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That's basically what I was thinking, too. Also, David, it was probably one of your threads that led me to believe that some of these TSW speakers are very respectable performers. My other comments were simply expressions of personal taste and bias. As much as I appreciate my taste and touch and smell senses, I do likes my audio a great deal, too, but must confess I am mostly a visual nerd. While it might sound exotic, Toluene is available in many hardware stores located right between the lacquer thinner and the acetone. I'll see your nit, and raise you one pick. I know these tops are made from solid wood pieces, but when several solid smaller pieces are glued up in an assembly to assimilate a larger "solid" (meaning: singular) piece of wood, this is still referred to as a laminate. This is not to be confused with the idea of plastic laminate (i.e. Formica), which is really more like a thin wood veneer over a thicker substrate.

. Stoopid me...... Ugh.... I really despise working on hot melt glue schmoo assemblies.

JKent, you'll get through this, but I definitely feel your pain. Until this latest report about the mis-matched and non-original mid drivers, this sounded mostly like a difficult and frustrating re-furb/resto project that is sometimes experienced when encountering new materials or questionable assembly techniques. Now it's beginning to feel like a depressing slog. I do not know the TSW series at all, but I'm fairly confident that at least some of the models are decent speakers. Nonetheless, I could never find any appeal in the visual aesthetics - - I am no fan of black speakers or vertical speakers - - and slapping slabs of laminated wood at top and bottom is wholly unconvincing towards making them any more friendly toward a pleasing interior decor. The engineers might get a passing grade, but the stylists have failed the course. If there ever was a speaker calling itself out as a potted plant pedestal, look no further than the TSW series. Back in a thread from 2013, SteveF made this comment: The TSW ("Titanium Solid Wood" series, although AR insiders referred to them as the "This Sh*t Works" series).

Those are stubby little fellas, ain't they? Almost cubic in dimensions. The drivers appear well constructed - - yes? - - but it took me a minute to realize that the tube is a separate enclosed chamber for the cone midrange. Crossover looks fairly robust, but a cap replacement could be a bit of a challenge unless that board is easily removable. I would guess there is at least one more cap we cannot yet see. Interesting to see the little response curves which illustrate the crossover frequencies, and that Da logo does not show up anywhere on my D-4's, but yours do have nice binding posts. Two questions: What's going on with that black top grille that is held away from the vinyl top panel? And, did these woofers have a gasket between metal frame and bottom cabinet panel?

This is a great point about the human voice range and midrange frequencies. While my AR-4's do not quite match the 4x or 4xa (nor the AR-6!) in LF extension, there are times when the AR-4 is the preferred speaker - - - like when playing female vocals or jazz (vocals, strings, brass) at moderate volume levels.

Hey, thanks for adding that little blurb from the buying guide. These speakers were partially disassembled for inspection, and then the project was slowed down as I was seeking additional information. Now that I've found my lodestar, I'll probably be tackling these next month. Before any disassembly, I did wire up the speakers (in pairs) for an initial listen and to confirm that the drivers are all functional. This was by no means any type of serious test run. The sound provided a nice blend amongst the many drivers, but first impressions suggested that top-most and bottom-most frequencies were muddy and lacking. Until any post re-build demonstrations occur, my guess is that the lack of high sparkle might be due to several broken switches and/or cheap, tiny, aged capacitors. Regarding bass output, the cone mass/stiffness needs to be addressed, and I think the placement is probably critical with rear-firing woofers. Also, considering this is a non-ported speaker, I was surprised to find no gaskets sealing the woofer frame to the cabinet. (Edit: I forgot to mention that in the original DA series (D-2, D-4, D-6, D-8, D-12), the notion was that the model number referred to the number of planes that contained a driver - - - I've been able to confirm this for all but the rare D-8.)

Hi Kent. Before you wrap up this thread, please show us some additional pics and info about this speaker model. Also, exactly what are the SW recommendations for VC centering? Your re-foam looks very good done the "correct" way. Have never seen a spitwad cap that was not a Smaller Advent, and that woofer also has inner foam placed under the cone. And, is that a radial seam in the paper cone at 9 o'clock? The DA speakers I'm working on (two pairs of D-4's) are from the early original series (D-2, D-4, D-6, D-8, D-12), when the company was located on Oregon Court in Torrance, CA. At that time, all speaker design (and marketing and purchasing.....) decisions were controlled by founder George Sioles, but I am not at all familiar with the PS series.

Greetings bluelick, and I'm pleased to hear that you have discovered the problem for yourself. As I was reading your thread, I spotted that as soon as I saw your little wiring sketch ("Never trust a schematic that says wooger." - Rutherford B. Hayes). NPE caps are just fine and yes, it will be a PITA to dig in and make the switcheroo - - - but you may want to also use this opportunity to confirm the wiring on the woofers to see that they are both connected properly. (as a side note, the crossover pic shown in Aadams post is the re-cap of my 2ax's from 2012.)

Whoa!.......the level of interest in this thread has been so fast and furious that I've barely been able to keep up. In any case - - - just a few more pics for posterity here. Both the woofer and the (3) tweeters have two-position switches for varied output, while the midrange runs full-tilt all the time. The 10-inch woofers were manufactured by ROLA (also used in ADC speakers), and I've never seen anything like these amendments added to the cone surface. Apparently, these three little strips of balsa wood have been added to the OEM driver in order to provide a slight increase in mass and/or stiffness. Most of this information - - and much more - - comes to me courtesy of a very kind and generous fellow I've contacted who used to work in the company's wood shop in CA in the mid-70's when these speakers were first produced. He has been a trove of information and immense help, and his comments often refer to the ideas and practices of the founder and lead designer for Design Acoustics, George Sioles.

Hi jank, can you post some pics of the speakers being evaluated? Can you explain your thoughts here concerning the 4x and the 4xa? The 4xa is a very fine small loudspeaker, but it largely suffered because it was introduced at a time when AR had two other small 8-inch two-ways in their lineup (AR-6, AR-7). IMO, it's lack of distinction and popularity is principally due to poor marketing strategies, and not due to relaxed engineering standards. When one of the tweeters in my original pair of 4x's inexplicably went silent, due to my stash of parts on-hand, my decision was to re-build this pair as modified 4xa's by fabricating adapter plates to accommodate the smaller tweeter in the original 4x tweeter hole - - - also replaced original 20uF cap with 10uF. No further changes were made, and these speakers are terrific (see pic). I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this, too. My understanding of this may be incorrect, but I've always thought that each version of AR-6 was intended to create an identical set of sonic characteristics, despite the significant changes in components during its years of production. My abilities to adequately describe differences in sound are woefully insufficient, but I would tend to agree that all of my AR two-ways are unique and do exhibit subtle differences. On any given day, I might prefer the sound of pair A over pair B or pair C; but then on another day with a different power source or different musical style, I might have a completely different evaluation of the very same speakers under comparison.

I think Roy's suspicion here is probably accurate, but it has also been documented that there have been component changes in AR speaker models going all the way back to the AR-1. And let's not even apply this rationale to the "2" series, which had at least seven iterations: AR-2, 2a, 2x (two versions), 2ax (two versions), and 2xa. As Giorgio's posts clearly illustrate, there were a variety of components used in both the AR-4x and AR-6 models. The 4x was far more consistent than the 6 in this regard, but nonetheless the 4x had more than one version, including different woofers, different badges, and different crossovers. The AR-4xa can also be found with a number of variables: cloth surround or foam surround; alnico slug magnet or square ferrite magnet; pot control or switch; front or rear-wired tweeter; fiberglass or fiberfill stuffing; and wood veneer or vinyl cabinet finish. For this discussion, it would be most helpful if you posted pics of your particular speakers so that the specific components could be properly identified and evaluated. The entire "4" series and the AR-6's are all favorites of mine. When I got acquainted with my first pair of 6's, there were several things that really appealed to me. Although the interior cabinet volume is identical to the 4 cabinets, there was a noticeably deeper extension of LF reproduction - - very impressive bass output for an 8-inch woofer. The small 1-1/4" tweeter is also excellent - - very good dispersion and upper high end - - most notable with brushes on cymbals and violins, e.g. I agree with the OP (jank) that the AR-4xa (or 4 or 4x....) cabinet has wonderful proportions - - it really is a handsome small speaker. But two things about the AR-6 cabinet are particularly attractive to me. The first is the shallow depth (7-1/2"), which makes this speaker truly suitable for bookshelf applications; and the second is the aspect ratio - - the relationship of width to height. I know this is going deep into nerd territory, but the ratio of height (19.5") to width (12") results in 1.625, which is visually indistinguishable from 1.618, which represents the golden ratio or golden mean or golden section. The result is a very beautiful speaker package. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

This is a great post by AR55, and I would fully agree. I'd love to find some AR-15's for the exact reasons mentioned, and it should not be too difficult or costly to find authentic AR replacement woofers.

Ooh-la-la.....lots of lovely blondes in this thread , but am just curious why those AR-2's include the "a" stick pin?

David, those look terrific - - that Baltic birch plywood is truly great material to work with, particularly with access to CNC fabrication. This post is timely - - - just today, I had my first extended listening session with AR-12's. We had a regional swapfest meeting here in east-central MA today that included plenty of system demos, with attendees from as far away as New Jersey. GD70 brought his fully restored AR-12's accompanied by some serious electronics and I thought they were just superb. This model does not show up often, so I'm pleased to see people speaking up with appreciation for the AR-12. Great restoration project.

Really great work - - - what an enjoyable project! So if I understand correctly, in these two latest examples, you've basically doubled the value of the caps from your first effort, added the rotary control, and changed the rear wire terminals. Can you describe your impressions of these latest revisions? And, do you have any pics of the backside of the tweeter?

I wouldn't quite know how to design a suitable resistive circuit for this use - - the chief engineer in my studio workshop swears by the trial-and-error method when other options have run out. I know many of the switched AR and KLH tweeters employ 2.5 or 3.0-ohm resistors, so I'd probably start in that vicinity. Did your tweeters come with any product literature? And thanks for the heads-up on Albany County Fasteners - - it looks like a great catalog of parts.

I originally misunderstood how these were meant to work, but now I get it. I appreciate the design aesthetic as much as I admire the budget cost breakdown, and for me, that's what makes Kent's solution superior to the several hundred dollar versions. (This is said, of course, with having no first-hand knowledge of the driver quality or sound performance.) One suggestion: if you know that you prefer the 0.47uF cap setting, why not abandon the original idea of a second cap (and crossover point) and instead use the switch (with resistor) as an attenuation control (in lieu of L-pad)? And I like the idea of using the knurled nuts - - it worked well for me on this AR-18s project of mine that I displayed in this forum.

Hey Kent, I really enjoyed reading about this project. Your results look terrific - - very nice assembly details and material choices (except for threaded rod alloy) and the overall appearance is totally professional. Just a few questions: does this super-tweeter get wired in series from the AR-91 terminals? is the switch a two-position device with a single resistor to provide two levels of output? Great project.

Nice work on some fabulous speakers.

Seems like I was being overly suspicious about those cabinets - - they look like gorgeous mahogany.

Of course it would be fun and exciting to find a pair of AR-1's, and if working properly, I'm sure they would sound great. But still, the primary interest these days with the AR-1 is about collectibility and, as ar_pro has noted, the cult-like obsession with the Altec drivers. With this pair, from a collectible standpoint, I would have three concerns right off-the-bat: the significant damage and subsequent repair of the Altec driver. the mystery blue wires which confirm cabinet violations and suggest circuitry revisions. the uncertainty of cabinet finishes - - these "look" like maybe a mahogany color, but one cabinet rear shows possible evidence of after-market finish (stain). Also, it appears that one cabinet may have sides fabricated from plywood while the other is probably Novaply. Perhaps this indicates one cabinet might be pine and the other birch?

We all know about "flat" response curves, and since these all originate with the woofer at the LF end of the audio spectrum, you may be onto something new here! The excellent documentation in this thread and your good humor are much appreciated.

Great write-up, great photo documentation.... a real pleasure to follow this restoration project. Will be interested to hear comparative impressions with re-built original tweeters. Still, I think these AR-5's would sound even better with flat dust caps.

.......Wow...that's a lotta cabbage. Beautiful speakers, tho'....

Roy, I must have misunderstood when we previously discussed this after I pulled these pots out of some beat-up AR-3 cabinets - - - I thought they were an occasional mid-60's alternative to the typical Aetna-Pollak pots, and not an AB Tech replacement component from two decades later. Thanks for the clarification. This pair (which were unusable) had both the 15-ohm designation stamped on the backside and the Japan markings on the front. crumpets, you've got a fine growing collection of acclaimed AR models there. Not sure what else to say if the bass output remains deficient - - - this should not be the case with properly working AR-5's - - - but you may very well notice significant improvements after cap replacement on the 5's. As many have confirmed, the Daytons are very good choices, but there's no need to use a huge and expensive ($45 each on Wagner site) poly cap for the 75uF woofer circuit.