Inductors in Ar3/3a

[Guest]

I have read that the inductor in the subject should be replaced with air core and that that will reduce distortion...a mraning amount?.

Thanks

[Guest]

The inductors are already a heavy gauge air core type. The woofer inductor can be replaced with a high quality steel laminate core inductor, this would provide lower distortion and have less than a third of the resistnace of an air core of the same value. The stock 16ga air core type has a DCR of about .75 ohm, a steel laminate of the same value/wire gauge has only .18 ohm DCR. Please note that a steel laminate inductor is very different than the common "bar core" , "steel bobbin", or "Ferron bobbin" type cored inductors.

For series use, air core inductors are [generally] best up to about the 2-2.5 MH range, above that the DCR and distortion #'s are lower by far in a steel laminate. If you are "devoted" to air-core inductors, dropping to a 14ga or 12ga inductor would make a very nice improvement...they just cost a small fortune and would sound no better than the laminate core inductor for woofer use.

If anything should be replaced in the old AR crossovers, it is the mid/tweeter caps and the level controls.

[Guest]

Well I took one of the AR3s apart. Yes the inductors are air core. I also looked at the LPADS. Clean them up but I did not have a cleaning solution like tuner cleaner. The real problem with the LPADS is that the stationary part, the swiper arm is in contact with the wire round and the stationary disc in the center of the LPAD. As someone noted the LPAD does not make firm contact even after cleaning them. Answer Carefully Carfully bend the swiper arm into more of a U shape and that will fix the problem (after cleaning..I dont have a clue how long it will last). Replacing the Capacitors..what would I gain from that?.. the series resistence from a capacitor is very small as the Xc goes to zero (or close). Is the capacitor value changed over time?.