lARrybody
-
Posts
629 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by lARrybody
-
-
Back in 1970 I wanted that motorcycle, or was it the girl?
-
Those appear to be well taken care of examples. I've had a pair for seven years now. I use the AR 58S version of these in one of my two main systems. A couple years ago I picked up a nice pair of AR 92's from a neighbor. The grills are interchangeable.
-
Those cabinets are super nice. Your friend did a excellent job.
-
After I put my 9's on my set I realized how much they were missed around the house. Went back and got another set.
-
Here are a couple AR3 grills I have in my parts collection. One is out of 1/4 in hardboard and the other plastic. The Masonite one has really warped.
I was wondering if cutting them out of 1/4 in. black acrylic would be a good option?
-
Good morning Bogden. I believe your Ar3a's with serial number 35350 originally came with the Alinco cloth surround woofers.
Here is a set I acquired several years ago (serial # 35105) that came to me with the Tonegen replacement woofers. I replaced them with first generation long lead ceramic woofers. They originally came with the Alinco's, but at the time I didn't have those. Here is another pair of all original AR3a's with serial number 27932 to give you a idea what they looked like.
If you remove your woofers an they look like these you have the Tonegen's which is not necessarily a bad thing. They are very good acceptable replacements, just not original.
One way to know for certain that your AR3a's originally had Alinco woofers is by the size of the large woofer coils. If your coils are #7 (1.88mh) then they originally came with the cloth surround woofers. When the ceramic foam surround woofers came in around 1971 the coils were changed to #9 (2.85mh) coils. I wound up unwinding some 3mh Erse coils to 2.85. to replace the original 1.88mh coils. I did save the originals and I have found a good set of Alinco woofers, but have not changed them out.
The control pots will probably need replaced. I got nice replacements from member JKent. Also the three capacitors will need replaced, but everybody has their own opinion about what to use. I personally like using electrolytic caps for the 50uf and the 150 caps and a good quality film cap for the 6uf tweeter cap. As already suggested the biggest bang for the buck is to get your tweeters rebuilt. Members RoyC and Chris1 can help you with that. It makes a big difference.
Good luck.
-
As you know my passion for vintage AR, KLH and Advent speakers. Last weekend I attended the AXPONA show in Chicago with my brother in law Micah for the second straight year. On the second day we visited the KLH room and they were demonstrating the soon to be released KLH Model 7 speaker. It like the current Model 5 is a acoustic suspension three way speaker. The KLH rep Jeff invited us back at closing to put the new speaker thru its paces.
The current KLH company is located about 5 miles from my house with the CEO Dave Kelley living in my town. I own two restored sets of original KLH Model 5's and have had the opportunity to listen to the new Model 5's several times. The new Model 7's have 13 in. paper cone woofers and 5 in. paper cone midranges with 1 in. dome tweeters. The cabinets are 1 in. thick with three wood veneers to choose from. The drivers are not concentric like the Model 5's. We played lots of music clips for about a hour from Bach to Van Halen and we were both impressed. The Model 7's were over kill for the room. We played with the the three switch attenuation controls and it did make noticeable differences. After listening to high end (80K+) speakers all day these old school speakers were very good. Especially when told they will retail for less than 4K with the stands. All in all the new KLH seems to be on the right path, with quality well made products that seem very affordable.
-
Very Very Impressive. Are your cats well behaved?
-
-
Congratulations on your AR91 acquisition. Did you know that the grills for the AR92 and AR91 are interchangeable. They also used the same boards, just slightly different capacitor and resister values. I replaced the binding post with these inexpensive insulated post from parts express.
https://www.parts-express.com/Mini-Insulated-Binding-Post-2-Red-2-Black-320-3375?quantity=1
The banana plugs hang out about 3/16 in. ,but are very secure. On more traditional AR speaker binding post I took Adamas approach with ring connecter adapters.
As far as recapping, the recommendation of using quality NPE's is spot on. I used all NPE's except for the 4uf which is a Dayton Precision Poly. The Mundorf Plain and Janzen Smooth NPE's have been discontinued, but if you look around you can find other quality electrolytics. I also replaced the resisters with Mills resisters which have become very expensive nowadays. If you original sand cast resisters test fine, I would just reuse them.
If your 91 boards have the Unicon capacitors you might want to keep them. Mine didn't.
-
If those are actually 1/4 in. thick panels that would be my choice. It is almost impossible to find 1/4 in. thick hardboard at the home improvement stores around here. It almost like it has been replaced with 3/16 in. thick material, which is not the same thing.
-
I remember using some foam laminate flooring underlayment to seal the back plate on some KLH Model 6 speakers. I am very familiar with the OLA gasket material and the flooring vaper barrier foam underlayment seems a lot like it.
-
I always thought the orange dome tweeters used in the early AR2ax and AR3 speakers had 1 3/8 in domes. The later tweeters used in the Ar2ax and AR5 were 3/4 in. hard dome tweeters. The AR3a used a similar tweeter but at 4 ohms. I have heard about soft domes being used to rebuild the 3/4 in. tweeters. Not sure how it would alter the output though.
-
Don't know anything about them, but for the price they may be worth a try. You would probably want the 8 ohm versions for your 2ax tweeters.
-
3 hours ago, JKent said:
Maybe the new KLH Model Five stands?
Seems like almost everybody has the JS-120 stands in stock now. The KLH stands also may be a good fit for a few dollars more.
-
I am a fan of the Watco Natural Finish. I think these are five or six coats rubbed in with a 400 or 600 grit sanding block.
-
Those JS-120 stands are a perfect fit. I got mine two years ago. Had to check around several places to find them. Safe and Sound may have them.
-
Your on the right path resealing the woofer. Inspect that the surround and spider are glued down properly. With the woofer out try running a 30Hz test tone thru it and listen for any rubbing noise. When reinstalling the woofer try a different orientation. Maybe rotate it 90 or 180 degrees. Hope this helps.
-
My AR3 cloth came from Q Components of CA. I don't think there was a minimum or a handling charge. I would defiantly order from them again.
-
On 12/3/2022 at 9:24 PM, Brad1234 said:
I have refoamed tons of speakers, but this is my first masonite advent. Any warnings?
I remember this thread that helped me out a lot re-foaming some OLA woofers.
-
I was not sure what I wanted to go with on my 3's so I bought the white 7002, the cream 7022 and the tan 6003. Wound up using the original cream color. Not easy to work with. The linen is much more forgiving and looks nice, but these are 3's and I felt they should look like 3's.
-
I agree with what David R suggest for the 50uf and 150uf caps. Here is what I plan to use on my next set of AR3a's.
These are caps I had in stock and may not be available anymore, but Parts Connexion has comparable examples. The 100uf caps are Jantzen Audio Smooth NPE's which are the same as the Mundorf E-cap Plain. Both are no longer available, but you should be able to get the Mundorf E-cap Raw and the Jantzen EleCap. Mine are running around 104uf. Same with the Mundorf E-cap 47uf Plain. You can get them in the Mundorf Raw and EleCap. As you can see mine are running closer to 50uf so no need to parallel a smaller value cap. For the 6uf tweeter cap I plan on paralleling two Clarity CSA 3uf film caps. The Clarity's run very true to spec. I will be finishing these AR3a up right after Christmas and things get back to normal around here.
-
I recapped a pair of 9's in July. I also read those threads and decided to buy into eliminating the 2500uf cap to run the dual woofers at 2 ohms.
I installed a cover guard on the switch knowing that running the speakers in 2 ohm mode would destroy most amplifiers.
Here is where the two grey wires run to the switch on the upper board. Basically between the 2500uf caps and the #10 coil.
I have a Crown XLS 2500 amp that can easily handle these low impedances. It is mid September now and I have yet to throw the switch to 2 ohm. I have decided that it was probably a unwise modification. In fact I am thinking of going back in and soldering in a jumper wire across the break thus eliminating any function of the switch. Thus eliminating any possibility of some future owner damaging their amplifier.
-
I have a pair of the JBL stands available for the L-100's. They fit the AR speakers perfectly. I got mine from Music Direct, but I think Crutchfield also has them.
AR3's on the Bench!
in Acoustic Research
Posted
https://qcomponents.ca/collections/mellotone