RobertE Posted March 13, 2021 Report Share Posted March 13, 2021 I just bought a set of AR5's off of eBay. One of the speakers sounds scratchy when the volume is low. I took the grill off and the woofer has a new surround, albeit very sloppily done. I gently pressed near the the top of the woofer and the scratchiness is gone. Speaker's DC resistance measured 6.1 ohms. Is the woofer blown, should I try replacing the surround, or something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted March 13, 2021 Report Share Posted March 13, 2021 With the signal off, if you push in on the woofer cone does it rub? I’m guessing if the refoam is very sloppily done maybe the guy didn’t know what he was doing and didn’t center the voice coil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertE Posted March 14, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2021 Yes. It does. The other speaker's tweeter and mid do not work. I swapped the woofers between the two. One speaker now sounds awesome. The bad woofers is stamped as AR-5. The other is marked AR2ax. Are they the same woofer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted March 14, 2021 Report Share Posted March 14, 2021 Bummer. I think you should return those speakers or negotiate a big partial refund. First a disclaimer: I have worked on many AR speakers but never a 5. If you do keep these, here are some thoughts: I "think" the 5 and some of the 2ax's used the same woofer but they were not marked 5 or 2ax at the factory. Each driver has a part number. The foam surround 2ax was 2000004-2 I believe. If those are matching woofers, If they were mine I would send both woofers to Bill LeGall at Millersound to redo them. I did that with some sloppily refoamed woofers on my AR-91s and he did an excellent job at a reasonable price. Your mid and tweet "may" not be bad. Could be the level control pots. Try playing music and rotating those knobs several times. You may loosen up some crud and get some sound. If that works, you need new pots (and a crossover recap while you're in there). If it doesn't work try removing the mid and tweet and testing each by running the music source at low volume and touching the speaker wires directly to the terminals on each driver. The mid should play fine, the tweeter should play but sound very thin. If that test proves they are bad I would contact RoyC and ask if he can rebuild the mid. Replacements are very scarce. For the tweeters I think there are suitable replacements or a better option would be to see if royC or Chris1this1 will rebuild them. If rebuilding you should have both tweeters done. As you can see, if the mid and tweet are dead and the one woofer was improperly refoamed, this restoration will run into some expense. Good luck and keep us posted. Kent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertE Posted March 19, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2021 Thank you JKent! I cleaned the control pots, and the tweeter and mid work now. The woofers do match. I ordered a foam surround kit. I going to try to repair myself. I appreciate the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted March 19, 2021 Report Share Posted March 19, 2021 Great news! From everything I’ve read here the 5s are outstanding and somewhat rare (compared to the 2ax and 3a) speakers. Please keep us posted on your progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertE Posted March 21, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2021 I installed the foam surround yesterday and let it set up overnight. I also replaced the capacitors while had the speakers torn apart. I finished getting the speakers back together and hooked them up. They sound amazing! I'll post some pics when I figure out how to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted March 21, 2021 Report Share Posted March 21, 2021 Excellent! Glad you were successful. Resize pics to about 100kb then drag n drop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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