Aadams

If vintage is what you require the Pioneer 850 or 780 would be good but an old 850 that you could trust with your speakers would cost about as much as a new Cambridge AXR 85 which has everything you need + a warranty and also got a great writeup on this site about a year ago, though I can't remember the member's name right now. User "Der" gave the Yamaha 701 integrated amp good marks, the Yamaha 501 which is similar but lower cost seems to have what you need if you don't require an FM section. Adams

Early 1970s. If you have serial numbers you can get more precise. If you look on the driver magnets you may see date stamps. If you remove the tweeters be very careful with the plastic flanges and lead wires. Same for mids. Recommend you not remove the mids unless you absolutely must, they are not repairable and replacements are rare but they are durable and do not seem to degrade with time. Adams

Those are Sprague Compulytic Caps. PM @RoyC or @Chris1this1 for Tweeter repair. If you desire originality tweeter repair is the way to go. You might be satisfied with the HiVi Q1R tweeter mod which is less expensive if you DIY. Download and read the AR3a Restoration Guide, you will find the AR5 is much like the 3a in layout. It is also practically identical in sound quality. Adams

Nice AR5s. If they have Sprague Compulytic caps you are probably ok. If so,lListen before you remove them unless you just want to replace caps. Re the tweeter: Roy is being conservative. It would be a miracle if this style tweeter operates at anywhere close to the original output. They can be repaired. There are zero new replacements. Adams

I found another one. This is an astounding restoration of The Duke Ellington Orchestra at Newport (COMPLETE) in 1956. Released in 1999, it is the only complete recording of the entire live performance. The original 1956 release was an abbreviated studio cut and paste job owing to a technical issue during performance. This new version exists because some VOA tapes made at the the event for rebroadcast were not erased and reused before being archived in the Library of Congress. If you like Big Band this a good one with the Ellington band at its artistic peak and the liveness is palpable on AR3as.

bb57 How long have you owned this pair? Do you know what brand caps are currently in place? If they are Sprague compulytics there should be no rush to change, otherwise in what area of the country you are you located? You may be near someone who is willing to help. Do you have photos?

CarlBarry Use this thread as a guide

In your original post you said "all audio spectrum" but apparently you meant low frequencies. It seems improbable that both 2500uf caps would malfunction at the same point in time. The problem could be degraded fuses, perhaps dirt in the spectral balance controls, both of which are more likely.

From what you describe it seems like the problem should be somewhere before the cap. Is it in one channel or both? If one channel only, have you tried to move the problem to the other channel? Adams

Hello Banga and Welcome Have you downloaded the AR3a restoration guide? Much of it is relevant to your speakers, which appear to be very nice examples. Regarding caps: The cap arguments flare here once in a while but you can't go wrong replacing like with like, in this case NPE. Adams

If your 3as have Compulytics you can leave them in place and replace the pots with new pots or LPADS. The "vibe" is old pots are not viewed favorably but you will not be admonished whatever you do. The only original pots that still have a good rep were on early model ARs and they had all brass internals as I recall reading. The RoyC LPAD mod or the recent model pots that are offered by a couple of sellers are the favorites.

Classic ARs were made for live acoustic recordings and are ideal for Big Band Jazz. Classic era Big Band Jazz was always acoustic, frequently performed live, but rarely recorded well enough to be impressive today. There are exceptions and I have found a good one; “Count Basie Live at the Crescendo 1958.” Remastered and released in 2016, this is the Basie “Atomic Band” at its zenith. Many of these cuts were released over the following decades, peppered across single LPs, but this is the only complete set of the Crescendo sessions. All 91 recordings are performed before a live audience, mostly technically excellent and remastered to extract all the dynamic range which, at times, is a bit scary. The level of ensemble performance is stunning. It is a steal at $14.99.

I prefer LPads over original pots; No cleaning. I was a pot holdout until forced to change and finally folded completely after the first set worked so well. When I had pots I used a dremel buffer wheel and deoxit.

I currently have AR5s set up horizontally with woofers to the outside. Depends on recordings and nearness of listening position but woofers to the inside tends to widen the sound stage whereas woofers to the outside does the opposite........in my experience. Edit: The crossover to the mid is so low, in both speakers, it can make a difference. Adams

No. Welcome Ableburger. Look through these post below from member @ra.ra who has not been here in a while but is an enthusiast of 8 inch ARs. Also look in the library in the classic AR section for info on the AR6 which, in its original version, rivaled 10" ARs for smooth bass output. Google searches are more difficult now that we have changed our domain name. The indexing will take time to rebuild if ever. The site search is not a flexible as google search was but it does work with a little patience. https://community.classicspeakerpages.net/search/?&q=acoustic research&author=ra.ra&search_and_or=or

Be careful. The tweeters have plastic flanges and maybe these mids also. If they have never been removed the hardened sealant can make driver removal difficult and damage from too much force is easy. If all you are concerned about is leaks, you can push in a bead of duct seal around the circumference of the mids and tweeters. Deal with the woofer seal and stuffing first. You probably don't have leaks around the other drivers. I recommend not removing them unless there is a good reason, in which case it is definitely better to use gasket tape for re installation. Adams

There is no practical difference in the bass performance and the cap is not part of this problem. Assuming you have compared the bass of this pair with your other 2ax pairs in the same position, it could be the surrounds but I would be thinking first about the gasket seal around the woofer and your stuffing. You seem to have a blend of glass fiber and polyfil. They are interchangeable but not ounce for ounce and if you have too much of either it will overdamp the bass. As I recall from a RoyC post, you should have around 22 ounces of glass fiber or 16 ounces of polyfil in the 2ax. There is no rule of thumb for blending the two materials in the same cabinet. If your seal around any of the drivers is not air tight it can degrade bass performance. It looks like you have scrapped away most of the sealant around the woofer hole. Try using foam sealing tape if you can obtain it, otherwise the duct seal material works just as well but less forgiving to remove and replace especially with chipboard baffles. Check the other drivers for air leaks around the edges when you do the push test on the woofer after it is intalled. The only leaks in the cabinet should be around the pot stems. Adams

Did you mean to say the cloth surrounds have been replaced on the problem woofers?

Based on the above statement my two cents is 1. Disconnect the working tweeter and you will have a pair of AR2x or 2. Install matching HiVi Q1Rs. I don't have a recommendation for the 4x but the Q1R has never been adapted for 4x application in this group.

Shavitz. Forgot to add, if your 3as have Sprague Compulytic caps they are probably good. "Compulytic" will be printed on the side of the can.

Either will work. I used 3+3. Adams

This is about big band jazz rather than orchestral recordings but the same topic. Technically good modern recordings of professional big bands are scarce. The best bands from the era are long gone and many of the stereo recordings from the era were done with over emphasis on stereo effect. The staging is almost always wrong and with few exceptions they are more tolerable in mono playback. If you like big band jazz on your AR speakers, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra recordings are technically excellent and maybe the best assembly of musicians seen in decades for this music idiom. The 2020 releases are outstanding live performance recordings. Just thought I would throw this into pile. Adams

I used the Parts Express grey fabric and AR55's earlier 98ls project as a template. The only thing I would add is the original AR fabric was far stretchier than the PE stuff. The stretchier the better because the corners on these grills are not easy to get right.

Do AR speakers really sound that good? Yes they do. Your description from 2017 is perfect.

Assuming all the parts are correct and working properly, you will probably hear no practical difference between any version of the 3a that uses rotary mid/ hi attenuators. Original alnicos are older and comparatively rare. Original tweeters will need a rebuild even if they seem to work. Recommend you down load and get familiar with the images in the restoration guide so you will know something about what you are purchasing. Beware of any repairer who is not versed in old ARs. There are plenty of working 3as for sale if you are not going to do the work yourself. The price to have them properly restored vs purchasing an excellent pair from Vintage AR, for example, won't be much different. Adams