AR55 Posted May 13, 2020 Report Share Posted May 13, 2020 Recently I restored a pair of AR-17’s and wanted to replace the aftermarket woofers. I had a spare pair of 8” midranges (model 200045) meant for my AR-9Lsi/98Ls/98Lsi. They visually compare well with the 200001 woofers in my AR-15’s & have the same measured DC resistance, so I thought that they might be a good match. They sounded alright, but the bass response wasn’t quite what I thought it should be. That led me to start searching for additional information on the 200001 woofer & 200045 midrange. It ultimately grew into a lot more. It became a study of which AR 8” woofer/midrange was original equipment in what AR speaker, and secondarily which of these is a good substitute for the often hard to find 200001 model. A copy of that research is attached as a pdf. AR 8-inch Woofer-Midrange Research.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnfalc Posted May 14, 2020 Report Share Posted May 14, 2020 Thanks for doing the legwork on this. The only thing I have to offer from my own experience is that the 200027 and 200045, while they seem almost identical in many regards, use different cone materials and, at least to me (and others who commented here in earlier posts) sound different enough that it makes sense (if you have AR-9s or AR-90s - I have both) to use only the originally-intended 200027. My "discovery" of this occurred because a pair of AR-9s I purchased last year had the 200045 LMRs and didn't sound "right" until I replaced those with the 200027. Another column showing cone material (and perhaps even details specific to surround attachment) would be a nice addition to your work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dna Posted May 16, 2020 Report Share Posted May 16, 2020 On 5/13/2020 at 10:52 AM, AR55 said: Recently I restored a pair of AR-17’s and wanted to replace the aftermarket woofers. I had a spare pair of 8” midranges (model 200045) meant for my AR-9Lsi/98Ls/98Lsi. They visually compare well with the 200001 woofers in my AR-15’s & have the same measured DC resistance, so I thought that they might be a good match. They sounded alright, but the bass response wasn’t quite what I thought it should be. That led me to start searching for additional information on the 200001 woofer & 200045 midrange. It ultimately grew into a lot more. It became a study of which AR 8” woofer/midrange was original equipment in what AR speaker, and secondarily which of these is a good substitute for the often hard to find 200001 model. A copy of that research is attached as a pdf. WOW, exactly the info I initially came to the forum to find! How cool is that? AR 8-inch Woofer-Midrange Research.pdf 435.49 kB · 9 downloads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted May 17, 2020 Report Share Posted May 17, 2020 Nice work. Wondering about Xmax we could compute the wind height from the number of turns. Wire data: https://www.coonerwire.com/magnet-wire/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AR55 Posted May 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2020 On 5/14/2020 at 3:34 PM, johnfalc said: Another column showing cone material (and perhaps even details specific to surround attachment) would be a nice addition to your work. Basically it looks like AR used the same cone/surround specification (203039 - AR archive drawings 350, 356, 403, ...) for all 8" woofers and midranges with 205018 metal work, although it appears that they made minor changes to the spec over the years. The 200001, 200035 & 200037 woofer, and the 200027 & 200036 midranges all reference the 203039 spec. The cone/surround specification was changed for the 200050 woofer & 200045 midrange, which have the 205091 metal work. I would always recommend trying to use the woofer and/or midrange model originally intended for your speaker. That said, while you didn't feel that the 200045 midrange sounded just right in your AR-9's, it was probably closer than anything else you could find as a substitute for the original 200027 midrange. That was all that I was attempting to show, i.e. if you can't find your original midrange and/or woofer, was there anything that was a reasonably close match? In my case, if I can't find a pair of 200001 woofers, a pair of 200037 woofers would be the best alternate match for my AR-17's, since they share almost all the same parts. Still, If I run across a bargain priced pair of 200050's, I might give them a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dna Posted July 1, 2020 Report Share Posted July 1, 2020 I'm sorry I missed this post, very informative! Thanks to all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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