AR3a Improved,What to do to get them singing like new?

[jagcat]

Hello, I am a new member posting from Germany.As a lucky owner of a pair of AR3a-Improved I have some questions. What means"Improved" in this case? When were they produced? The woofers are with the cloth-surrounds,sadly damaged and broken. Replacement is offered by some specialists over here but always in foam or rubber,never the original cloth.What is to be preferred? I don't know,whether mids and tweeter are still ok, do they also produce problems because of their age? They are looking quite ok.On the back there is only a switch with A-B Positions,what is this switch for? Should I bridge it for better sound quality.I will demount also the crossover,has anybody a plan, which nowadays available parts should be used or a better plan? I read about changing the mids and the tweeter to dynaudio stuff for better overall sound-quality. Is this necessary or are there cheaper replacement-tips in your community around? Questions over questions, but I need helb to them back into the state to reproduce this fantastic sound I still remember... Regards Martin

[dynaco_dan]

>Hello, I am a new member posting from Germany.As a lucky

>owner of a pair of AR3a-Improved I have some questions. What

>means"Improved" in this case? When were they

>produced? The woofers are with the cloth-surrounds,sadly

>damaged and broken. Replacement is offered by some specialists

>over here but always in foam or rubber,never the original

>cloth.What is to be preferred? I don't know,whether mids and

>tweeter are still ok, do they also produce problems because of

>their age? They are looking quite ok.On the back there is only

>a switch with A-B Positions,what is this switch for? Should I

>bridge it for better sound quality.I will demount also the

>crossover,has anybody a plan, which nowadays available parts

>should be used or a better plan? I read about changing the

>mids and the tweeter to dynaudio stuff for better overall

>sound-quality. Is this necessary or are there cheaper

>replacement-tips in your community around? Questions over

>questions, but I need helb to them back into the state to

>reproduce this fantastic sound I still remember... Regards

>Martin

Hi Martin;

I believe you will find that the surrounds are the foam ones that breakdown, rather than the long-term cloth versions.

I have raised the issue of rubber surrounds before and the speakers were never designed for these.

Re-foaming is a viable solution, if you can get the AR-12" woofer surround, not a 12" generic diameter, which is too large and would have to be cut to reduce it's size.

New woofers are not the same sound as originals.

The Improved AR-3A was an AR English development and more help will come forward regarding these.

I do believe that there is an information in the AR library regarding this speaker.

An improved AR-3A with repeatable switch settings and considered mighty fine back then.

The tweeters can be overloaded and the mids less so.

[Guest Bret]

If you will click on "Search" at the top of the page, enter "3a Improved", click "AND" and "Subject only" and "Search Now" you will get a search result with many messages about the 3a Improved.

Bret

[charger3834]

Re-foam the woofers as Vern and Bret have suggested. The tweeters and Mids should be fine unless they are blown. Then you can try them out and report back to us if you have any other problems. You should be fine.