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I just got my first set of AR 3s and I have some questions.


Guest Pickles

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Guest Pickles

I just picked up a set of AR 3s for $50. They're almost in mint condition, there is a slight sag in the grille, some of the fabric is pulling away from the plastic, but peeking through the hole, all of the foam looks intact.

It is to my understanding that these are very power hungry speakers. I have been considering purchasing a Marantz 2230 receiver once I get some money set aside for it, but I was wondering what I could use in the meantime to enjoy these wonderful speakers. I currently use a Sony STR GX808 ES receiver, I am not 100% sure on the specs of it, but I believe the front speakers are 75 Watts per channel and the rear are 25. I know it isn't the ideal receiver, but it is all I have right now. Would this be enough to get decent sound out of the AR 3s, or would it be too much?

Also, I am curious as to how old these actually are, the kid who sold them to me said they were from 1954, but I could have sworn that these speakers came out in 1958.

The Serial Numbers are C 57778 and C 57794

Any advice or information about these speakers would be greatly appreciated.

Oh and here's a shot of them right after I got them. I need to give the wood a good cleaning, but overall, they look real good.

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/1320.jpg

And please excuse the mess, I am in the process of moving back home for the summer.

post-101932-1149185659.jpg

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Hi Justin;

You overpaid for these poor condition speakers, you should immediately ship them to me at your own expense. lol

I do get a little tired of you lucky son of a guns, with your $50.00 deals or out by the curb, at the dump or in a dumpster.

You got pretty well, "the deal of the century", Justin.

The $50.00 is about what the grille cloths and badges are worth alone.

The third AR classic speaker to set a standard, in some cases, is still ahead of the competition.

First would be the 12" single woofer, the second the AR-1 with the added 8" tweeter.

I hope this gives you a little idea of the value of them.

Highly collectible, congratulations on such a great purchase. MMMM

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First of all, $50 for a set of AR-3s is certainly a bargain. The pair in the picture looks original and in good condition, but there is some fraying around the edges of the grill cloth (that can be fixed) as though someone pried the edges away from the molding. If they have not been molested (“repaired or modified” by an inexperienced audiophile), and are in good condition electrically and physically, they are worth several times what you paid for them. The seller was apparently unaware of their value, so you are the lucky one.

There is no foam on AR-3 speaker surrounds (these surrounds are cloth), so you don’t have to worry about the dreaded “foam rot.” Therefore, avoid the temptation of removing the grills, as it is very likely that you will break the molded-styrene grill frame. It is extremely difficult to get the grills back on in a way that there is no stretch or sag in the grills. When Acoustic Research originally assembled the AR-3, the grill panels were “bowed” and snapped into position under the cabinet molding edge, and then the grill cloth itself was stretched tight and glued inside the lip of the molding. Quite frankly, the best advice is to *never* remove AR-3 grills if they are original, unless you know for certain that a tweeter is burned out, or you are unable to get the tweeters to work by repeated “working” of the level controls. This last task -- putting your ear against the grill cloth and listening for sound from first the midrange and then the tweeter, and then moving the level controls back and forth until you “wear” through the oxidation on the controls -- takes great patience. It generally always (eventually) works, but it is time-consuming.

AR-3s do require a fairly powerful and stable amplifier. Make certain that your receiver/amplifier is very stable into 4 ohms or less. A minimum of 50 watts/channel RMS into 4 ohms is essential, but the amp could be rated at much higher wattage without concern if the user modulates the volume control sensibly. AR-3s have been known to make some amplifiers unstable to the point of oscillation; other amplifiers have overheated and self-destructed, but the better solid-state (and some tube amps) designs usually can easily drive this speaker satisfactorily. The AR-3 has *very* low impedance -- less than 4 ohms at certain frequencies -- and the efficiency is fairly low. This means that the amplifier must have good current capability and the ability to dissipate heat readily. So, the more power the better, but don’t try to bring the house down with this speaker. You need power reserve, not the ability to play the speakers at high volume levels.

Most AR-3s were originally purchased by discerning music lovers who enjoyed primarily classical music and jazz. AR-3s were on the upper end of the price scale, so buyers were usually affluent and usually well educated. Because of the AR-3's great critical acclaim and its well-documented accuracy in reproducing music, most (AR-3) owners were more serious about clean acoustic music and less interested in sound effects, electronic music or rock music. AR-3s that have survived through all these years most likely came from an estate in which the owner listened to classical music or jazz or something of that sort at moderate levels and rarely stressed the speakers. The point here is that you cannot expect a pair of AR-3s (or other old classic speakers for that matter) to survive long with a diet of synthesized music, hard-rock music or other stressful music. With classical music, the AR-3 can easily withstand short-term peaks of well-over 200 watts without distress; but on the other hand, just a few sustained watts at a single frequency can easily destroy the fine aluminum voice-coil wire in the midrange or tweeter.

Your AR-3s (C 57778 and C 57794) were made around 1965 or 1966. The first AR-3 was introduced in 1958, and the first commercial models were shipped in early 1959.

Some advice: if you clean the cabinets (which appear to be Oiled-Walnut finish), first use something like Pledge or similar furniture wax to try to restore the luster. Unless the cabinets are in bad condition, avoid refinishing them unless you (1) know the actual finish and (2) are familiar with the refinishing process. If the speakers are Oiled Walnut and you do refinish, lightly hand-sand (with the grain) with 600-grit sandpaper, or steel wool, then apply coats of either boiled-linseed oil or Watco Danish Satin Oil Finish, wipe off excess after a few minutes, and wipe dry. This will darken the walnut somewhat. After 24 hours, repeat the process. Usually two or three coats will do the trick. When finished, you can then apply furniture paste wax and buff lightly. Under all circumstances avoid high-luster oils such as Tung Oil; these shellac-based varnish oils give the wood an unnatural, high-luster finish. You will want a satin luster for Oiled Walnut.

--Tom Tyson

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Your grills are in better shape than they were on the pair of AR-3's I obtained. If the potentiometers are not too dirty, then you have no reason to remove the grills. In my case, I had to go in and clean the pots since neither the mid range or the tweeters were working. I didn't feel too bad in removing the old grills since I wanted to install new grills anyway. Some work with a putty knife around the edges will break through the old glue and allow the frames to be removed if you feel the need to get inside the speakers. The next obstacle will be removing the eight phillips head screws holding the woofers in place and prying the woofer from the sealing putty.

Most restorers will tell you to retain the fiberglass filling, but to use gloves and a mask when removing it. Some work with contact cleaner and lubricant (using a ohm meter to allow you to gauge the progress of the cleaning process) will in most cases bring the pots back to working order.

I built some stands to elevate my 3's to about eight inches above the floor. The original floor stands sold by AR (and sometimes found on eBay) elevated them to 11 inches.

Enjoy your "new" AR-3's. I am glad you found them and are giving them a good home.

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An excellent write-up as usual, Tom.

Buried deep in one of my write-ups is the AR speaker re-finishing sheet that AR sent me.

Each type cabinet finish is discussed and the simple technique for re-finishing each, all on one single page.

Good luck.

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>Tom:

>

>I have two AR-3's with serial numbers C 179166 and C 180xxx.

>Can you tell me when these units were manufactured?

tgw:

Those are, by far, the highest-number AR-3s I have heard about. I would have to assume that they were made towards the end of the AR-3's production run, somewhere in the 1972-1973 time-frame. Can you attach some images of the fronts and backs of these speakers?

--Tom Tyson

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I think I added one number too many. So instead we would be looking at C 179xx and C 180xx. I will recheck the numbers when I get home>

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Tom:

Checked the serial numbers and I did have one too many digits. One is C 17966 and the other is C 18016. I saw a pair of AR-3's on sale on eBay with listed serial numbers of something like 35xxx and the seller said these were purchased new in 1964. Would that put mine as new around 1962? A friend gave me these about four years ago.

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>Tom:

>

>Checked the serial numbers and I did have one too many digits.

>One is C 17966 and the other is C 18016. I saw a pair of

>AR-3's on sale on eBay with listed serial numbers of something

>like 35xxx and the seller said these were purchased new in

>1964. Would that put mine as new around 1962? A friend gave me

>these about four years ago.

Yeah, that's more like it! I thought I was losing it. The AR-3 maxed out around 1973 in the 70,000 range somewhere. Your serial-number units would probably fall in the 1961-1962 range. It was during this time-period that the AR-3 was being used in the Fine Arts Quartet live-vs.-recorded concerts. AR-3s were extremely highly regarded during this period, of course, and this reverence continued for many years. No commercial loudspeaker of any description, made up to that time, could surpass the measured performance of the AR-3, let alone equal it.

Incidentally, there is a lot of talk about "matched pairs," and consecutive-serial numbers and that sort of thing. A matched-pair speaker might better be described as something like the left-right AR-303, but the early ARs were all the same. With any of the early ARs there were never any "matched pairs," and the sequential numbers therefore were unimportant other than to have a pair that was built around the same period. AR continued to make evolutionary improvements through time on the AR-3 -- as with all of the other AR speakers -- and there are some very subtle differences from the earliest AR-3s until the last ones built. This was true of virtually all of the speakers from this era.

--Tom Tyson

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I probably perpetuated the whole "ballanced pair" discussion a little too much in my 2ax posts. Tom is right, this is nothing to get hung up on. My only objective was to try and identify that certain evolutions were incorporated in the designs, and I always like to know what happened when. I also think that we as a group need to be aware of what goes with what for repair/restoration purposes.

Once again, the case for a "ballanced pair" is overstated.

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>I probably perpetuated the whole "ballanced pair"

>discussion a little too much in my 2ax posts. Tom is right,

>this is nothing to get hung up on. My only objective was to

>try and identify that certain evolutions were incorporated in

>the designs, and I always like to know what happened when. I

>also think that we as a group need to be aware of what goes

>with what for repair/restoration purposes.

>

>Once again, the case for a "ballanced pair" is

>overstated.

>

Brad,

You are actually correct -- and I should have been more specific to infer it in my post -- that getting the same "evolution" or "generation" of a particular speaker model is desirable. However, what I see a lot on eBay (where people can take about any description-license they please) is reference to "matched" pair or consecutive-number pair, as if it was a magical thing that makes the speaker pair more desirable. There was no such thing with speakers such as the AR-3a, AR-5 and so forth. But there were differences in the 1967 AR-3a and a 1975 AR-3a, so getting the same generation of a particular model would be very desirable.

--Tom Tyson

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