genek

A blonde AR-1w with a black Janszen l-30 was sold on eBay in February for $630. There is currently a blonde AR-1 with original Altec tweeter for sale on eBay for $4000.

Unfortunately, either another blonde AR-1, an AR-1w with that tweeter in blonde or just that tweeter in blonde is going to set you back quite a lot.

The original owner would most likely have started out with a single AR-1 in a mono system, then later expanded it to stereo with a second AR1, this time a W with an add-on tweeter because an exact match to the first speaker was no longer available. That was apparently a satisfactory solution at the time, so there probably no reason why it shouldn't be one now.

These look more like the earlier AR-4 to me.

The problem with original pots is corrosion, not fiber infiltration. It's when you replace originals with open-back units like Ohmites that fiber becomes an issue.

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The odds of finding a good match at a price a sensible person would be willing to pay are slim. If this was part of a vintage mono system the original owner had, might be a good idea to see if the rest of it is still available.

The power required to generate enough heat to damage the pots would fry all the drivers first, but the minute levels of heat generated from normal use may hasten oxidation. The best way to reduce the likelihood of this is to coat the windings and wiper in dielectric grease to block their exposure to air.

The RS woofers will almost certainly not be well suited to the cabinets. In 1979 AR was supplying the same service woofer for the 8 as for the 2ax, so they should be easy enough to find. Original badges show up on eBay from time to time. Have not seen anyone offering new repros.

Yes, 2 5s in parallel would be the equivalent of a 10. The most likely reason would be cost. Either 5s were a lot cheaper than 10s, or the need for 10s wasn't great enough to justify the cost and effort of stocking them in inventory.

That's a bit higher than what was typical when those speakers were new, but "typical" is highly dependent on placement and room characteristics. For dispersion, an easy test is to put on some music with a lot of high frequency content and walk around the room while it's playing. If the "sweet spot" where the sound doesn't change as you walk around seems to extend from one side wall to the other, you're good. This is the test where ARs with dome midranges tend to beat the 2ax with its cone mids.

The preferred add-ons of the period (Janszen and Microacoustics) were not so much about more highs as different highs, or highs in more places. Their goal was to produce a wider dispersion pattern and a more enveloping soundfield. The concept would reach its zenith with speakers like the Bose 901, AR's LSTs and a variety of omnidirectional speakers from others. Modern super tweeters are all about more on-axis highs, and most of us here don't think very "highly" of them.

Being the moderator here doesn't make me a "top expert." Mostly, it just means that I know who to ask for advice.

Wonder how much to ship four of them to Italy. If money really isn't the issue, why not just pack the originals up and ship them to wherever they'd need to go for a proper refoam job? No tools needed except a screwdriver and box cutter.

If you install new drivers, the only way you'll ever get even halfway decent bass response will be to give up trying to match the originals' resonant frequency specs and modify the cabinets so their volumes meet the requirements of the new drivers. You'll likely also need to bore a port into the back, because your new drivers will almost certainly have been designed for use in bass-reflex speakers. Look for better drivers that come with suggestions for cabinet volumes and port sizes; it's unlikely that anybody here will be able to help with that. You'll also need to change the crossover, because the old crossover's bass-mid turnover frequency will probably be wrong for the new drivers.

You're wrong about them being "nothing special," because today there are virtually no new drivers being sold with suitable resonant frequencies for use in acoustic suspension speakers. You will definitely not find any that are upgrades or that will be less expensive than having the originals rebuilt. Why do you think there are so many people refoaming, reconing and even rewinding the voice coils of old ones? It's because what you seem determined to do has already been attempted many, many times, with no success. If you really don't want to do it right, just sell them as-is and buy something new. You'll get better sound and make someone else who's looking to restore some vintage ARs happy for the opportunity.

The problem with this approach is that what you're going to lose is bass performance, and hearing loss is mostly in the upper frequencies.

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The new "replacements" are probably made in China by Shenzhen, Ningbo or Lingyin, three companies that make the majority of Chinese OEM drivers. They won't be "right," but will be as close to spec as anything you're likely to find at Parts Express (probably because they make most of those, too). If it was me, I'd start by looking to see if there's anyone local who does refoaming. My last time was when I refurbished my AR-3a's, and the cost to have someone do the job for me amounted to two or three hours of my income at the time for both woofers, including the parts.

I think I recall reading somewhere that Levinson made his first run of Amati's by modding some LSTs he bought from AR. But I can't imagine him not removing the AR labels and nameplates and substituting his own. Is it possible that at some point Levinson may have offered Amati mods to LST owners?

If what you want is to skip the work and potential screwing up of drivers if you do it wrong, I'd just order some of the "AR replacement" drivers being offered by Simply Speakers. A halfway decent 8" woofer from Parts Express is only going to be $20 or so cheaper, and while the SS replacements won't be exactly "right," they'll likely be closer than anything you'll find after spending hours comparing no-name drivers to the old AR specs.

I wonder where all those screechy, boomy speakers I've heard fall in this. I haven't auditioned any new speakers in at least 10 years now, so no idea what Harman's current lines are like, but I'd be very surprised if new JBLs sound remotely reminiscent of ARs.

To my eye, it appears that the AR curves are closest to Toole's "Trained Listeners Only." Do we know which of these curves Harman was producing speakers to conform to in the 80s and 90s?