meta_noia_fot

Thanks. The Bolcom isn’t for everyone for sure. But a lot of those 70s Nonesuch avant-grade albums are really well recorded and mastered by Bob Ludwig. The Bolcom (and the B-side piece by William Albright) in particular has a huge dynamic range. They also tend to be cheap. I got my copy for $5 and it looked unplayed, apparently the previous owner didn’t make contact with the music either.

I've been enjoying AR speakers for two years now. I was born in the mid-80s and grew up listening to my dad's Bose 501's, mostly with CD's. When I was 15 I started collecting records, including new records at a time when that was near its nadir. I had an extremely basic system through college, a first career and grad school, but those records traveled with me across the country. Not long after moving to New England, I picked up a pretty busted up pair of 6s. I fixed those up and have been hooked on AR and other New England-manufactured speakers since. I've been fortunate to have some expendable funds the past couple years and have put some towards acquiring relatively cheap AR sets and mostly performing necessary repairs myself. My main system is a pair of AR-9's, but my most used system is in our living room where I've set up 91's. I'm a parent and this is where me and the kid listen to most of our music. I'll also have my quad system up and running again soon (quad is another weird, new obsession since I inherited my grandfather's receiver) which is composed of four 3a's. I've also heard some others, including the AR-2x, -4x, -8, -92, -303, and the Rock Partner. I'd rather spend the 10K on the AR-1's although I agree they'd be more of a collector's item rather than something I drove daily. I prefer AR's for a few reasons. First, I agree with ARSurround that most modern system demonstrations I've heard sound antiseptic, and I wouldn't describe any of the AR's I've heard that way. Second, AR's and the -9's in particular, suit my musical tastes well. I often listen to music that punches close to 20hz. I love electronic music and many of those can go very low. The track "1st 44" by Aphex Twin is a system tester for me. And the 9's make each of those numerous bass punches feel authoritative. I've also heard some avant-garde organ music I love recently, "Black Host" by William Bolcom. Some of the notes in that you feel more than you hear it seems. I have eclectic tastes, and whatever I'm listening to, whether it's John Zorn or Harry Nilsson, my ears are referencing the 9's now. I want an all-in-one, full spectrum loudspeaker system and AR delivers. Finally, I think I'll be sentimental about AR equipment because it's the first nice equipment I've ever had. It's not new, but I bought it, I fixed it, and I'm enjoying it. Beyond the sound of the speakers, I enjoy that they were designed and manufactured in the US and specifically New England. Almost all my equipment is older than I am (some significantly) and I feel like I'm in danger of being nostalgic about a time I never knew. So give me 10K and I'll take the AR-1's. I want to hear what the best loudspeaker system in the 50's sounded like.

I didn’t know that. Thank you @JKent. This pair definitely needed to be redoped at least once. When I got them, they appeared to have never been opened yet had no seal at all. I’ll hold off any redoping a second time.

I followed @Aadams advice. I picked up a high thread count color sample and a fabric adhesive called Unique Stitch from Jo-Ann’s. I tested the adhesive and it didn’t seem to add much stiffness to the fabric. Unique Stitch is also supposed to hold up under machine washing, so hopefully the patch will hold up with the movement of the woofer. I made a small circular patch, glued it in place, and applied the goo after the adhesive cured. It’s difficult to see the patch from these backlit photos, but you can see they puncture damage in one photo and not in the after photo. I’ve reinstalled the woofer into the cabinet and there is an OK acoustic seal (woofer fully bounces back after 3/4 sec or so). At this point I just need to drive them for awhile and hope the patch holds on. I’m also considering applying a second layer of the woofer sealant goo…much of the woofer doesn’t feel tacky, like the cloth absorbed it mostly.

@genekThanks so much for your thorough response. I’m going to ditch the Danish Oil and go your route. Hopefully I’ll have some results to post in the next couple of weeks.

Hi everyone, When I went to Boston and bought my AR-91's, I also added a pretty beaten up pair of Model Fives to my collection. I only paid $50 for them which I figure is about right for the shape they were in. These photos are of the worst sides of the cabinets. Not sure what the black on the bottom of one is (mold?). Someone also definitely put a potted plant on top of one. Between them, both tweeters and woofers are working, but both of the midrange drivers in one cabinet were out. I've ordered and received replacements for those, both made in the same year as my working midrange drivers (1969). I've also ordered npe caps from Dayton Audio and 15w resistors from Madisound. While I wait for parts, I figured I'd share my progress and ask a couple questions. I spent a day this week working on the cabinets. I started by painting the baffles flat black. I first saw this in the excellent video series by @thr33p4c. In addition to this board, those videos have been a terrific resource. I got uneven results: one cabinet had a little more sheen. I flattened out the sheen using a some #1 steel wool. Based on a thread I found here, I stripped the old finish using Blue Bear Paint and Urethane Stripper. I had the same experience mentioned in the previous thread: the old finish came off as a sludge using a putty knife. It seemed to me that a significant amount of the previous finish came off using the stripper. I hand-sanded the edges of the cabinets then used an orbital sander for the majority of the work. There are some corner bashes and small bits of missing veneer on each cabinet. I'm going to try Kwikwood mixed with Mixol 22, again another decision based off the Novalux videos. After that has set, I'm going to apply dark walnut Danish oil. I plan on doing three coats over as many days while I work on the crossovers. While all that is going on, I'll seal the woofers and midrange drivers with The Goop™. Neither of my grills are in good shape, so I'm planning on making new ones, something that would be new for me. Here's some questions: - Despite best efforts, I still went through veneer on a couple edges. My plan is to use a small amount of paint on these spots before the danish oil. Does anyone have a recommendation for a paint brand and color for this touch-up work? - What's a recommended grill cloth for these? Is it possible to find a comparable material at a store like Jo-Ann's? - What is proper positioning for these? I saw the ad in the library said floor or shelf. If placed on the floor, is it better to use stands?

Here’s some photos of the veneers including some scratches that blend in well. The beveled tops to match the grills makes enough of a difference that my spouse commented on how clean they look.

I’ve been considering picking up a pair of TSW-115p’s that are near me. That’s the powered version of that line. I take a mini-system with me on vacations: a Sound Burger record player and a pair of powered speakers. I think having the powered TSW would be a hoot if the electronics are in good shape. I’ve paid for that Solen capacitor before. Can’t say I’m eager to buy them again so I’m good leaving it as is.

@DavidR I haven’t heard the 610’s (or any TSW speaker) but I imagine you’re right about the 91’s mid being better. The mids and tweeters from the 9 series are terrific. @Stimpy Thanks for the info about the capacitor. Some previous tech really took care of these so I assumed they were left in position because they were still within spec

Earlier this year I picked up a pair of 92’s that I recapped and fell in love with. I’ve been keeping my eye out for a pair of 91’s at a decent price because I wanted the 12” woofer and real veneers. Yesterday I bought a pair in Boston. The seller didn’t know about work done to them. He said his father-in-law had them “rewired” at some point. I figured that could be either very good or very bad. Well it was my lucky day. When I got home, I opened one up and found that it had been recapped. I’ve attached a photo of the work done. All capacitors replaced with Solen capacitors except for the 100uF cap which was left in place. Someone also went to the trouble of replacing the deteriorated acoustic blanket around the tweeters and mids. The veneers are also in great shape. There are some scratches in the veneer but they are well hidden, which makes me think they were possibly treated with RAF? They sound phenomenal. I’ve only listened to them for a few hours but I’m so pleased. I’m wondering, does anyone know who did this work? Maybe it was you?

Oh god I've gone and done something novel The more I look at this, the smaller it seems the puncture is. The sort of diagonal line in the blue area is not a full tear. The actual puncture is quite small. I think that could work. And the puncture is so small, the patch would hopefully not (significantly) affect woofer performance.

Neither. It’s in the blue circle

On second thought, here's a photo. It's a pretty minute tear I think.

Well I went and made a real amateur screw-up. While screwing a woofer into the cabinet of a 4x I picked up, my screwdriver slipped and I punctured the cloth surround on one of the woofers. Very small screw driver puncture through the surround away from the cone. All the material is still there. Is there any way I can seal this surround? No picture included because it doesn't photograph well. Doing some tests with the speaker reassembled, that woofer is making a raspberry sound on low bass notes at higher volumes, I'm assuming since it's not sealing. I have a small jar of the sealant Vintage AR sells (and maybe @RoyC formulated??) but I don't know if that would work in this situation, nor do I want to go globbing it on without checking. Thanks

@frankmarsi It's an old house and I don't have larger rooms to work with. The room size certainly isn't optimal, but after listening to these speakers for nearly a year in this spot, it's hard to imagine being more pleased. That being said, I do plan on upgrading amps in the next year or so. I want something that can do at least 400W into 4 ohms. Currently I have an 80's Luxman that was advertised as delivering 170W into 4 ohms. A Nakamichi PA-7 would fit in well with my other equipment so that's what I'm considering. I actually purchased a second pair of AR-9s over the winter at I think a great price. I plan on gifting my current 9's to my dad and recapping this second pair as my set. And all of my equipment is moving into a room slightly larger than this one later this year. If you think a pair of 9's is too big for that space ... I'm putting those 9's as a stereo set and a separate quad setup of AR-3a's into the new space. Oh, and I could detect some vibrations between the wood pedestal built into the 9's and the wood floor. I ended up putting felt furniture pads on the base and that solved the problem.

Not sure if this has been reported before, but I also have problems with phishing attempts on this forum since I posted an ad wanting to buy something. They all have this format:

These are the 303a schematics. I actually haven't seen the 303 schematics here. They should be fairly close though...the 303a's had bi-amping capabilities while the 303's did not.

Going back through my bookmarks, and it was your AR90 recapping thread that convinced me to give NPE's a try. https://community.classicspeakerpages.net/topic/11173-re-cappi-my-ar90s/

Nice find. I picked up a pair of 92's that I've been listening to for a few weeks. I recapped them using NPE's with film bypass caps. They sound really terrific.

@JKentThank you so much. Hopefully I'll have these playing by the end of the day. And thanks for the continued help @genek. I may see how much I like these speakers before putting more time into the finish. In any case, there's still a small amount of oil seeping out of the wood, so they'll probably still need a couple more weeks to fully cure before doing anything else. I'm excited to hear these. I got the woofers back from MillerSound and Bill did an incredible job on them. I picked these up on a whim out of a lot on craigslist and had no expectations beyond seeing if I could get them playing again. Thanks everyone for your help.

Maybe I've puzzled this out...sorry if this is all novice stuff. If I put the new pot in the same place, the terminals should be in the same location with B being the yellow wire. I think I was just overthinking this.

I followed @genek's suggestion. I used a very small amount of oil-soluble dye and applied what ended up being 6 more coats on the veneers until they wouldn't accept anymore tung oil. One strip on the front is still much lighter than the rest of the veneers but the color overall is much more balanced. At this point, unless there is anything else that can be done, I'm going to take this as a learning experience and classify the lighter strips as "character." I tested out the electronics and the pots are intermittent. I ordered replacements which should be here tomorrow. My question is about installing the new pots. I don't have a 2x schematic and referencing other schematics like 2ax and 4x didn't answer my question. Maybe someone here can help. The pot that's installed is not clearly labeled 1, 2, and B as I've seen on other AR pots. Can someone tell me how to wire a new pot (the kind @JKent sells, thanks btw)? In the pic of the pot below, the light green goes to the tweeter and the T terminal, the yellow goes to the tweeter, and the darker green goes to a capacitor. Which of these corresponds to 1, 2, and B? Thanks

Thank you. Much appreciated.

Thanks so much. I'll try that. Is there a better way I should have approached using the tung oil from the start in order to get a more even color? Looking back on this photo I took after sanding was completed, I can now see how uneven the color is in places like that front corner. Would you use this dye from the start or some other method to stain??

Here are a few pics. The color seems more blond and uneven than when I initially applied the oil. The coloring on the front top (and rest of the front) is the most glaring. I didn't take pics of all sides, but I'd say these are the worst. I used a 50/50 mix of pure tung oil from Real Milk Paint and mineral spirits.