sarals

The AR2ax recone kit I found on eBay arrived yesterday, and wouldn't you know it, the voice coil diameter is smaller than my AR5's 1.5 inch VC. I considered opening up the spider that came with the kit, but I discovered that won't work because it's a cupped spider, not a flat one like the original. It wouldn't sit properly on the masonite ring landing. So, I ordered a spider from Speaker Exchange. I'm looking at a fairly slow process to restoring these AR5's of mine. The tweeters are going to be expensive, no matter what route I take, so budgeting will be in order! They'll be the last thing to be addressed on this adventure.

Bob, you're too late! I already glued on the domed cap.

Gentlemen, this is great - thank you! I left the flat dust caps on the woofers of my AR-2ax's when I refoamed them. It certainly was easy to cut a semicircle in the dustcaps and fold them back. They flattened back out and reglued with zero issues. On the AR-5, yes I do want to keep them as original as possible, but I decided, just to differentiate them a little bit from the AR-2ax woofers, to go ahead and use the domed dustcap Vintage AR provided in the kit. Let's just call it "artists license"! Yes, I should be a little chagrined because I stress originality, but I do hope you'll all forgive me this one indiscretion. @RoyC, I have a question about the spider in these AR-5 woofers. I've discovered they sit on a masonite ring where they are glued to the basket. I don't recall such a ring in the AR-2ax woofers I worked on. (That doesn't mean they weren't there, though. @ra.ra thank you for the kind words! @lARrybody I noticed some resistors across the mid/tweeter terminal on the AR-5's you pictured. Interesting!

Here is the progress on woofer number two. I've refoamed three woofers now and have gotten more proficient and a little faster at it! In the last photo, the dustcap is not glued down, it was placed for a visual. I decided to use the dustcaps that came with the kit rather than reglue the originals. They don't look bad, and they will not affect the performance of the driver.

Roy! I appreciate the endorsement of Chris1's work. Thank you!

Fellas, I've been looking at @Chris1this1's posts around the forum, looking at his work. My goal is to keep these speakers as original as possible, and to hear them as AR intended back in 60's and 70's. I'm not in a rush to get these AR'5s working, but I will contact @Chris1this1 about having the tweeters rebuilt, hopefully in the next couple of months. I'm up to my elbows in woofers right now (I just refoamed the "good" one). Next step is going through the crossovers, measuring the caps (and probably replacing them), and cleaning the pots. Tweeters will be last.

I just did a battery check on the tweeters. Neither has any output. Using the multimeter showed one at 16.57 ohms, and the other open. They both need restoration or replacement.

More adventures... It was not possible to save the spider. It had a tear that extended well into the pleats from the ripped piece still adhered to the cone. There was another tear on the other side of spider, as well. When I removed it, I discovered that it sat on a masonite ring. Hmmm. That I wasn't aware of. Do the 2ax woofers also have this ring under the spider, or is it an AR5 "exclusive"? Thinking out loud, I wonder if it's there to allow the basket to be used with a longer voice coil bobbin, giving the AR5 more excursion? Just wondering... I removed all of the glue from the area of the basket where the new surround will bed. The cone came away unscathed. The voice coil and former look perfect. I see no signs of heat distress, rubbing or bottoming. Good! Yes, I have cleaned up the mess from scraping off all of that glue! Even though the VC gap is taped off, I still intend to clean it thoroughly. I await the eBay spider. I do hope it has a 1.5 inch cutout!

Bob, beautifully done!!

Hi Bob! I'm really thrilled I was able to get these speakers! I do wish they were a little better than they are mechanically, but, hey, look a gift horse in the mouth? Not me! The grill cloth on my AR-5's is fine. I have no intentions of replacing it. Now, on my AR-2ax's, maybe. Although, there is a proper patina to those speakers, to their overall "look", and they are fine the way they are. I've heard the car buffs say 'it's only original once". I like that philosophy. But, I do like the piece in question to work! I have a spider on the way, I found one on eBay. I decided not to risk using that original spider, it does appear to be brittle. I haven''t done any further work on the woofer, I've been researching reconing as well as chasing down parts. I'm mulling over what to do with the tweeters in my 2ax's and 5's. It largely depends on whether or not the tweeters in the 5's work. The tweeters DO work in the 2ax's. Do they work as they did when new? Probably not, but I don't know what they sounded like new, and as old as they and I now are, my memory of them - if I'd heard them - would be faulty! Your 4's look wonderful. Did you bring them back to original? @lARrybody, your AR-5's are just beautiful. Exquisite!

@ra.ra, I think the substance on the pole piece is glue or something like that. There is no ferrofluid in the gap or anywhere else on the magnet. @Pete B, thanks! I looked closely at the voice coil bobbin and the coil itself, and I can't see any signs of heat distress. I tend to think that if the speaker was driven hard enough to really heat up the woofer voice coil, then the midrange would be dead. It works fine. Then again, I could well be wrong!

I lucked out and found an AR2ax reconing kit on eBay. I think it's an old Speakerlab kit? The cone looked all wrong, and I'm sure the woofer would sound "different" if I used it. My notion is to use the spider from the kit to replace the damaged spider in my AR5 woofer. I'll go the complete recone route that way, using the original cone and voice coil. I anticipate some challenges, but I think I can make it work.

Thank you, @ra.ra! I'm going to try to reglue the voice coil to the spider. What have I got to loose? By the way, what looks like charing is glue. It does make things look like heat!

Hi gentlemen! Thank you all! I think I did find a good score. I agree that the grill cloth looks new(er). If it is, someone did a very nice job replacing it. Not so good? When I turned the woofer over to photograph the numbers on the magnet, the cone fell out. The last photo shows the result. The spider is partially torn. It looks to me like the woofer needs a complete recone. Or it needs another woofer!

Can anyone suggest an adhesive to use on the spider to voice coil repair? Will the glue in the surround kit work (reliably)?

I have managed to secure a pair of AR-5's. They were one owner speakers. On initial inspection, they seem to be quite good. The cabinets are very nice, as is the grill cloth. The woofers and mids work, I'm not sure about the tweeters. I need to do the battery check on them. The controls are iffy, no surprise there. The woofer surrounds are completely shot, also no surprise. One has holes in it, the other is solid but very fragile. I'll hook that speaker up and give it an extended listen before I start restoration on it. I ordered and received a refoam kit from Vintage AR. I hooked the "good woofer" AR5 up to my "classic good system" and have listened to it for about an hour with it on the right and one of my AR2ax's on the left. My impressions are what @stupidhead's were in his comparison video. First, the difference in efficiency is huge. Not small! Second, it doesn't sound significantly different from the 2ax. It is leaner and a little cleaner through the mids, the highs I'm not sure, because I'm not convinced the tweeter is working. The woofer sounds exactly like the 2ax. However, there is punchiness through the upper bass that 2ax tends to slur. It's that midrange! Overall, the sound of it is very, very similar to the 2ax. The tonal balance is just about identical. The controls are super dirty, and fooling with them causes distortion and cutouts. I know that midrange is fragile, so I'm not going to mess around any more until I restore the speakers. The other speaker has a bad woofer. I removed it because the surround had holes in it, and I didn't want to do anything other than ensure it worked. The surround easily pealed off, which was good. But, not so good was that the voice coil former has separated from the spider most of the way around. I'm going to have to figure out how to fix that. Both speakers seem to be much newer than my 2ax's. There was a styrofoam gasket behind the woofers in both, and each cabinet had a small serial number/ID tag on the back. There was no obvious sign that they'd previously been repaired, although there was a really sticky substance on the surrounds of the woofers. I don't know if they came that way or they'd been treated later. The grill cloths had been previously removed, and it was done well. Based on that, I tend to think they've been molested some how. I'm going to get started this weekend on the restoration. I've got to get the woofers refoamed. Hopefully I only need to re-glue one voice coil former! I have to figure out how to do that. While they're open, the controls need cleaning and the caps will be replaced (unless they already have been, I don't know yet). The tweeters may have to be sent out for repair, that's undetermined yet. I will keep you all appraised!

I'm a WAF ( ;-) ) and I acceptance factor this thread!