The VOX Showroom - The Vox AC-50 Small Box Speaker Enclosure and stand

The JMI Vox AC-50 "Small Box" Speaker Cabinet and Stand

Two AC-50 "Small Box" speaker cabinets came to America with the Beatles in February 1964. While not seen by the television camera, these cabinets were alongside the Beatles on their first appearances on the "Ed Sullivan Show."

Shortly after their first Sullivan appearnce, the Beatles carried these speaker cabs and AC-50 amp heads to Washington DC for their first concert appearance in America. As a result, the "Small Box" AC-50 amp heads and speaker cabinets are often referred to as the "Washington DC" amps.

To the best of my understanding, this exact speaker cabinet was never offered to the public by Vox. Several signs point to the initial "Small Box" cabinet design being the result of a hurried effort to supply a speaker system to the Beatles for their new AC-50 heads.

The design starts out with a standard AC-30 2x 12" speaker cabinet. It had two 15 watt Celestion Alnico blue speakers, yielding a total power handling capacity of only 30 watts. This was not well matched to the far greater 50 watt output of the new amps.

A Goodmans Midax horn was also installed to increase the deficient treble response of the AC-50 "Small Box" head. The location of the horn cut out in the upper third of the baffle board made it necessary to depart from the traditional AC-30 cosmetic and install a full grill on the front panel.

Additionally, the cabinets were not sufficiently deep to enclose the back of the Midax horn, leaving it exposed and protruding from a hole in the back of the cabinet. A picture of this curious Midax horn installation can be seen at left.

A vinyl covered plaque was installed under the Vox name plate, apparently to improve the legibility of the Vox name.

Vox also supplied the Beatles with their newest version of the AC-30 rigid, or "TV" chrome stand to support the speaker cabinet. The stand had "bent pins" on the amp support tubes to help align the cabinet on the stand. The Beatles placed the amp heads on the floor, inside the base of the stand.

In the movie "A Hard Day's Night," George Harrison leans on his AC-50 "Small Box" speaker cabinet and nearly knocks it off the stand during the Beatles' performance of "If I Fell."

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