patrickw

Or replace? I bought a set of AR 2ax that were in lovely shape cabinet wise and I was pretty sure had the early cloth surround woofers. When I carefully (and slowly!) pried off the grilles I was quite excited to see I was correct. But my celebration was short-lived as I discovered the foam damping rings on these woofers were coming off in large chunks. Having already ordered some new caps and controls for these speakers I am eager to get them singing again. Is there anything that can be done to repair or replace the foam damping ring that appears to be flaking off before my very eyes? What have other AR lovers done when the rings are falling apart? Are there any replacements damping rings that are sold? Or do people just ignore the loss of the ring? I am curious what others have done. -Patrick

Hello Doug, Thank you for all your insights! This is really helpful. And thank you for sharing Pete Basel's site, I certainly learned a lot from that resource. I am back to finally to these speakers. I opened them up for the first time tonight and found another interesting thing. They both have the same crossover, however the one with the metal frame woofer and original tweeter had a 16uF cap connected to the common terminal, but the caps connected to the brightness switch (or tweeter switch, whatever it should be called) were two 8uf caps. The one speaker with the original woofer had two 16uf caps. All of the caps were the black with red end non polarized type, all 50v. So interesting that Advent also used different cap values. I wonder if when the woofer was replaced they replaced the one 16uf cap to two 8uf caps. I am ordering up some new caps and I am going to go with just 16uf to keep it simple. I am also thinking of buying one masonite woofer off eBay, just to have the woofers the same. Am I wrong, or do the two different types of woofers have a different configuration for the foam. I know the masonite woofers have inverted foam. But from what I can tell the steel frame woofer has outward facing foam. That discrepancy makes me think I should just go with two original woofers. Thanks again! Patrick

Hi Doug, Thanks for the informative reply! I do appreciate it. So it would seem like my hunch that some drivers have been replaced and updated was correct. Interesting that the cage free tweeters are the original. All the ones I looked at recently had cages so I assumed that was the original. I agree with you, the most important thing is to get them operational. Do you know if the crossover changed with these original drivers? I saw the Human Speakers page — https://www.humanspeakers.com/o/advent-large.htm — and it made it seem like the crossover evolves as the drivers evolve. Like you suggest, my instinct was to replace old caps with like values of new poly caps. I am going to do some testing of these (I have not plugged them in yet due to the gone surrounds) and see exactly what I have in terms of functioning speakers. I will keep folks updated. Thanks!!

I picked up this pair of Original Large Advent. Or at least I think they are. I do not know my Advents that well. I have not opened these up yet. Obviously they need new surrounds and I was also going to replace the caps while I was at it. And I had plans on lightly sanding and oiling the cabinets to make them sparkle again. They have identical intact tags that say Advent Loudspeaker on back with serial #s M 01535 and M 3057. As you can see from the photos, they look identical with the grilles on, but off one has the Masonite woofer and the cage over the tweeter. The person I got them from (part of a larger deal) said he bought them from the original owner and never got around to updating them, now he was moving houses and decided to sell rather than fix them up. My question is, could one of these been refurbished and thus had drivers updated? Does it matter that the drivers are different? I would not think the different drivers were a manufacturing change when they are only 1500 apart in serial numbers. I assume with such close numbers they would have the same drivers. My thought was to get the correct surrounds and just replace the foams. My understating is that both of these woofers, despite the difference in rings, take the same replacement foam. Secondly, with the different drivers, would the crossover be different? Lastly, should I just replace the drivers in the one speaker with a masonite woofer and tweeter with the cage? Certainly I can find replacement woofers and tweeters on eBay. The cabinets look close enough that replacing the drivers would create a visually identical set. But would they sound identical? These photos are from the seller. I can post more photos if needed. Thanks in advance of any insights! —Patrick

Thank you for this! I was just looking for this exact manual to help me with placement. Much appreciated!

Glenn, I am very happy with the 3A and I am excited to get these up and performing at their best. I just put up photos on my thread here. Please chime in with any insights or wisdom you have. I know you have a few of these under your belt... Best, Patrick

Long awaited update... Sorry to all who may have been wondering what happened. And thanks to everyone who weighed in with their great insights. More than a few events transpired, the upshot of which involved more AR speakers. Of course. I also had a busy fall work wise so I am finally getting a chance to dig into the speakers. Long story short I bought the AR-3As, and while I think I may have overpaid a bit ($900). I did manage to find a pair that looks very good for the most part. 7.5/10. I will post my own thread on those as I have some questions on making those sing. Part of the reason I was happy to buy from this seller and at that price is that he allowed me to make 3 installment payments. And he told me he had another pair of speakers he would throw in. I did not think much about it because I was really there for the 3As. But I was pleasantly surprised to find out they were AR-78LS speakers. I have questions about those. And of course lastly while all this was going on, I happened upon a pair of AR-2s that seemed too good too pass up. Documentation and questions about the AR-2's in another thread. Hold on for the threads...

Steve, Thanks for your insights. I wandered through your own thread on the differences and you had great things to say. I agree with you about AR sound, I am very happy with the 4xa's I have and they seduced me, and now I fall for that natural AR sound. And if I want to hear the ultimate AR sound I should probably go for the speaker that is the epitome of the AR sound. It was their marquee. They were not running ads with Miles Davis and his set of AR-5's. I already told the owner of the 3A's I am interested in them. But it may be a bit before I get them in my hands on them because of the price, but he has kindly allowed me to make payments to him. He wanted to sell them to someone who would appreciate them, so he is working with me. I will be sure to post the photos of the 3As when I do have them.

That's my 1700! I ended up paying about $600 after I had it serviced, but I certainly have not been able to find a cabinet for $29... You are correct, I have the second generation that allows for two sets of speakers. I have a reprint of the manual for the original. I am not sure if there is a new manual for the second generation, or if the specs differ. I should probably head over to AK and ask there. Thanks!

hahaha Here I was looking for definitions of some sort of electronic impedance engineering issue. As long as everything looks beautiful it is fine. I am not going to install a wall of speakers, but a set of restored speakers with lovely cabinets is not an issue.

Anyone have any experience with a Russound 4.2 speaker selector with impedance matching? I have a friend who would sell me his.

I appreciate the replies. I re-read the long discussion of the AR-5 and whether it should have been a 12" speaker. Great, great insights to be had. Even from those who disagreed on some of the finer points. I learned a lot. It seems I should not let the 4 ohm power of the 3A's scare me away. If need be, perhaps I should rethink my amp/receiver. But that is down the line. I don't listen to my music at truly loud volumes, so that would not be the issue. It may be just trying to find the right pairing that is most important. I will check out the other drivers in addition to the woofers to see if they are in need of attention. Is the restoration guide the best resource to look for specs on the different drivers? Or if someone knows of a thread that details it, please chime in. ra.ra thanks for your reply. What did you mean by this? I could not find what WAF refers to. Patrick

No trick questions! I really just want to hear people's thoughts. People here have years of knowledge and experience and I cannot tell you how valuable that is. I myself was leaning towards the 3As, I just did not want to miss out on another equally as good (and cheaper) option. I will read through the AR-5 thread again to glean more. In the meantime, are there amplifiers that people have had success running the 3As in parallel with other speakers? I would be curious. Thanks! Patrick

Hello. My first post here. I cannot tell you what a wonderful resource this forum was when I bought a pair of AR-4xa speakers (for the curious: real walnut veneer, cloth surrounds, and toggle switch). With the knowledge I gleaned from posts the forum I did a full restoration on my speakers and I love them. But then, as some of you may know from experience, curiosity took over. I wanted more of that great AR sound. I want it bigger, bolder. I wanted a three-way speaker. In my small study the AR-4xa are great. But in the larger room, I am thinking of replacing the Snell type E or augmenting them. A couple of questions. The AR-3A is a 4 ohm speaker. Will I have problems with that and running the Snell's (8 ohm) with the same amplifier? Can I put them on the a speaker selector (I want to have an outdoor speaker set driven by that amp too) and not fry the amplifier? Is there an issue running 4 ohms on the A channel and 8 ohms on the B channel? I admit ohms confuse me. The amp can handle 4 ohm speakers (it is a Mcintosh 1700), I just don't know how the mixing and matching of ohms affects the amp. If it turns out 4 ohm and 8 ohm speakers being driven by the same amp is not preferred, should I go with the pair of 2-AX or 5's? I know the 5 was a successor of sorts. And I want the rich, three-way sound. Was the 5 a worthy successor? But are any of them as good as the 3A's? Will I be disappointed by not hearing that full 3-A sound? I have a line on all three pairs, different sellers of course. Some will need more work than others, and I am prepared to re-cap, re-dope and refinish as necessary. I have heard the 3As and 2AX. I loved them both, but they both could use some work (re-capping most likely). The 2AX are considerably less than the 3As, and the 2AX are sequential serials with I think finished pine, but the switches were bypassed. The 3A's are the same owner for the last 40 years, and have not been messed with, so they will need some work. But the surrounds are in good shape. The 5s I am coordinating an audition. None of the speakers are cheap, they seem to be the going price for not destroyed cabinets, original driver speakers that will need some work. My requirements really is pleasure. I love the deep, natural sound of an AR speaker. Even with my smaller 4xa the sound is dimensional, as if the musicians are there in the room, especially with Jazz and acoustic music. And no getting all the speakers is not an option. Though we all know we wish it always was an option. Which vintage AR three-way speaker should I pursue? Any thoughts, insights, directives, warnings or recommendations are thoroughly appreciated. Thanks! Patrick