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AR-3a restoration question


Guest postjob62

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>This is an embarrassing revelation-don't laugh. I'm really not a very good solderer, and my hands are large. Additionally, my lack of basic electronics knowledge precludes me being able to visually distinguish a cap from a resistor or anything else. I do interpret and follow specific instructions well, thank goodness.<

Ed,

I've been meaning to respond to you for some time. It's getting-it-done time.

Hey, there is no reason to be embarrassed about not being a very good solderer. It's an art-form and if you aren't practiced (and I am long out of practice, myself) it can be a pain.

And then there are other problems: I have spent literally all doggone day "re-capping" and "re-resistoring" a pair of AR-14s. I thought it was going to be a breeze, but whether I was over-caffienated, or low blood sugared, or just semi-sick from getting sunburned at a college football game Saturday, my hands shook like, well, like an "essential tremor" or maybe even early Parkinsons. It took me longer to replace these 16uF and 20uF caps than it took me to replace every cap in the upper cabinets of my AR-9s. Maybe I just work that much better through two 12" holes than a single 10" hole.

Whatever the reason, I tried something "new" for me that took longer (obviously) but really helped. I used crimp barrels and crimping ring-tongues AND soldered the connections. I'm sure someone can tell me why I shouldn't have done that, but it held everything STILL so I good get a good solder connection (two trips to Radio Shack - it's nice to live no more than a mile from a Radio Shack!)

It also would have helped if I hadn't refused bi-focals last year.

This crimping-stuff *really* helped with the inductor connections. It's sometimes difficult to get inductor wire hot enough to properly "take" solder and it's almost impossible when you can't keep the iron still.

I'm going to say this again - I am in "your camp" about all this. Leave well enough alone, if it ain't broke don't fix it, nothing bad will happen if you don't touch it, and it's both easier and cheaper not to bother. I'd have gained a day I'll never get back. If I hadn't changed the first one, I'd never have known what I was missing.

In my opinion, the level controls are much harder to deal with than capacitors and, unfortunately, we really don't have the option to leave those alone when the time comes.

That leaves me of two minds. On one hand, you're in the cabinet already, you've already had to deal with the fiberglass, you've already had to strain eyes and experiment to get the controls out, apart, fixed, and back in. Changing caps is a breeze compared to that so it's just easiest to replace while you are there, the first time. On the other hand, you've already had to deal with the fiberglass and have spent a rather large portion of a day removing the controls, cleaning them, and getting them back where they belong - why prolong the process by replacing caps you don't know are bad?

Please don't let any of this, even the soldering, intimidate you,though. It's fun. It's a hobby. It's a way to kill a day and gives you plenty of excuses to yell at the cat, while providing outstanding opportunities to: shake your fist in the air; doubt your ability; doubt your resolve; doubt your sanity; practice verbal self-restraint or use words that would make pirates blush; reaquaint yourself with the medicine cabinet and rediscover the expiration date on the burn-creme; doubt you did the job right the second time and feel a moral imperative to pull the woofer out of that first cabinet just to check and see if you did it the same way as the second; and it's a neat way to test your predictive skills (e.g.- Am I really about to jam this screwdriver through my thumb? Why yes, yes I was!)

Regardless of what you decide to do, there is lots of help here from people who have been there and done that. And the results are certainly worth the effort. It's more fulfilling than mowing the lawn since speaker repairing only has to be done once every 10-20 years!

Bret

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Guest postjob62

Well Bret, you're surely right. Thanks for helping to put things in perspective a bit in a lighthearted manner. It's good to not take ourselves too seriously once in a while.

Regards,

Ed

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>

>I wonder if someone has the money, time and inclination to

>solder in a switching circuit substituting the different caps

>and reviewing and reporting the perceived results?

>

>I don't remember ever reading a report of this type of test by

>substitution of caps.

>

Hi Vern,

This is an excellent idea, yes it has been done, and the results are interesting. One such test was done among a group of highly opinionated speaker builders. The group had a culture, they had common beliefs, most heard differences in caps. Solens, Daytons, Electros, the boutique caps sounded so much better, they were friends with a designer of some boutique caps, he would advise them on which to use. Many in this group were advanced, they had and used measurement equipment, understood much of the theory. Then they did the test - uh oh. Perhaps I'll tell the rest of the story some time.

Pete B.

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