They even smelled fresh now.

I'm not sure if the wife was expecting the complete Klipsch set,

La Scala's and Heresy's.

The kids helped scramble these in place,

before she came home from work.

These are really efficient,

something like 104 db/m,

so they don't need much amplification.

They're really popular for small tube amps.

In the past couple weeks,

I've set up a variety of receivers.

So far the 85 wpc kenwood kr-7600 was too much,

especially for a mid-size living room.

A 35 wpc Sansui QR-6500 sounded great,

but currently a 55 wpc Sansui 2000a is perfect.

The 1972 Sansui has a warm sound,

and just enough power to kick in the woofers.

The 110wpc Sansui 9090 is waiting it's turn though!

TP