FS: AR-3a Pair - Restored

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For sale is a pair of AR-3a's that I personally restored using the "Restoring the 3a" guide. Asking price is $1200. Speakers are located in Bath, Maine and can be heard before purchasing. Alternatively, I am willing to meet within one-hour's driving distance to deliver them. I recently upgraded to AR9's and haven't used these much since finishing their restoration.

Caps were replaced with Solen capacitors.

Pots were opened up but still in excellent condition; I applied some dielectric grease and reinstalled them. There is no scratchiness on the pots. The knobs on the back of the pots are gone.

Veneers were sanded and I applied two coats of Danish Oil for a beautiful, oil finish.

Grills are in fair shape. There are a couple spots on one grill where the fabric is pulling away, but they are overall in nice condition. The purple embossing on the badges is gone.

When I bought these, someone had put cheap replacement woofers in them. I sourced two woofers from Vintage_AR. One is an authentic 3a woofer. The other is an aftermarket replacement. If there is a sonic difference between the two, it is not audible to me.

Here is text from the original Vintage_AR posting about the replacement woofer:

"About 10 years ago, a Warranty Shop for AR contracted to have a replacement woofer manufactured for the AR-3a. This replacement is now sold by other companies. We were likely the first to test it. The overall appearance as well as the fit is outstanding. However, the spider is too stiff which limits the low end of the range and the cone is too light and passes some of the low midrange tones.

We choose not to offer it as is but to rebuild it, replacing the spider with one correct for the AR-3a. We added weight to the cone to eliminate any midrange transmissible. We rebuilt about 3-4 for our own use but it's not economical for resale.

The original woofer resonance frequency manufactured by Tonegan for AR is about 21 Hz, this "as is" woofer resonance is about 42 Hz. Once rebuilt by VINTAGE-AR, the resonance is about 24 Hz."