JKent

I modified a pair of 94Si’s by adding an L-pad to tame the tweeter. Also increased the woofer cap from 40uF to about 70uF, made a grille to eliminate the sock and moved the terminals to the back. I sold them to an acquaintance and every time I see him he raves about those speakers! https://community.classicspeakerpages.net/topic/8149-ar-94si-improved/

Here's what I mean. Your image was 42" x 56" with a resolution of 72. I resized it to 4.5" x 6" with a resolution of 100 and saved it at a quality level of 8. Now instead of 2.17MB it's 105kb.

Andrew If I may offer a little unsolicited advice: Those huge 2-3MB HEIC pics don't show up. Members have to download them and open them. Best thing is to resize to about 100KB and convert to jpg. I use Photoshop Elements but there are certainly other ways to achieve this. Generally I take my iPhone pics and resize them to about 6" on the long side with a resolution of 100 then save at a quality level of 8. Usually works perfectly. Kent

Never mind

Don't get me wrong. That's a nice amp and should pair well with your similar-vintage speakers. I just think it's more likely that the amp would have issues. I've acquired many old amps and receivers over the years and always have a pro check them out. Look at it this way: Your speakers have 1 or 2 (I've never been inside the 18) caps that, if they go out of spec, may cause changes in the crossover point that may or may not be noticeable. If you have to pay a technician to replace them I think you get very little bang for your buck (or euro as the case may be). OTOH, an amp has dozens of capacitors and numerous other electronic thingies, any one of which may go bad after 40 years and exposure to dirt and damp. Failure of any one of those components "may" cause others to malfunction and in the case of an amp, you're talking about an instrument that's constantly plugged into 220 volts in your home. That could be bad. In my experience Technics equipment is well-made and reliable. My technician uses only Panasonic (Technics' parent company) capacitors in his repair work. If you like the amp why not get the honest and professional folks at Uniaudio to check it out (or, if they don't do that work maybe they could recommend a technician who is familiar with older amps). Just a suggestion. Of course your speakers will work perfectly well with a newer amp. It all depends on how much you want to have "vintage" gear.

Welcome killsapo. Nice speakers and amp. I doubt that new capacitors in the speakers will make much, if any improvement. If you could do it yourself it would be worth it simply for longevity. I would be more concerned about your 1979 amp, found in a damp basement. I would recommend getting that thoroughly checked by a competent technician. btw, you can find the owner's manual, schematic, service manual and some other documents here: https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/technics/su-8044.shtml You can download them free--all you need to do is register. Good luck. ciao, Kent

The "hinge" is the positioning tab. You need it to prevent the pot from turning. These replacement have a shorter threaded section than the originals so there is no room for a lock washer. Giorgio marked the new pots to show how the terminals correspond to the AP pots (B, 1,2).

Those look great! Good to know the vinyl came off so easily. Interested to see how the grilles come out and why you removed the peg sockets.

Came across these being sold on consignment in the local electronics store. I never heard of them and had no idea CJ made speakers but it piqued my interest. Turns out Synthesis was a separate company. The speakers were designed by Dave Fokos, who later went on to Boston Acoustics and others. Based on the very little info I could dig up, these were bookshelf versions of the LM210 floor standers. Somewhere there's a TAS review of these but I haven't read it. They were supposedly designed to compete with the Rogers L3/5A's. They are ported, with a Dynaudio D28A/F tweeter and a Vifa 6.5" poly woofer. Crossover and wiring are said to be of the highest quality. Finish on all 6 sides is light oak veneer. I brought them home to audition but haven't listened yet--don't really have a good spot for them. A pic harvested from the interweb below: Anybody have any experience with these?

Try https://www.speakerworks.com You'll have to do some measuring because they don't list KLH. Are those 8"? Maybe this: https://www.speakerworks.com/8-inch-speaker-repair-kit-p/swk8a.htm Also check out their helpful re-foaming video. Note this is for ONE woofer so you'll need 4. Be sure to get the LATEX adhesive. Also, this does not include dust caps so if you plan to shim you'll need dust caps and shims. They're very helpful so ask how many bottles of adhesive you'll need (no more than 2 I'm sure) and what a package price would be for everything. Another option is Rick Cobbs on ebay. I've never used him but have read any positive comments. https://www.ebay.com/str/looneytune2001 Good luck. Come back here with any questions. We may not know the KLH Model 283 but many here can give advice and guidance on re-foaming your woofers.

The Model Twenty-One designation was used for radios--five of them but none had tweeters. I'm guessing you have a KLH Model Twenty-Plus. Very nice collectible system. The speakers sound good so why would you want to replace them? If the drivers are shot there are usually used ones on ebay.

...and off on a tangent: Don't replace the 3a tweeters if they're weak. Have Roy or Chris rebuild them.

https://community.classicspeakerpages.net/topic/13225-potentiometers-for-ar/

Those are not “classic” KLH speakers so doubtful any of us here would know anything about them. I don’t know who owned the KLH name when those were made. From a quick search it looks like those are from about 1999–long after Kloss or even Singer or Kyocera but before the current Kelley, who is trying to resurrect the original quality of the brand. I suspect the 283 was a cheap speaker made by Verit Industries in CA but I could be wrong. Definitely not Kendalls, which are from the new Kelley-owned KLH Audio. dxho gives good advice: if you want to use those speakers get some refoam kits and repair the woofers yourself.

Just to be a little contrary…. I’ll bet the Bob Latino tube amp currently offered in our For Sale section would be very nice with 3a’s. “Only” 60wpc but those amps get a lot of praise.

More watts won’t damage speakers so long as you don’t turn it up to 11. Clipping is the real enemy and it’s caused by too little power. Big watts is short hand for the more conservative method of measuring and rating amplifier power. Many modern amps don’t have the sustained power their wpc numbers suggest. btw, ignore any reference to wpc @ 8 ohms. For the 3a you MUST have an amp rated for 4 ohms or less.

The 10pi and 11 mids are identical to the 3a and some later mids (9, 90, 92, 38s) are nearly identical, just missing the screen iirc. Those have a plastic wave guide that I think can be removed and the screen from the 3a can be glued on “I think “. Maybe see what more experienced members say about that.

Go to the Vintage-AR eBay store and send him a message

The AR amp was a real 60wpc. Those were “big” watts and that was enough for the 3a. Personally I’d go for at least 100wpc and something that can handle 4 ohms or less. The new Crown amps are often mentioned as good bargains but there are many choices.

http://baselaudiolab.com/ADVENT_LA_XO.html

Local p/u only. Miami

Elsdon, Jeff gives some good advice. The only things I would add are: A better way to center the voice coil and avoid the buzzing Jeff found is to use shims instead of the test tone. However, many people report success with the test tone method. The glue can make a world of difference. There are 2 types: solvent-based and water-based. The solvent based glue is used for plastic cones and many suppliers sell it for use on paper cones as well. It's smelly, messy, unforgiving stuff similar to contact cement. For a first-timer especially it should be avoided. Mistakes are very difficult to correct. The water-based glue is white PVA glue. Here in the US we can buy Aleene's Tacky Glue, which is identical to the PVA glue sold with speaker surrounds. Elmer's glue and carpenter's glue are similar. The white glue can be spread with your finger, any squeeze-out can be cleaned up with water and it takes a while to dry so mis-alignments can be pulled apart and re-done. I can't say this strongly enough: Only use white PVA glue for your re-foam project. By the way, I buy surrounds from https://www.speakerworks.com/Default.asp I don't know if they ship to the UK but they have the right foams and glue and they are very helpful. Just note they sell them per each so you need to buy 2. Good luck. Kent

Beautiful! So if they were sold in the UK and the veneer isn't what was used here my guess is they were built in the UK. And is that where you are? Sorry--somehow I totally missed the missing foam part but you're right: Don't play them until fixed. Where you get the foam depends on which side of the pond

Ok. So what do you recommend for teak veneer speakers?

A condenser is a capacitor. Sprague is the manufacturer of the original. Picture below. It's probably still good. Value is 6.2uF (microfarads) but a 6uF film replacement will be fine if needed. The capacitors are kind of old but Spragues were high quality. Most were "wood grain" vinyl. Yuk. Yours say "Teak." I've never heard of that. I had a pair that were stained birch. Maybe yours are European. Does it say where they were built? The teak must be rare! You can clean them up with some Howard Restor-a-Finish, Natural if needed. I don't think Boiled Linseed Oil is the best choice. There is a product called Teak oil but even that may not be needed. They look like they're pretty clean. Have you played them? How do they sound? Doing a re-foam yourself is not difficult or you can send the woofers to Millersound in PA for an excellent refoam job. But "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." You may not need to do a thing to these speakers.