MikeW

Hi all, finally got a chance to wire up the other speaker and play them as a pair. Both sound great! Frankly I'm quite (pleasantly) surprised at the soundstage these speakers put out. When placed on the same Audio Refinement amp in the same location/room as some Boston Acoustic Lynnfield VR's the AR's fill the room much better (though the Boston's are very detailed so are perfect for home theatre). Nothing more for me to do other than move them into place and hook them up at home. I want to sincerely thank everyone here who offered to help and provided (much needed) advice. I know I really lucked out that all the drivers were in working order and it was just bad caps/pots that were the issue but the electrical was still all new to me so I thanks again. Cheers all!

Mark, I can't speak specifically to the point of the capacitors never going bad. I replaced mine because there was no reason not to while I was in there and my pots were definitely bad. As for your specific situation, sorry to hear that things aren't working out for you, though the woofers do not go through a capacitor, but the inductor coil. I'll let much more knowledgable people weigh in to what might be your issues. Hopefully you'll be listening to music soon!

So after some additional reading and (mostly) looking at pictures, I think I had it wrong above. Looks like the picture I posted above was correct and most people have the 4uF going to the Tweeter and the 6uF going to the Mid-Range. It also seems that AR was not particularly consistent with their wire colors. So that's how I wired it up. Tested it at very low volume and sure enough I could hear the Tweeter and Mid-Range drivers. I put the fiberglass back in, sealed up the woofer and ta-da, a seemingly fully working speaker. All that is left to do is oil the cabinet and attach the cover, which I intend to do with velcro to make removal easy in the future. I hooked it up to an Audio Refinement amp (125 W) and pre-amp and it sounded great. In the short bit of time I was playing it, I could hear it open up a bit so I assume I can expect a bit more of that as everything settles in. As has been said before, despite the fact that AR says 100 W is sufficient, I can hear how it is a power hungry speaker. I can't wait to get it into it's final room placement and hooked up to the big Mac (250 W). I'm including pictures of the final wiring. If anyone sees anything wrong with what I did, please let me know.

Hi everyone, I finally have all of my parts in (hopefully) and have been fiddling with the wiring for a little bit now. A few questions as I'm getting a little confused with the different schematics not really aligning up... mind you this could easily be me. The picture I posted four posts above of the wiring for the 2ax appears to differ from what I see in the restoration guide. I got that picture from this thread: For example the picture above shows the 6uF capacitor going to the mid driver but the restoration guide shows the 6uF going to the Tweeter and the 4uF going to the mid. Can someone please confirm? Also, the schematic in the restoration guide shows a yellow wire coming from the terminals but I have black for high and green for mid coming from the terminals with yellow a coming from the 'B' pot going to the drivers. To alleviate my confusion, I've written out the wiring as it was and then how I think each connection should be. If someone can look over my logic I'd appreciate it. This writing does not reflect the inclusion of the resistor between the L-Pad 1 and 2 connectors as shown above. Tweeter: Old: T --> 2Pot --> Black Wire --> Tweeter New: T --> 1Lpad --> Black Wire --> Tweeter Old: 1 --> Capacitor --> 1Pot New: 1 --> 6uF Capacitor --> 3Lpad Old: BPot --> Yellow Wire --> Tweeter New: 2Lpad --> Yellow Wire --> Tweeter Mid: Old: T --> 2Pot --> Green Wire --> Mid New: T --> 1Lpad --> Green Wire --> Mid Old: 1 --> Capacitor --> 1Pot New: 1 --> 4uF Capacitor --> 3Lpad Old: B --> Yellow Wire --> Mid New: 2Lpad --> Yellow Wire --> Mid Thanks for any confirmation, clarification or correction of the above!

Thanks both for the info. I had been looking at the schematic in the restoration guide and it just didn't click, hence the post. That picture is not how I would have imagined doing it, but it looks very simple now that I see it. Unfortunately, it means I'm placing another oder as for some reason I had it in my head that it was only one resistor per speaker. Oh well. Thanks again!

As the parts have started to arrive, and putting the speakers back together will be happening soon I've been doing some reading on the wiring of the L-Pads into the speaker circuit. I found this schematic pretty helpful: Also noting that the L-Pads align to the older pots as follows: L-pad #3=Pot #1 L-pad#1=Pot #2 L-pad#2=Pot "B" My question is, where do the resistors get wired in there? Is there a picture or schematic? All I've been able to find is that they are wired across the #1 and #2 L-Pad terminals. Which then begs the question, are there two per speaker or just one across a specific L-Pad?

Thanks all. Placed an order and it should be here by the time the rest of the stuff from PE get to me. With some luck I can sit down and start to work on the speakers in a bit over a week.

Quick question: Hit a slight snag as the resistor from PE is on backorder until May. Is there a 'preferred' alternative resistor? I found this: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Ohmite/TNP10SC25R0FE?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtG0KNrPCHnjTPAjtLBSopMG9zlno%2fRaPxT80DfEtUMAQ%3d%3d It's not the standard form factor, but in theory it should do the trick? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. They are foil, so inherently non-inductive as I've found it difficult to find resistors that specifically call out weather they are inductive or not.

Thanks for the links! I added the mounting blocks to the order. Like you, my wipers are all in fine shape. It was the disks that were corroded.

Thanks all! While I am going to keep the pots, in case I want to go back to factory, at which point I would fully rebuild, at this time I'll just go the L-pot route. Seems like there is no benefit (functional, ease of DIY or sound quality) to restoring the pots past originality which I'm loosing anyway. I have now placed the order and have to wait a bit (some things were out of stock and won't be in until the 23rd. I will update as things progress. Thank you all for the assistance to this point (and in advance for a few weeks from now).

Follow-up questions before I place the order. While I recognize that I'm not going the 100% OEM route, my plan is to keep the capacitor box in place and just unsolder or cut the wires leaving as much wire attached to the box as possible. Then putting them aside. This is just for looks and "the ability to go back to stock". Something left over from my automotive hobby. Question 1: How does one mount the capacitors/protect from the stuffing giving a little air space? Most builds/guides show a mounting bracket but I was looking last night and couldn't find one to purchase so I assume most people just make one up from other parts. Question 2: What gauge and material wire is used internally? I'm going to need some additional for the resistor and capacitors. TIA!

Thanks both for the information. I got a chance to take apart the other speaker and these pots looked to be in worse shape. While the High pot shined up nicely, there is pitting and some metal was removed. The Mid is very pitted and appears quite corroded even after polishing with a Dremel wire wheel. Given this information, I'm tempted to go the L-pad route. So I put together my shopping list: 2 x Dayton Audio DNR-25 25 Ohm 10W Precision Audio Grade Resistor 2 x Dayton Audio PMPC-6.2 6.2uF 250V Precision Audio Capacitor 2 x Dayton Audio PMPC-4.0 4.0uF 250V Precision Audio Capacitor 2 x Acoustic Research, AR Speaker Level Control (from Vintage-AR) or 2 x Parts Express Speaker L-Pad Attenuator 15W Mono 3/8" Shaft 8 Ohm and 2 x Acoustic Research Speaker Cabinet Sealer (from Vintage-AR) Am I missing anything to put the speakers back together? And do you think there is any difference between the L-pads offered by Vintage-AR versus the ones offered at Parts Express? Other than about $10/unit. High Mid

As I've been doing my initial reading over the past few weeks I've been looking at my different options in case the pots do need replacement. Per the AR-3 restoration guide, the options seem to be the Ohmite RHS-15R and various L-pots. It appears that the Ohmite's are the preferred (but more expensive) option. Is there a performance difference between the two that might justify the price difference? Wondering if one can one mix and match? As in, if I have good pots I can reuse those while putting in an Ohmite unit in the same or different speaker and expect the same performance? Or to expect uniform performance, I should use the the same (originals, Ohmite or L-pads) across both speakers? PS: kicking myself as in reading 'sarals' thread, I didn't even think about doing what she did and try to repair the pots in the speaker. I easily could have at least inspected before I desoldered the wires.

How would you recommend doing so? They don't just spin freely, or even with a solid push with a screwdriver.

So I got the pots off and took them apart. The High pot seemed to clean up pretty well but the mid looks to have been eaten away in the center. Thoughts? Is this workable, or time to replace? TIA High Before High After Mid before Mid after