Jump to content

AR3a advice


Recommended Posts

Hi, I have recently acquired a 2nd pair of 3a's. My old pair is quite nice. I had the woofers rebuilt by Larry (Vintage AR), bought his attenuators, recapped the tweeters. Cabs are fantastic, new grill cloth. They need the tweets rebuilt. This pair I'm keeping for a very long time.

My new pair are early versions w Alnico woofers but one rattles and needs rebuild. Larry said he thinks the alnicos have marginally better bass response. Also, it came w the HiVi replacement tweeters and the originals as well (one of which has low output). They are recapped and have new attenuators as well. I was going to finish restoring and then flip them.

I'm tempted to have the alnicos rebuilt and swap them into my keeper pair. Also going to rebuild the tweets in my keepers. My question is a matter of originality. Will putting alnicos in my keeper pair and ceramics in my other pair lower the values? Also, the date code on the tweets is '69 on the new ones and '70 on the keepers. If I swap those, does it really matter? Finally, rebuilding the tweets is expensive. Should I just flip the 2nd pair w the HiVi tweets in them and include the originals or spend $250 getting the original tweets rebuilt (would the investment pay off)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/3/2024 at 1:27 PM, biggal76 said:

I'm tempted to have the alnicos rebuilt and swap them into my keeper pair. Also going to rebuild the tweets in my keepers. My question is a matter of originality. Will putting alnicos in my keeper pair and ceramics in my other pair lower the values? Also, the date code on the tweets is '69 on the new ones and '70 on the keepers. If I swap those, does it really matter? Finally, rebuilding the tweets is expensive. Should I just flip the 2nd pair w the HiVi tweets in them and include the originals or spend $250 getting the original tweets rebuilt (would the investment pay off)?

Originality will always carry a higher "value" if the buyer is a savvy collector. Also, be aware that the version of the 3a originally equipped with the alnico magnet woofer had a different crossover, so some work in that regard should be done if you are switching woofers. The speakers are otherwise the same.

Roy

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...