Edward

The future of my soon-to-be refurbished AR3s is ; By choice, my only source of music now is a cd player. Two years ago I moved from a Duel 1229 TT (sitting in my garage) to an older Pioneer PDM 550CD player; including the collections of each of the formats. Like many of you, I test drove a wide variety of separates over the last several decades. But back in 1978 I bonded with the sound produced by the magnificent AR3a's, for a wide of genres, as long as it was clean power. Soon I will diagram my cap. replacements with resistor for the newer ver tweeters and post on this thread. And since the metal surfaces are not corroded I will properly clean and treat metal to revive original Pots.

Nice American hi-fi for sure.

In the end, after my repairs have been completed, I will most certainly create a diagram showing what component are in the cabinets and why the particular caps and resisters were used. If next owner wants to rearrange the cap network they will at least know where they are starting from. This paperwork will be in a manila folder under home audio. My wife and I are quite organized that way.

I will need to find an interested party for Sony TA-3120 and sell it before moving to more modern power unit. A warranty for the first several years cannot hurt.

Also an option for sure.

Thanks for that. just cannot see those old Elna caps in my Sony power amp living that much longer and remaining with acceptable tolerance. As previously mentioned in the forum under this thread, the QSC amps were suggested as an option. I really do not have all that much mula allotted for home audio. They certainly meet all my requirements. However, I am digging the preamp. I 'm looking for clean, simple, and reliable power source with power to spare so I'm remain lower on the dial. For a short period of time I owned pairs of both the AR-3 and JBL 100s (waffle grills) having the opportunity to A/B them. The ported JBLs were louder given a volume setting compared to the ARs. But the AR3 were much smoother (flat) to my ears with symphonic strings, jazz horns, and vocals. All my friends liked the JBLs better. I easily sold the JBLs for what I paid for them because I had ordered them from a catalogue sales company at a significantly discounted cost. Yea the Sony TA-3120 seemed to power (stated 50 wpc rms) the AR-3 s just fine for a few decades. But those QSCs would also fit under the preamp much better.

I would love twin tube amps, but @ 61 yo I'm looking for something small and little to no maintenance. However they are great looking set. Thanks, EE

To all, Yea lots of chatter about old classic amps that, however, contain tiring capacitors. I'm now clearly seeing that I do need to move to a more compatible amp for my AR3s. Interesting suggestions with good specs and not that costly. Does this mean that a newer amp will contain circuit boards with chips ???

I have A/b d vinyl vs quality CDs. I'm in favor of the wider frequency response of the compact discs and no background noise. You see I tend to drop things including the finest of vinyl records. And it is so easy to insert a disc vs pull out a record and place on turntable. And with a CD you can listed from beginning to end without flipping the plastic. I'm so glad to be rid of those cumbersome crates and the drying out of the cardboard slip covers, ... The pots are in great condition, just need to have surfer reaction powder cleaned off and cleaned. Maybe Ill just keep the pots. Easier that way initially.

And there are folks that will pay good money for these very Sony separates. They are in great shape, well sort of, they are old. Hmmmmmmm.

I have been coming across references to QSC amps as of late but was not familiar with them. I am not stuck on the Sony separates as I am with my AR-3s. Seems like I may need to look into this ohm aspect of the Sony amp.

Foam: I believe I read in the AR3 restoration manual that it is to reduce unwanted dispersion. For a few buck I'll order them. Thanks for the options. Otherwise I may fabricate them matching thinness. Caps: Had I diagrammed these alternative I would have conceptualized these options earlier. I'm going with the Roy suggestion: replace the old 6uF and put in 2uF. (vs replacing the old 6uF with a new film 6uF on the board, then adding a 3uF in series with the negative terminal). You all have been very patient with me. Closest to original sound driven by logic is my priority , over the "authentic" option I was inadvertently stating. Future owners will understand. Can't wait to run some Stravinsky and Miles Davis through them once completed.

Thanks RoyC, 25 ohm parallel ohm resistor on the mid, and a 2uf capacitor on the AR-11 tweeters -- duly noted. Added to list. The AR-3a restoration manual is truly a classic.

Great news !!!

lakecat, After replacing pots for lpads I will no longer have any use for the four pots removed. You are correct there does seem to be two layers of metal swipes, with the top one extended out to contact the coils. If there is interest in them, I would give first refusal options to the individuals who have responded to my forum posts, and the order they responded. I'm not $$ grubbing but it would be nice to receive something to offset the costs for repairs discussed and postage. Just some white powder on metal surfaces (sulfur?).