GD70

Hi Robert! Yup, a total fluke I even stopped at this GW. I couldn't believe they were sitting there. Must have been dropped off that day as they didn't have a price tag on them, and there were some other speakers as well that I didn't even bother looking at when I spotted the 3's! Probably all donated by the same person. There were a few receivers and some other gear I wasn't interested in. Yes, I'll cover the tweeters, thanks! Glenn

Thanks David! These are in very good overall shape, just some minor rear corner repairs needed. Roy sent me that diagram back when I did my first 3 resto project. Glenn

Hey Geoff! I hope to. If I remember, doesn't Ken have some matching grill saran? It's been a few years since the first 3 restoration project. I would need to make new frames though. The one original plastic frame is in pretty good shape with one crack at the top, easily repairable, but finding another original would be difficult. I'll also need a pair of 3 pins. I have another AR badge I can use. Cheers! Glenn

You bet and thank you! I've restored a number of speakers and pretty much have it down to a routine with this type of veneer work. Lots of fun! Glenn

Making some progress. Finished the recap, replaced the pots with nice cleaned ones I had ready to go. Roy gave me advice on repairing the mids for better output, and my first attempt went unsuccessful, so I pulled them she shipped them off to Roy for his magic touch. I soaked the pots in clear vinegar & salt solution, washed and rinsed with soap & water and they were in much better shape than I expected. I'll take the fine sanding wheel on the Dremel and polish up the disks and see how they test. I got one cab sanded and ready for some minor veneer repairs. I also checked the woofer masonite rings and they were glued solid, good news there. Here's some pics. Glenn The mid I attempted to repair.

Hey David! That was exactly what I thought! I practically sat on them until the manager came out to give me a price. Glenn

Wow! That brings back fond memories! My GI Joe had blond yellow painted hair.

Lucky timing! This is my 2nd pair of 3's. My first I found at my local SA for 19.99. They needed more work on the cabs than these will need. I have the caps and hope to swap them in the next few days, as well as pots that are in great shape to replace the corroded ones. I'm praying the mids and tweeters are good. Next if the mids are good, I'll send them to Roy for refurbishing and hopefully he'll have the wire mesh that's missing. Then I'll sand the cabs to the veneer, do the repairs and refinish. One step at a time. Im really excited to hear them! Glenn

A couple weeks ago, I had to pick up my son at the train station. I was a half hour early so I stopped to get some T.P., In the same small shopping center is a GW. I maybe stop there 4-5 times a year, always nothing or crap. The donations area door was open and when I looked in, sitting on the floor against the wall were the backs of a set of AR's! Wasn't sure yet if they were 3 or 3a's. Yup 3's! 50 bucks and they were in my back seat and trunk! Also they are sequential! The cabs are in overall very nice shape, but will need some minor veneer repairs and refinishing. One original grill was crudely spray painted black including the badge & 3 pin, the other grill is MIA. The metal screens over both mids were removed. ;-( My guess was to boost the output. Got them home and as I expected, no sound from the mids & tweeters, rotating the pots did nothing. I have a bunch of pots I cleaned up in good condition to swap out, hoping this is why there's no output. I'll also put in new caps. I'll probably send the mids to Roy for rebuilding once I confirm they are producing sound. I hope he has some spare covers for the mids in his parts stash! Here's some pics. Glenn [ URL=http://s133.photobucket.com/user/GD70/media/AR3%20GW/IMG_1678_zps3ap104dn.jpg.html][/URL] Someone spray painted something on these, note the over spary! Tweeters domes are not lifting! Lots of corrosion in the pots.

Hi Tom, Thank you for the technical descriptions of these. My AR3's are superb no doubt. I've never felt that were lacking in the mids and highs, and bass output is terrific as we all know. I'm sure the mids would benefit from Roy's restoration work though, which I do plan to have him do in the near future. The LST-2's do have an amazing dimensionality, and soundstage. All the tweeters were dead when I bought them. Roy guided me through the restoration, and suggested using the HiVi tweeters with the crossover mods which I did. The mids sound great, and to my ears, don't seem at all deficient in output. Woofers surrounds were replaced with the correct Boston surrounds, which Roy sent to me. I suppose I do prefer the 910's to the others. Of course environment plays a huge part, but in the current space, the 910's can't be beat. I hope to do some experimenting with speakers in different rooms in the house and see how it effects their performance and my ears! Thanks, Glenn

Being a 910 owner, early sequential numbers, with original stands, this thread is invaluable! Incredible information here. Regarding the 910's sound, I have found them to out preform just about every speaker set I own. This includes AR12's, AR3's, AR LST-2's KLH Fives, among a few others, (all restored). The only set that comes close are a set of Prototype/DIYs, labeled "Angelica's", I found at a GW a year ago that are incredible. I have a lengthy thread over on AK about them. Anyway, I sent my mids and tweeters to Richard So for preventive maintenance more than for sonic improvement. They sounded great prior to the rebuild, but a bit better after. Just a bit cleaner and crisper in the mids and highs than before, though not at all harsh or too forward sounding. In my space in my cave/basement, they sit about 10 feet apart. The sound stage spaceiousness and dimensional clarity are quite amazing. I too had wondered why these were not mirrored, and assumed it was a cost issue vs. sonic benefits. The cross overs are original and will be left alone. I was able to find and purchase the bi-amp & tri-amp cards as well as the LED cards, and may some day try to bi-amp them, but for now I'm quite happy. I'm driving them with a JVC M-7050 power amp rated @ 150wpc, but on my techs bench was putting out 210 wpc. This combination is just spectacular, and as stated earlier, at extreme volume, the 910's output is effortless and distortion free. I would love to hear the later models just to see how they compare some day. Glenn

Well, I hope the next time a deal like this presents itself, read almost never again, you jump on the opportunity! These are wonderful speakers, and though maybe at the bottom of the classic AR food chain, still highly regarded.

Dozens.

How can one really and accurately remember how a speaker sounded 56 years ago when they were 2 or 3 or 8 years old? I doubt I could. I believe we think we remember, but over the years, our ears change, usually for the worse, the caps start to go out of spec, these changes are so gradual we don't notice. Then we do a recap, and they usually sound great again, we hear an imidiate change, and we hope close to what they were like when new. I'm sure a lot of speaker drivers do not physically degrade over time, yet the AR3 mid does as Roy has stated. My 3's sound terrific to my ears, the mids and highs, very nice and clear, but I would guess they were better when new.

I doubt there are any 3's or 3a's that currently sound as they did when new. I had the 3a's to restore the cabs, and had the opportunity to do an A/B comparison. I did a crude video in an attempt to show the difference in sound between the two. The 3's are to the far right & left grills on, the 3a's grills off. The 3a's are definitely more forward in the mids and highs, though not as smooth as the 3's to my ears. My 3's are early with original oil caps and pots, the 3a's were later with foam surround woofers, and had been recapped and ohmite rheostats replacing the original pots. The bass is deeper with the 3's. Both had the rheostats set to maximum in an attempt to equal the settings as much as possible. When the owner of the 3a's came to pick them up, we listened to both, and he also preferred the 3's over his 3a's. The amp is a JVC A-X9 pushing 105 wpc. (Excuse my attire, it was s cold winter evening in the cave) ;-) Glenn

Hey lakecat, After I had the 12's in my possession, I read through all these threads, which provided great information, especially for reforming the mids. These are great sounding speakers, will keep these for a long time. Glenn

Thank you John! That means a lot! I'm very anal about details, and keeping originality, or duplicating original parts, in this case the decorative foam gaskets. I still need to do the woofer foam ring. A few more pics showing the tweeter gaskets being made. Prepped for painting. I used spray mount lightly on the template/stencil to hold it in place on the foam sheet while painting. I applied 3 very light spray paint applications. If you put on a heavy coat, you'll get paint bleeding under the stencil edges. The cut outs for alignment when cutting the gasket.

Worth it! I'd like to hear the 11's compared to these some day.

Thanks for that Roger.

Thanks Geoff! These were an enjoyable project, especially because I didn't need to do a major cab restoration! Glenn

Thanks Roger! ADD version? Excuse my ignorance. Glenn

Hey Robert! Thanks for the kind words. When I first saw them sitting in the owners basement with the other stuff, I admit I was being a vintage AR snob, thinking these later models didn't live up to the AR standard, and frankly, didn't need yet another project to figure out where they would fit in with the rest of the herd. Boy was I wrong! They are special and rare. I do believe these ferro fluid mids are unique to this model only. Glenn

Last September, I made a large audio purchase from my co-workers best friends husband. His wife wanted everything out! My co-worker said I know the perfect person. Ends up the best friend is someone I worked with 16 years ago! Small world indeed! Included in the purchase were my ADS 910's, Magneplaner SMG's, a Luxman receiver and McIntosh amplifier. I sold everything except the 910's, AR's and Maggies, which need rebuilding. Anyway, Iinitally passed on the 12's, which he was going to bring to the city dump! Stupid me! After doing a little research on these, I went back and grabbed them for free! He was the original owner. I've restored them with help from Roy, and reading through some threads here. They have been re-capped, new surrounds and new foam gaskets for the mids and tweeters which I made. Luckily, the cabs were beautiful needing only a sanding and refinish with Watcos. I need to build grill frames and get cloth. My plan is to make them the original shape as the foam ones with the angled sides. I've finally had the entire day to listen to these and they are extremely good! I put them on some stands I had, which really made a noticeable improvement. I have a thread on the restoration over on AK also. Glenn This is how they looked when I got them.

Nice that you still get to hear them once in a while. the grills look great!

They look great! The cloth is in pretty good condition, personally, I'd leave it as is. The veneer looks fantastic too!