Hi folks
I acquired an original pair of AR-5s from an estate recently. Removed badges then determined that the grilles were not going to go quietly. (they were never coming off intact, tried all the tricks, oh well). So I hooked them up to my Pioneer SX-980 and queued up Miles on my Yamaha PX3 table with Denon DL-103 MC cart and Denon AU-300LC step-up transformer. A nice simple setup, nothing fancy here.
First impressions: slowly increased the volume realizing they appear to be quite inefficient compared to my 1970s JBL Century L100s. Also less efficient compared to my 1960 pair of fairly rare EMI DLS-529x, which are 4 ohm loudspeakers. Once I reached my normal listening volume level (probably on the high side because my listening ‘room’ is a large commercial loft space), I was actually blown away! At first, I thought they might be good to go as is. No, then at low volume I started to hear some woofer distortion sounds. Turning the rear knobs revealed scratchy noise and dead spots. So that ended the testing session.
Observations:
1) Having to turn the volume up to near 3/4s was a surprise. Both other pairs mentioned above are never above 1/2. Is this due to the aging electronics in these AR-5s? My presumption is that may change somewhat after a restore.
2) Got to get these fixed up and amazing potential!
After studying much of the AR-5 related content here, I decided to try a restoration myself even though I have no real expertise. I have only rudimentary knowledge and just enough hand tools to be dangerous.
I have (successfully) restored some cars, motorcycles a lot of mid-century-modern furniture and did a few basic clean up duties on the above vintage HIFI units.
I plan on contributing this process to the forum here, mostly with photos and documenting what may be useful to others. It also appears that good documentation of original AR-5s may be helpful for the knowledge base here in general (hopefully I’ll contribute something worthwhile). Any observations are encouraged and I’ll be asking for a bit of help along the way.
James
Sorry for the long-winded opening post.
photos to follow