docstocker

Hi Roy Thanks for all your useful info on this site. Have been reading it for several years but never felt I had anything useful to contribute. I have looked again at the old photos I took when restoring the AR12s and although I clearly remember scraping away thick sticky material that I thought was fabric. Looking again today at the pictures I wonder if the material was in fact flat foam. The replacements were bought from USA via Ebay. I have only ever bought surrounds from two sources so it must have been either Geoaliwili or speaker works.com I notice that there is a London UK based seller on Ebay 'onlydiesel0' advertising an AR12 kit. The surrounds are ridged foam not flat and were not specifically advertised for AR speakers. The difficulty I had in fitting the foams was from the cone which sits in fluid and can be pulled out or pushed in but needs to be halfway when the foam is attached and no signal applied. It was this added difficulty that made my efforts to cut and fit replacement flat foam surrounds, cut down from larger surrounds, impossible. (for my skill set) I will try and attach some photos including measurements. John

I have a pair of AR12 that I bought very cheaply a few years ago. The midrange is an unusual unit that fits into a cylinder. the spear has a cloth? surround which in the case of my speakers, was broken and unrepairable. I toyed with the idea of cutting up one of my wife's silk scarves into a replacement and then rubberising it but the difficulty of cutting the circle out of the material (and the extended period I would find myself spending sleeping in the shed when my wife found out about her scarf) lead me to look on the internet where I found a small foam replacement that fitted extremely well. I suspect that the measurable characteristics of the speaker have been significantly changed but the speakers now sound very good indeed. I am not sure that they are not my favourite in my collection. I think that this midrange had some specific virtues or novelties. Even with my fix I am happy with the sound, never having heard the speaker when it was new and at full spec. I am not sure that there are many pairs of these speakers around. I anyone is interested I will try and remember where I obtained these foams. By the way, replacement mid range units I have seen on E bay have had foam replacements of the cloth originals John