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Mr. Ken Kantor, new 3/4" dome tweeter needed for 3 way AR speakers!


mluong303

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Dear Mr. Ken Kantor

Please considering my suggestion seriously and propose to the marketing people at Vifa to manufacturing a 3/4" coated fabric tweeter similar to the TC20TD05 with wide 4-3/4" faceplate that will fit on the AR-3a/AR-11 speaker family?

The tweeter needed is a 4 Ohms driver with DC resistance around 3.5 Ohms and 89 db sensitivity within the range of 3500Hz-20KHz for used with the crossover point of 5000Hz. For the selling price of $15-$20 each, I am sure many AR owners who own AR-3a, AR-10Pi, AR-11, AR-9, AR-90, AR-91, AR-58S etc. will be more than happy to purchase such tweeters as replacement units.

There is a huge demand for this tweeter in both US and over sea market.

I have great confidence in you to make this a reality for all the AR owners in the World.

Sincerely,

Minh Luong

http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi...4.3355&pid=1413

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/1097.jpg

post-101112-1141741734.jpg

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>Dear Mr. Ken Kantor

>

>Please considering my suggestion seriously and propose to the

>marketing people at Vifa to manufacturing a 3/4" coated

>fabric tweeter similar to the TC20TD05 with wide 4-3/4"

>faceplate that will fit on the AR-3a/AR-11 speaker family?

>

>The tweeter needed is a 4 Ohms driver with DC resistance

>around 3.5 Ohms and 89 db sensitivity within the range of

>3500Hz-20KHz for used with the crossover point of 5000Hz. For

>the selling price of $15-$20 each, I am sure many AR owners

>who own AR-3a, AR-10Pi, AR-11, AR-9, AR-90, AR-91, AR-58S etc.

>will be more than happy to purchase such tweeters as

>replacement units.

>

>There is a huge demand for this tweeter in both US and over

>sea market.

>

>I have great confidence in you to make this a reality for all

>the AR owners in the World.

>

>Sincerely,

>Minh Luong

>

>

>http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi...4.3355&pid=1413

>

>http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/1097.jpg

>

WOW! Dear Minh, I'm all for this concept myself, great suggestion, but would Ken Kantor or Vifa's agree to this possibility (I may have made the similar suggestion to someone myself in another post months ago?), or would "Vifa" even consider the push for such a project considering Vifa's motives? Would a company such as Vifa actually consider a group of individuals and accommodate us vintage AR freaks, small group that we are? Is the demand too small to make a profit for them? If it were I in charge I would if I wasn't bucking my corporate position and job.

In other topics, could you or anyone else advise me going into my LST's and gluing additional wood bracing in some of the corners with '1/4 round' wood to further illminate resonances be a good idea, and if so how much bracing would make any difference? I thought as long as I am going to do the foam surrounds with Parts-Express's replacement foam, plus any word of the quality of those?), I might think about it. I could brace-up more corners than AR took the time to do. What about some 2X3 pieces (like 'Cello' did) of oak or maple for wall-to-wall bracing? I think all that extra wood would lessen the actual internal volume, obviously. In addition to that operation, how about redoing AR's 35 year old stuffing with "P-E"s Acousti-Foam™ the newer equivalent of fiber-glass with the equivalent weight of AR's? When does it ever stop?

frankmarsi@verizon.net

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Why stop there? Why not manufacture replacements drivers for all the best performing most popular AR systems. Sell them as individual replacement drivers, bundled with prewired crossover networks as kits with and without enclosures, and fully assembled and tested. Market them through Parts Express, Madisound, Radio Shack, Target, and Krispy Kreme. :-)

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>Why stop there? Why not manufacture replacements drivers for

>all the best performing most popular AR systems. Sell them as

>individual replacement drivers, bundled with prewired

>crossover networks as kits with and without enclosures, and

>fully assembled and tested. Market them through Parts

>Express, Madisound, Radio Shack, Target, and Krispy Kreme.

>:-)

My Take On the Present’, by Frank Marsi

I agree with Minh and you entirely, but AR vintage speaker loving people live in a relatively small space in this world, a ‘time-warp’ if you will. I live and commute into NYC everyday for almost 40 years now, believe me when I say 'we' meaning vintage speaker collectors are a small bunch. If you can find a quality stereo shop as there maybe 5 or so left in Manhattan, don’t even think about buying a quality system for less than $20 grand or more in the few stores that remain. In the 1970’s quality stereo component stores were abundant. For a personal treat I would use an entire Saturday and scourer them all, and take as many brochures as I could carry. I can tell you according to what I see in that God forsaken place known as NYC, it is very different for Hi-Fi lovers, and if it is any sort of a barometer of the rest of the nation and world, things have changed drastically. Generally people are not as much into music as compared to years ago. Oh, you want to go to a concert, and go drop $100+ bucks or so. Today it seems most young people only want to be a celebrity or star basketball player as the culture we presently live in that tells them they should be.

In my apparent bitterness of middle age, I often see dumb so called adults having even dumber than themselves children and all they seem to care about is SUVs, beating traffic lights, and holding cell phones. I must admit, the afore mentioned complaints are hopefully generalizations and not the majority of our nation or world, but I wonder about that too most times. Although I seek solace in hoping the forecast will be better, it’s debatable and saddening to ponder. As my hair and teeth fall out, much like today’s teens pants seem to hang lower and lower. Non-melodious rhythm beats of rap ‘music’-(term used loosely here) and so forth have taken over music here in the big city and in the outlying suburbs. And generally speaking, no one else cares about ‘quality’ music and melody and emotionally moving music as my generation and prior generations once did. I see mostly young people wearing pants with the crouch down to their knees, three T shirts layered, with a cheap down opened jacket for winter and heavy boots in summer as the general fashion, accessorized of course with a cell phone and mini playback screen, that’s all that seems to matter. Speaking for myself, my friends and some relatives imply and sometimes say that I live in the past and complain too much as I must admit I do, but! One reason is they see my hobby and love of it as being old and listening to ‘quality’ music and my crazy ways of preserving that past as being limited and mentally challenged and that I should ‘get-a-life’. What they all seem to forget is my generation instituted bell-bottoms, love beads, free love, and long hair and let’s make it all good again and stop war and look for peace, but even that in it’s time was looked down upon as disillusionment and it certainly did create other problems. Of course my response is they really can't appreciate my hobby or music they way I do. I get angry, bitter and move on and go listen to my music collection and not to them. They run off into their own world somewhere and think that I'm nuts, after they’ve cut me off with their SUV as I cross the street. Speaking of music, there really isn’t much offered out there in terms of rock, progressive music or otherwise. I asked a couple 30-year olders just the other day what they would recommend and the answer I received was; ‘there's not much out there!’ I also realize that FM radio here in the rotting apple is virtually all but dead. I have a relative who works for a major music company (starts with and ‘S’) and he states their closing studios left and right and scraping the barrel trying to produce more new music, but there’s not much to go seek as they move towards making violent movies instead.

So I listen to rock circa, '60s, '70s, '80s, classical music, symphony and chamber, jazz- improv, fusion a'la Stanley Clarke, Crusaders, etc. etc. My system accommodates these types of music wonderfully of course so there-in lies my satisfaction, as I don’t seem to find it in the outside world. So as I enjoy the past accomplishments of great music masters the younger set seeks out what? Electronic drum machines and nursery rhyme sounding riffs are the mainstay presently as ‘our’ world is changed and people like you and I can only dream about how it once was. Thank God for history books and scholars who still profess knowledge of past great achievements and hopefully that will always remain intact. And the fact that my parents cared about what was being instilled in my mind, as some others may still do with their children, contrary to what seems to be how the majority of how some parents raise their kids today. These kids are emotionally brought-up by the TV screen, not by their parents, where- as I still believe in the ‘golden-rule’ and convention for the most part. I see few others who do though, those who are 20, 30 years younger seemingly don’t have a clue. The consensus I get today from younger people is ‘if you are older, you must be stupid’ not the reverse as I was taught and respected as being truth all of my life! The younger market is seemingly the only one major companies do ‘marketing- forecasts’ for, in spite of which pockets the money may be in.

If companies like major component manufacturers would even consider putting out retro-fit and or exact replacement parts for older speakers, then I’d buy these parts, but frankly I doubt such a thing would ever take place because in reality how many others would they be making them for? Today it seems that major companies solely seek what is profitable on a global scale, and not a small segment of listeners. For a few hundred bucks one can buy a 5.1 or7.1 system for their TV and movie watching needs and that is enough for the average person. I must admit back in the 1970’s it was also true that most could not afford more than an ‘AR4x’ and small receiver set-up, if they even cared to go that far, as most had their Magnavox consoles and such. In the early ‘70s when I purchased my AR-3a’s, I was considered extreme by most. For music the market caters to the ‘Ipod’ and similar listening modes. Suffice it to say you, that I and all these other crazy lovers of old vintage speakers must continue like we have been doing for the past 15 or so years and rummage through the remains of what’s left out there in the present world for any thing that may be still salvageable. Once I die, no doubt all of my stuff will be thrown out in the garbage just like all of the old photographs of my family’s hard times of living in the ‘Great-Depression’ 1940’s and ‘50s cause nobody really cares, and if there are some out there who would, it’ll all be gone with nothing left to relate to anyway. No one wants to care about how hard others before me or them selves had it, it doesn’t matter to them, and as much as I think it should, it’s not keeping their stomachs full, so they don’t care to know.

If my dialog is depressing, as I’m sure it is to most and myself included, just be cogniscent that I too am a by-product of my world for all of the same reasons.

Here's to 're-foaming' and quality listening time! Salute'

Frank Marsi, copyright 3-11-06

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Well I thank you Mr Kantor for even entertaining this for us. I have two LSTs three LST2s and one pair of AR 3s And one pair of AR 3As My threes are in great shape but I have no tweeters for the LSTs and I have four sets of AR 3As to fix for friends so Right of the bat I could use 20 tweeters.

Thank you

Jim

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>All I need is an integer between 1 and 100,000....<

I suppose we need some idea of what the unit price would be in some rate-bands.

Or, maybe your expertise telling us what's actually doable.

Let's say we went for 5,000 units of a 3a tweeter, 5,000 of a 9/90/91/92 tweeter, and 5,000 of a 10pi/11? Can anyone even afford to tool-up for 5,000 units?

Would it take 10,000? What about for 20,000?

Anyone in addition to me willing to buy *way* more than you need and **find** a way to get rid of them?

(sorry for being so ignorant, but I've never seen what goes-into driver manufacturing, and I can't judge cost since I don't know what the typical retail mark-up is in "parts")

Bret - From Mickey's Place in Orlando

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>>Dear Mr. Ken Kantor

>>

>>Please considering my suggestion seriously and propose to

>the

>>marketing people at Vifa to manufacturing a 3/4"

>coated

>>fabric tweeter similar to the TC20TD05 with wide

>4-3/4"

>>faceplate that will fit on the AR-3a/AR-11 speaker family?

>

>>

>>The tweeter needed is a 4 Ohms driver with DC resistance

>>around 3.5 Ohms and 89 db sensitivity within the range of

>>3500Hz-20KHz for used with the crossover point of 5000Hz.

>For

>>the selling price of $15-$20 each, I am sure many AR

>owners

>>who own AR-3a, AR-10Pi, AR-11, AR-9, AR-90, AR-91, AR-58S

>etc.

>>will be more than happy to purchase such tweeters as

>>replacement units.

>>

>>There is a huge demand for this tweeter in both US and

>over

>>sea market.

>>

>>I have great confidence in you to make this a reality for

>all

>>the AR owners in the World.

>>

>>Sincerely,

>>Minh Luong

>>

>>

>>http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi...4.3355&pid=1413

>>

>>http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/1097.jpg

>>

>

>

>

>WOW! Dear Minh, I'm all for this concept myself, great

>suggestion, but would Ken Kantor or Vifa's agree to this

>possibility (I may have made the similar suggestion to someone

>myself in another post months ago?), or would "Vifa"

>even consider the push for such a project considering Vifa's

>motives? Would a company such as Vifa actually consider a

>group of individuals and accommodate us vintage AR freaks,

>small group that we are? Is the demand too small to make a

>profit for them? If it were I in charge I would if I wasn't

>bucking my corporate position and job.

>In other topics, could you or anyone else advise me going into

>my LST's and gluing additional wood bracing in some of the

>corners with '1/4 round' wood to further illminate resonances

>be a good idea, and if so how much bracing would make any

>difference? I thought as long as I am going to do the foam

>surrounds with Parts-Express's replacement foam, plus any word

>of the quality of those?), I might think about it. I could

>brace-up more corners than AR took the time to do. What about

>some 2X3 pieces (like 'Cello' did) of oak or maple for

>wall-to-wall bracing? I think all that extra wood would lessen

>the actual internal volume, obviously. In addition to that

>operation, how about redoing AR's 35 year old stuffing with

>"P-E"s Acousti-Foam™ the newer equivalent of

>fiber-glass with the equivalent weight of AR's? When does it

>ever stop?

>frankmarsi@verizon.net

>

Hi Frank;

Many years ago, I read about someone using car body undercoating, painting the inside of an enclosure, completely.

If you go to, Avahifi.com and read some of the back issues of, Frank Van Alstynes, monthly newsletter, he discusses lining the enclosure completely with Plasti-clay.

Both of these techniques were used to reduce the cabinet resonances.

Frank, felt there was a sonic benefit to this putty.

Changing the fibreglass to synthetic material stuffing is a job to be done with lab testing equipment.

If not done correctly we lose bass.

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Gentlemen:

Minh has asked a serious question that cannot be answered with humor. The drivers are the essence of these speakers. The designs are complete, we are not trying to redesign AR speakers, just replace a driver. One can always build new cabinets, buy new potentiometers and capacitors, wind coils, and--if one does not like fiberglass--use Acousta-Stuf (as Ken has stated, the final quantity is determined by ear, not equipment). There have been may discussions about the decay of the foam inside the tweeter. At some point the demand will increase.

It is difficult to determine the number of units. About 100,000 AR-3a were manufactured; how many are now functional? 5%? 10%? Anyone have a good estimate? What fraction of those would be replaced? 25%?? Again, got an estimate? ... guesses for the other speakers?

It's obviously not a mass market, but niche markets follow needs. It would seem that this could be done; unit cost would be the question.

I think Ken is asking how many units, so he could give us a guestimate of unit cost.

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Everybody's stuff gets thrown out eventually, Frank - try not to worry about it! It's easy for people to be overwhelmed by change, but the truly important things do tend to be passed along, even if it's just from one person to another.

I met an old-timer while waiting in line at a sandwich shop today - he was wearing a ball cap with a couple of Marine Corps battle ribbons from the South Pacific, along with a miniature Navy Cross and Purple Heart. He saw me notice his cap, and we nodded at each other - I told him that my dad had been with the Army Air Corps, and he agreed that they'd maybe rubbed elbows at one time or another. We jawed for a couple of minutes about some tiny hell-hole islands, and then out of nowhere, he asked when and where I'd served with the Marines. Too surprised to *be* surprised, I blabbed the Reader's Digest version of '69-'71, while he silently listened. The old guy then leaned in, said "Semper Fi", and left with his lunch. When I turned back to the counter, the young cashier had big tears running down both cheeks, and the 20-something guy behind me - a complete stranger - patted my shoulder. It's hard to believe that something of value hadn't just spontaneously moved through a couple of generations.

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>You've left me speechless I'm so dumbstruck.

>

>We're not dead....yet. At least I don't think I am. Maybe

>I'd better check just to make sure.

Don't worry S.M. ,you're not dead, I've read your pulse before. Now dig this below.

FM

3-11-06

To all members.

O.K. this whole idea is a great one and I would’ve been a major purchaser of many of these proposed tweeters immediately, if it ever did happen. However 8 months ago I personally felt the actual possibility of a cheaper, reliable and of course matching quality in sound, tweeter would not be a reality. I couldn’t wait, I determined through much research and surfing the net and asking for a suitable replacement was not an option. Buying such a delicate unit on EBay was futile, at least in my attempts. Yes you guess it, I called AB-Tech in MA.

I bought 18 high frequency tweeters, 16 to restore my 4 LST’s and 2 more for my original AR-3a’s. Dropping that much money at one time on only a sales reps’ opinion and the ‘hunch’ that these units would be correct in all ways, was more than unsettling for me. On top of this all I’ve barely installed only 2 so far. I’m lucky as one LST cabinet has all 4 original tweeters working and the other cabinets have at least 2 working in each. I supplement with AR’s only dedicated tweeter accessory, the vintage ‘Micro-Static’ array. I certainly do intend to install all 16 tweeters, however I never seem to be able to find the time, but for now my system still sounds great!

Yes, to answer the question even though I am pretty content with my need for tweeters, I still feel you can never have enough tweeters on hand, especially if you drive your speakers with high power amplifiers as I do. I learned long ago that my AR-3a’s sounded a world above and beyond what I was used to them sounding like with a low powered amp of 60 watts per channel RMS, or even 100 watts RMS. When I took the plunge in 1974 to by a high-powered one, the whole image of AR speakers changed for me. In plain language, AR’s just sound better with high power, admit it, learn it, believe it , and understand it. This was known years ago by fortunate people of that era when high power became affordable in the early seventies and I as a witness for the fact can attest to it!

So, tweeters will always be on my ‘needs-list’ if I’m to always enjoy my AR speakers, period! It’s undeniable how this could turn into a ‘tweeter feeding frenzy’ if we’re not careful. “Soundminded” man, hold on! I’m out there with Vern,Minh, and others as I proudly wear my 12 inch AR basket head ornament kicking up the dust and I’m raring to go! And like rice at a new bride, Vern will be throwing 1&1/4" fuses at everyone.

frankmarsi@verizon.net

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>Everybody's stuff gets thrown out eventually, Frank - try not

>to worry about it! It's easy for people to be overwhelmed by

>change, but the truly important things do tend to be passed

>along, even if it's just from one person to another.

>

>I met an old-timer while waiting in line at a sandwich shop

>today - he was wearing a ball cap with a couple of Marine

>Corps battle ribbons from the South Pacific, along with a

>miniature Navy Cross and Purple Heart. He saw me notice his

>cap, and we nodded at each other - I told him that my dad had

>been with the Army Air Corps, and he agreed that they'd maybe

>rubbed elbows at one time or another. We jawed for a couple of

>minutes about some tiny hell-hole islands, and then out of

>nowhere, he asked when and where I'd served with the Marines.

>Too surprised to *be* surprised, I blabbed the Reader's Digest

>version of '69-'71, while he silently listened. The old guy

>then leaned in, said "Semper Fi", and left with his

>lunch. When I turned back to the counter, the young cashier

>had big tears running down both cheeks, and the 20-something

>guy behind me - a complete stranger - patted my shoulder. It's

>hard to believe that something of value hadn't just

>spontaneously moved through a couple of generations.

AR-Pro, a 'very-cool', yet heart warming occurance if I must so myself! But oh so rare.

frankmarsi@verizon.net

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Both the tooling cost and the materials cost can vary over a huge range. Perhaps the biggest hurdle is all the engineering, procurement, production planning and documention support required to launch a new product. I'm willing to support this as a break-even, labor of love. Still, engineering resources are very precious at the moment, and there is a backlog of design work to be done. So, there would have to be a realistic market of a few thousand units to justify taking this on.

Because of the nature of this kind of project, I seriously doubt the economics will support the creation of an actual copy of original driver, at least at any market price I can imagine people paying. However, Minh has suggested an existing Tymphany model that might only require a faceplate change. This is much more realistic.

Another question: how much are people willing to pay for a reasonably accurate replacement?

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I am in the process of restoring a 1953 Jaguar Xk120 DHC (Drop Head Coupe). During the '53-'54 production run only 1700 LHD were made for the export market. So how many of that small number are still running 53 years later. I purchased a fuel tank for the car that is unique to this model. Cost me nearly $700.

So now on to our issue. How do we determine the number of these speaker models out there. Our forum is only the tip of the pile of owners. We are all over the world. And how about folks who have them but do not belong to a forum such as ours. Their tweeter dies and they take it in to a place such as Orange County Speakers. So not only do we have owners who may want some for their own use but how about repair facilities who may want to buy in quantity to stock for future repair. Numbers will be hard to determine.

Maybe another way would be to determine unit cost and see what people would be willing to pay. As in the example of my fuel tank, what would we pay. To keep our classics sounding classic maybe a hair more.

Maybe Ken could get unit costs for increments of 5,000 up to say 30,000 and we can see what the drop dead buy point is. At that point maybe we will have had enough feedback to determine if the number is reasonable or not.

Hope what I said makes sense.

James

BTW I could use 4 for my 3a's

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So far I've paid $150 for one AR-9 tweeter (NOS) and $100 each for four 10pi tweeters (NOS) and felt very lucky to have found any at any price.

In an auction situation I might have been willing to pay as much as $200 for them.

It was that or abandon the speaker.

Obviously, I couldn't pay $200 for very many of them, though.

Aren't we talking about a relatively inexpensive tweeter, by today's standards?

Others may feel differently, but I would be willing to use a completely different driver if we had instructions on how to cross if from the midrange to get an original result.

Cookbook style.

Most of us aren't MIT matriculated engineers; or have labs.

Bret

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Guest postjob62

Minh and Ken,

Thanks here are in order. First to Minh, for lending his undisputed credibility to the raising of the issue to start with. And secondly to Ken, for taking it seriously. He's one of few here with the knowledge and resources to actually make this happen.

To the issue of how many; if as John speculates, there were 100,00 3a's and maybe 10% still viable, and one adds in a similar percentage of the other models sharing this tweeter, what is the universe of potential prospects out there? I think 15,000 might be conservative. Ah, but you say, how many of these survivor are replacement candidates? I say most if not all, simply because the ones that have survived have made it for one of two reasons. Either they are in the hands of fringe-element afficiandos like ourselves, or they are languishing in long-gone parent's attics. The first group, us, speaks for itself. As for the second group, when the kids discover these gems in the attic, what happens in this day and time? Garage sale, maybe, but more likley, "let's look on ebay and see what they're worth"! Then they ultimately wind up in the hands of the first group, namely, us. And they are ALL going to need tweeters sooner or later if put to use.

As far as the configuration here's what my non-technically oriented marketing mind would think. I like an original-looking 3a from the outside, and a reasonable look from the bare baffle. But none of my three pairs are museum piece candidates, they're either very nice original-looking "listeners" or will be one day. Museum candidates speak for themselves. Some of you folks have used the car restoration analogy. My '62 Bel Air 2-door sedan 409/425 4-speed (OK, there's my moniker if anyone noticed) got disc front brakes early on. Original, no, but I wanted to actually drive the darn thing. So I would say the parameters for a market-viable replacement would be as follows:

1. It should look reasonable, fit in the same opening and have the same bolt pattern.

2. It's sonic characterisics should be passably similar.

3. Finally, and I think this is important, it should require no crossover mods to sound right. Think about it, the first two parameters are pretty much met with the current AB Tech "replacement", but for it to sound correct one needs to change cap values. Remeber the KISS theory; there are more non-technos out there than others.

How many would I personally buy? Depends on the price of course. I'm not a person of significant means, but at anywhere between $50. and $100. I'd find a way to buy at least 10-20, even if I had to dip into the equity line. Remember, when they're gone, they're gone.

Anyway, enough for now but good luck with this very exciting idea.

Ed

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>>All I need is an integer between 1 and 100,000....

>>

>>

>

>

>O.K. I'm in, I need 4 at this point.

>frankmarsi@verizon.net

This is to funny about us AR guys Mine is a 61 Impala had it for 33 years it has a 84 corvette frame under it and a 383 two stage fuel injection all controled buy a computer also a 2004 firebird interiore in it. i have never left a car stock. but most of my ARs are just new caps except the ones I have built with AR drivers.

I like the stock sound from them. but have the pots maxed do to heiring loss.

Jim

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Greeting Everyone

I would like to Thank Ken for his reply, John O'hanlon for taking me seriously and Ed for supporting my idea.

My idea is to come up with a low cost alternative that AR owners ( 1st, 2nd or 3rd generation alike ) all around the World will be able to purchase the replacement tweeters easily from speaker/electronic parts stores without have to go through the trouble of paying high cost air shipping from the US. For your information, a pair of AB Tech tweeters to Australia cost about $59 US dollars by Air Parcel Post!

I am hoping for that US$59. It should be enough to cover two new tweeters plus two new polypropylene capacitors to swap out the old caps in the tweeter crossover path to bring new life to the vintage AR 3 way speakers that people enjoy their music so much over the years. Hopefully these AR speakers will be pass along to the next generation again.

There are quite a few low cost tweeters from Vifa, Seas, Peerless and Audax (all made in Europe) plus the 1994 AR-303 tweeter that are very close to the spec of the AR 3/4" coated soft dome tweeter with minor technical modification needed but mainly just manufacturing the new 4-3/4" face plate to fit the big opening hole of the AR 3 way speaker cabinets. So this is not requesting for a new tweeter from sketch and end up with another unit cost $62.50 or more!

Thousands of AR owners had ordered the AB Tech tweeters and very happy with the result including me. I had bought at least 15 pairs of AB Tech 3/4" tweeters over the years with no complaint. I roughly estimate AB Tech had sold at least 10,000 units in the past 15 years. If anyone has a more accurate number please go ahead and correct me.

http://www.abtechservices.com/pages/2/page...h=1134188465692

Minh Luong

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Guest kfarrand

Put me down for 10 AR3a tweeter replacement units @$50 each (assuming the units would equal or exceed the performance of the NOS units). Seriously, I'd be more than glad to pay $500 for enough tweeters to carry me into the next 20+ years of listening pleasure with the two AR3a's I've picked up in the past six months.

BTW. Bret I just won up my second set of AR3as on eBay from the Tampa area and would enjoy meeting you (and any other AR afficianados) some time in the Orlando, Jacksonville, St Augustine or Canaveral areas. I'm in the process of setting up an audio society here in the St Simons Island, Georgia area (Golden Isles Audio Society).

Kevin.Manson@Gmail.com

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