How to approach these Teledyne AR 9LS

[Guest SpeakerRookie]

I'm in kind of a quandary. I picked up these speakers this weekend. They need new surrounds but I'm not sure if I should attempt it and make a bad situation worse. I looked for some advice on another site, someone said to practice on some other speakers. Should I go to the thrift store and just buy a pair of cheapos to practice on? Would I just measure to the outside of the paper cone and just order the least expensive kit I can find for that size speaker? Would that really give me the relevant practice I need to attempt it on the ARs?

Here is a little description of what I am up against. I am in southern Arizona so the foam is pretty dried out on one large woofer and starting to go on a couple others. The tweeters apppear tacky (sticky) and have some dust and hairs sticking to them. The cabinets are black and have a black grille cloth ???? The pictures I saw on this site show woodgrain with brown grille cloth. The foam in the sub woofer chamber is not resiliant and just leaves a dimple if you stick your finger in it. The plastic veneer on front under speakers with driver part numbers is starting to come unglued and bubble up in several areas.

I was really excited about the prospect of refoaming them (as I like to think I'm pretty handy) until I started reading all the posts about the capacitors, crossovers etc possibly needing work too. That part confuses me. I would like to take a slow logical approach.

Here are the surround kits I have found on eBay and the web:

1. vintage-ar from NY

2. Simply Speakers

3. Parts Express

I was impressed by an email from vintage-ar, seems to know what he is talking about and has experience in this. His auctions also come with dust caps that I don't think came with the others.

What I have to drive them with is a Yamaha M-2 amp and C-2a pre amp or Carver M-200T amp. I could use my Pioneer SX-1250 receiver or the Sansui BA-2000 amp and CA-2000 pre amp. Which leads to my other question how do people say to drive these with two amps? Do you just hook 2 sets of wires to the terminals? Not really sure what my main question is, I guess it just seems to good to be true that I could get these going by spending $70 on 3 surround kits or maybe I just need a boost of confidence.

[ar_pro]

It's a good bet that all of your foam surrounds should be replaced, as they were all subject to the same type of rot...this includes the 10" and 12" woofers, as well as the 8" lower midrange.

If the mid/tweeter domes are like the upper midrange dome on the original AR-9, then they *should* be a little tacky to the touch, so that's probably nothing to worry about.

The foam lining in the bass chamber is another story...if it's no longer resilient, that *could* be a sign of deterioration, and working with/around it could aggravate the situation. It might be possible to use Sonex foam as a replacement.

The front-panel applique is a real headache...IF there's veneer underneath, it might be possible to remove it slowly & carefully, then refinish the cabinet's front & sides for a new-looking speaker. That's a big "if", and maybe someone here can let you know what lurks beneath that glued-on vinyl.

Practicing on junk drivers is an excellent way to learn refoaming, but if you decide to use a pro, then Bill Miller of Millersound does superb work on AR drivers. I'm currently working on my 4th AR-9 restoration, and he's refoamed every single driver, with first-rate results.

Biamping is usually done with a pair of identical stereo amplifiers, with one for each channel (vertical bi-amp), or one for bass and one for the upper range (horizontal bi-amp)...there's been a lot written here.

Get ready to have fun!