dynaco_dan
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Posts posted by dynaco_dan
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Hi Bob;
My comment regarding the love for the AR-3 had been aimed at Joe Nino-Hernes.
The story of your name will come out though, please.
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Hi Joe;
Do you still have a pair that you own and use, even ocassionly?
I know you have a special place in your heart for the AR-3's.
Have you ever had the opportunity to hear the difference between the AR-3 and AR-3A tweeters?
If so, please comment.
Anyone for that matter, please.
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Hi again;
There is now 90 views of this topic, great.
I do hope there is much more feedback from others regarding this old classic speaker and the AR-2A's to keep the topic on target.
Any feedback regarding the 1 3/8" tweeter?
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Hi Matt;
Thank you for sharing about your hifi experience.
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Hi Matt;
Do you still have the AR-2A's?
What type music did you use with them?
Less than 15 minutes after I saved the write-up here there was 25 viewers.
Must have caught a few eyes.
Interesting that the AR-2AX's mid driver was also the early AR-4's tweeter that Consumer Report's liked so much, way back in time.
AR picked several third party successful driver blends.
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Hi there;
Here is an example of the early AR dual tweeters used in the AR-2 and also the AR-2A speaker systems.
I received this very well packaged unit recently and it looks as good in my hand as it did in the auction, nice treat.
The cones themselves have a typical slight ripple from the insulation behind the cone but not awefully bad.
I have no reason to open up these babies to look inside.
They were originally mounted in a cast aluminum housing in the earliest AR-2 speaker systems.
This housing here is a moulded plastic, possibly ABS, later version which houses the two third party manufactured tweeters.
Either AR or the tweeter manufacturer wedged small pieces of fiberglas into the rear of the cone, between the cone and the steel frame to dampen resonances, presumably.
They were pie shaped wedges and one was knotched for the tweeter leads.
They were also wired in parallel just outside of the plastic case.
Heathkit also sold a kit version of the AR-2 and the speaker wedges even were done by the kit builder.
There is scrap pieces of fiberglas inside the back of the plastic housing and the holes where the wires leave the case are glued, every little detail is looked after.
Interestingly, when AR did the response printout for the tweeters they only used one tweeter, straight on axis.
It had a limit of just above 12k, gently tapering downward but if you read old past test reports there was a love of this speaker in the AR-2 system with certain instruments, deficiencies, warts and all.
So much for not having a 20k highend limit and it not being a problem.
Does smoothness of frequency response and low distortion more than offset frequency extremes?
I would appreciate hearing from anyone with more information or just comments on this tweeter system.
Also the complete AR-2 or AR-2A speaker systems.
The manufacturer was a Carbonneau (spel) of which I know nothing about.
How did AR choose this particular manufacturer and driver and arrive at the dual angled enclosure?
AR did not seem to have many lemons, that is for sure.
I envy TomT having the capability to listen to each individual speaker system from the smallest to the largest with no rush to shut them off and with any type music.
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Hi Kent;
Thank you following up with this last write-up.
By you going through each step and having someone responding to it, everyone else can see what paths there are and frustrations as well in attempting to restore a classic speaker.
At least you end up with true Allison tweeters in the end, congratulations.
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>I found the pic below on AK and it's supposed to be the xover
>of an A-25. I've seen written many times that the A-25 has no
>coil in the woofer xover, yet there clearly is one in this
>pic.
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>Any guesses as to what's going on here?
>
>Regards,
>Jerry
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Hi Jerry;
The item above the cap is also strange, looks like a funny resistor or funnier cap, possibly an owners add-on.
This is not an A-25 crossover.
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Hi there;
Thank you for a little insite into Cizek speakers.
It is nice to hear of high quality, individual tuning, hand workmanship.
I never heard of the speaker name Cizek until I came to this site.
No wonder Paolo loves his Cizek speakers so much.
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Hi Doug;
Well said, Doug, thank you very much.
This site is for those person's, whether male or female.
They come and find or add to interesting hifi write-ups and thoughts of person's from all over the world.
It is as non-commercialized as it can be.
There is a forum here, specifically dedicated to the buying and selling of one's own personnal hifi equipment.
By you posting your personnal hifi items for sale or wanted, you can be better located or we can make suggestions, rather than your items getting lost deep in other forums.
This is a, not for profit site, please do not list sale items, such as an on-going business, as you would on eBay.
There has been some attempts at Spamming here, but, Mark is on top of that issue.
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Hi there;
If you are going to spend any money, go the used eBay route for one.
I bought a few and am very pleased with the purchases.
Mine also have the screens.
If you are a winner on eBay, for one, specify how you want them packaged for shipment.
Nothing more frustrating than receiving tweeters with crushed domes.
I also have 2 brand new ones I bought here about 10 years ago, for spares.
You can buy numerous new replacement drivers and end up very frustrated that you don't end of with Allison's anymore.
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Hi Carl;
No need for you to eat crow, Carl.
You can only do the best you can do, with what you have available at any given time.
I am certain there is more information out there, but we are here and now.
It can be added to our pool of knowledge, if and when it arises.
I really appreciate all of your efforts to do what you have done, both in the stuffing and grille cloth studies.
I certainly couldn't have done what you did.
It makes for good and enjoyable reading, Carl, thank you.
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Hi there;
I will make a guess that it is the vibrations caused by the woofers and there is that border.
The cloth is fastened to the frames and the cutouts are acting like a mini vacuum cleaner.
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>>What brought me to this is the large number of posts and
>views
>>of the brown stuffing post. I thought I'd evaluate some
>>alternatives to rock wool. I think I've found 1 or 2. For
>>those of you cleaning or replacing those corroded pots,
>please
>>consider throwing out that old rock wool and replacing it
>with
>>something more friendly to those cleaned up pots and less
>>dangerous to work with.
>>
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>Both fiberglass and rock wool are non-flammable and won't melt
>at any temperature likely to be found inside a speaker
>enclosure.
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>>>>Previous posts here indicate that the pots used in AR speakers >>>>can get quite hot.
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From my personnal experience, I have seen many incidences of charred pots, melted pot shafts and toasted woofer voice coils.
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>>> Replacing the fiberglass with
>>>poly-fill would require evaluating the risks associated with
>>>replacing non-flammable fiberglass with a flammable stuffing.
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A very good point regarding safety, considering that what we are writing about is, out of sight, and out of mind.
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I, along with invaluable help from James, have been working towards finding a heat resistant and non-combustible pot (rheostat) heat shield, that is readily and reasonably available.
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I have more than a few samples, perhaps 3 dozen that I have bought and that I continue to carry with me, to show samples of what I am searching for.
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I also carry two samples of pots with me to trial fit them.
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If a Chinese tea cup looks familiar, I've got a collection of them now.
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I have a Chinese sample and an Ohmire sample, both different sizes.
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When I find something that I feel is suitable, I will announce it here.
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Another good member has been working on a rotary switch with small resistors, offering a stepped controller.
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His commentary is that there is actually very low wattage and that the small resistors will not be overloaded.
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I have not read any new information from him, but it is a step in a different and it appears, a positive direction.
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It would give everyone another option in tweeter and mid driver level controlling, rather than just using pots.
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I've contacted Ohmite with a suggestion and they didn't even reply.
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A Chinese manufacturers contact said that unless 50,000 or more is in mind, not interested.
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Hi Carl;
A wonderful report, thank you very much.
Very professional looking.
I feel that the AR-4X is simple enough to do the test with, rather than a larger, more complex system.
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Hi russ;
Thank you very much for your write-up.
We can never have enough good advice.
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Hi Doug;
Nice to someone with a great sense of humour, thank you.
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Hi There;
Welcome Kent to CSP.
Actually the green Advent raised tweeters were only produced on St Patricks Day.
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Hi there;
I just did a google for Clarostat, nothing else to do at 3 in the morning.
I came up with Honeywell, the owners of Clarostat's brand name.
Under Series 58, part number 58C110, a sample of a 10 ohm pot is rated at only 4 watts.
Even their Milspec version has a 4 watt rating.
To sum up my progress, I had assumed, that because of the very smooth silky feel, I had L-pads.
Now I know and you know, AR used 10 ohm 4 watt rated pots in their very early speaker versions, at least in the AR-2 8 ohm series speakers.
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Hi there;
The round woofer will fit into the horned hole ok.
The horned woofers require that you knotch the cabinets for the horns, with a wood chisel, a minor job.
Good luck.
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Hi there;
I have taken the steel rear cap off of an, "L-pad", identical to the one I was asking about at the beginning of this topic.
I received another sample of the, "L-pad", this one would not turn at all.
As I mentioned in an earlier finger turn test, there was almost a no feel resistance with the new, 20 ohm 5 watt Chinese pot, I have here, also the same as with this first, "L-pad".
There is a very good reason for this similarity, upon opening my stuck, "L-pad", I saw a major brown coating splattered all over the inside of the steel cap.
There is a small similarity to the inside of the Aetna-Pollock pots.
There is more of the windings with the, "L-pad", so many I cannot count them, if they were all there.
These are real copper insulated wires of about, human hair size.
The "L-pad", my mistaken identity due to the smoothness of feel, is actually a Clarostat 10 ohm pot.
Without an old Clarostat catalog for information, I will guess that this is about a 5 watt rated pot.
The new Chinese 5 watt pot uses, Resista wire, or nich-chrome wire, with pencil thin line spaces between the windings and are countable.
So now I will call my sample, L-pad", by it's true name, "pot".
The material splattered on to the rear of the cap is in fact, melted wire insulation, something dramatic, gross overload perhaps, happened.
About 1/4 section of the pot windings is almost totally missing, as in burnt off.
Needless to say, the dual tweeters that also came with this pots crossover, are also DOA, gone forever, sadly.
Having read a little bit here and there regarding the dual tweeters, being heavily modified after buying them from CTS.
There is an amount of fibreglass sandwiched between the cone and the tweeters frame.
Now that I have never seen an L-pad, I think I will buy one.
Where is the woofer that did not come with the, dual tweeters and crossover?
I do not know.
Would a fuse have helped save these classic parts?
We will never know.
It certainly would not have hurt to have had them fused, though.
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Hi there;
I am still referencing an AR-2 speaker system, a single woofer and dual tweeters.
I am in the process of changing my mind, a man's perogative, that I do not, have L-pads, my reasoning follows.
There is 2 connections, rather than the usual 3 connections with a typical pot.
I feel that it now is a lower cheaper quality, maybe, pot with a lower power wattage rating.
It would just add resistance to the tweeter's input only.
Now my question is, does the tweeter's output level start drooping, as in hinging, from it's crossover point, as the shaft is turned?
Or does the tweeters top end start to droop as the shaft is turned?
Maybe this is now a simpler question?
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Hi again;
I may have made an error in my writing.
The L-pad? I mentioned only has 3 terminals, of which, only the center and outer contacts are connected.
They do say 10 ohms, but, as I was reading both your write-ups now, I looked at a 5 watt 20 ohm wirewound pot, that I bought just a few years ago.
In a blind test, I cannot tell which is which, by turning each back and forth, the old L-pad? or the new 5 watt pot.
There is almost no resistance to turning them to speak of, with either one, almost lite-duty or a cheap quality feeling.
Would not an L-pad require a second deck, with more contacts, for the shunt section?
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Hi again;
I added to the topic, but lost everything last night.
Here goes again.
I have a sample of, I suspect, 2 AR-2, speaker terminal boards complete.
There is an L-pad on both boards, rather than a pot, with only 2 of the 3 terminals connected to anything.
One L-pad has embossed on the rear, CM24067 10 ohm 140911, the shaft turns with a definite smoothness, needing very little effort to turn, as if brand new.
Not anywhere near the screechy, hair raising screech of the typical 16 ohm Aetna-Pollock pot, nor the dragging feel of the windings, as the rotor passes over the wire.
There is a copper wire coil, approximately 2" in diameter, no markings on it, wound on a short piece of wooden dowel.
There is 2 cute little metal body caps, about 1" x 1" x 1 1/2", with 3 terminals each, taped together with what appears to be 1/4" masking tape covering most of the manufacturers embossed markings.
One cap has 200VDC - 50'C 30Z embossed on it's top.
The other cap is covered with the 1/4" tape.
The other board is identical, except the L-pad has 140918 embossed instead and this L-pad has an original shaft knob.
I would need to remove tape from one or the other to see the cap rating.
The 3 terminal screws are in a triangular configuration.
AR dual tweeters AR-2 & AR-2A
in Acoustic Research
Posted
Hi Bob;
My name is really, Barbara. lol lol Just joking.
Thank you for the compliment.
Joe Nino-Hernes, a very nice man, records live settings and has a very high standard of what he will accept in recordings.
He has a special place for AR-3's.
There is a number of really nice members here from different countries that do write here.
I have been here for a little while and do try to add to the database of hifi knowledge.
You will see that there is some very technical writers here and this adds some meat to my potatoes. lol
It is a very good site to come and join in.
It is well maintained for language and respect.