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Are these 2 ax tweeters fried?


JKent

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Just bought a nice-looking pair of 2ax's. Did not play them. Opened them up to rebuild the xovers, clean the pots, but on BOTH speakers the little orange dome on the tweeter looks like it melted the glue "dots" and popped right off! Am I correct to assume these are fried?

Any suggestions for replacement or repair? Originals seem to be scarcer than hen's teeth.

Hey Vern--is this why you say to fuse the speakers?

Kent

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Even if the voice coil is OK, and could somehow be centered appropriately to be "glued", I would still be concerned about the tweeter's suspension.

The globs are not simply glue. They ARE the tweeter's suspension, consisting of polyurethane foam, which has likely lost at least some of its original properties. I believe the coating over the foam and voice coil gap is the elusive, flexible/sticky butyl rubber sealant stuff that AR so loved to use on everything. Simply gluing it back down would probably change the flexible nature of the suspension and the performance of the tweeter.

Tom mentioned that some of those orange domed tweeters were prone to popping their corks.

Roy

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>Even if the voice coil is OK, and could somehow be centered

>appropriately to be "glued", I would still be

>concerned about the tweeter's suspension.

>

>The globs are not simply glue. They ARE the tweeter's

>suspension, consisting of polyurethane foam, which has likely

>lost at least some of its original properties. I believe the

>coating over the foam and voice coil gap is the elusive,

>flexible/sticky butyl rubber sealant stuff that AR so loved to

>use on everything. Simply gluing it back down would probably

>change the flexible nature of the suspension and the

>performance of the tweeter.

>

>Tom mentioned that some of those orange domed tweeters were

>prone to popping their corks.

>

>Roy

8-3-07

Maybe you’re worst than I in terms of trying so desperately to hold onto the original drivers, but always to no avail as I have found.

These old AR tweeters were great in terms of sound quality, but ‘zero’ in territory as far as ruggedness goes. I’ve thrown out many tweets when they’ve been considered dead and of no use and can never be fixed. That’s how I presently find myself in such a lost situation with my speakers.

Go on talk to all else here. Either you buy new and or change to some degree the original sound with used tweets.

I’m still waiting here for a word from one of the ‘biggies’ on this site to come thru and enlighten me, my pleas go un-answered thus far.

My friend and maybe yours, some day, Frank Marsi

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Hi Kent;

I see that you take nice photos.

As most members here might say, that tweeter is toast, but not out yet.

Unless you have been playing with them already.

I would suggest at least, ever so gently re-mounting the dome and place a touch of rubber glue on each yellow dab and flange surface.

Place a suitable light but firm weight to hold it down for a day or two.

Other than your time, you certainly have nothing further to lose but a little rubber glue and you may be able to resurrect them.

Considering that the dome probably doesn't move maybe 1/64" and is 1 3/8" in diameter, repair may be possible, if attempted very gently.

Used 8 ohm original tweeter replacement's are very common on ebay, for just one example.

I certainly have bought my share of them, at least.

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Thanks to all for the advice etc. When I added up the cost to get these nice old speakers up and running again, it was too much. I bought them knowing there was no sound from the mids and tweets, and "assumed" it was a pots problem. Turned out the mids are fine, but I would have to buy new tweets, plus capacitors, grille fabric, grille frames and probably the brass logos. Then I'd have to clean up the pots, patch the one corner ding and refinish the cabinets. Then what? I'd never be able to sell them for what I put into them, and I already have a working pair of later 2ax's.

So, sadly, I'm doing what I swore I would NEVER do to classic speakers: parting them out :-(

If anyone is interested in some good 6-hole cast aluminum frame woofers, they are ebay Item number: 160145359895 There is a link there to the mids and to some no-name (Becker, according to Carl's best guess) tweets. Eventually I'll get the pots cleaned up and list those, along with the very cool (IMHO) solid brass "a" pins.

Kent

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Hi Kent;

Sadly with the USPS fees for economy gone now, I cannot just adopt the cabinets.

I was very fortunate with a seller that gave me empty, AR-2 and AR-2X cabinets and all I paid for was USPS economy, which was reasonable.

Heaven knows that I do need replacement cabinets though for my damaged pair.

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Yes Vern, I'd be more than happy to give them to a good home, but as you said, NJ to Canada could be prohibitive.

Kent

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