AR-14 repair

[Guest spacedoubt]

I'm the original owner of a pair of AR-14 loudspeakers. I bought these in the summer of 1976 and must have gotten them just at the cusp because one came with the old-style brass logo and one came with the new-style silver/black logo. Probably should have insisted on a matching set but I was in college at the time, so what did I know? I settled for a second brass logo so they looked the same. They served me well through my college and grad school years (other than one blown tweeter because I could only afford a 40 watt amplifier and I guess the volume got turned up a bit too much during one of the frequent parties where I provided the sound system). They made it through the first house I owned but my wife insisted they were too large for the family room in the second house so the AR-14's were boxed up and moved to the basement, replaced with a much smaller pair of Audio Technica PS-6V monitors.

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The family room in the second house was equipped with an ancient 19" TV. One day, I/we decided I/we wanted/needed something a little larger. The 19" set went to the bedroom and was replaced with a 32" set. My wife decided we couldn't put the new TV in the old crappy entertainment stand so it was replaced with a new entertainment center. In retrospect, I think the AR-14's only became too large when the original small entertainment stand was replaced with the much larger entertainment center. Or maybe the walnut finish clashed with the cherry, I don't know. Then she decided we had to replace the old crappy furniture so as not to detract from the new entertainment center. But first, we had to repaint the room, including the ceiling. Since there were spots on the ceiling, we first had to get the roof reshingled. I would have been just as happy with the TV up on cinder blocks. In the end, I think the 19" -> 32" upgrade cost me about $15K. But, I digress...

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The PS-6V monitors eventually succumbed to surround rot so I replaced them a few years ago with a pair of Paradigm Mini-Monitors and have been reasonably happy with them. I've recently been thinking about bringing the AR-14's back to life so I took a look at them. The cabinets are in surprisingly good shape while the foam grills and woofer surrounds are in an advanced state of decay. I decided to practice on the PS-6V's and was able to resurrect them using a refoam kit from Speaker Works Northwest. Before tackling the AR-14 job, I read through the forum and had a couple of questions:

1) Has anyone here replaced the surrounds on an AR-14 woofer? If so, is there a specific vendor you prefer for surrounds (there was some suggestion to use one with the appropriate elasticity)?

2) Any particular advice for keeping the voice coil centered? The 6" woofers I refoamed seemed to center themselves during the operation, I suspect I won't be as lucky with the 10" woofers.

3) Does anyone know of a source for 1/2" acoustic foam for the grills? I would prefer to stay with the classic foam look as opposed to using cloth on a frame. The existing grills are sculpted, I figured I would make cutouts for the woofer and tweeter in the back grill section and then glue that to the front section.

4) What are the odds the crossover capacitors haven't suffered the same decay as the foam?

Thanks in advance for any advice. -- Jeff

[Guest treblehit]

1) Has anyone here replaced the surrounds on an AR-14 woofer? If so, is there a specific vendor you prefer for surrounds (there was some suggestion to use one with the appropriate elasticity)?

2) Any particular advice for keeping the voice coil centered? The 6" woofers I refoamed seemed to center themselves during the operation, I suspect I won't be as lucky with the 10" woofers.

3) Does anyone know of a source for 1/2" acoustic foam for the grills? I would prefer to stay with the classic foam look as opposed to using cloth on a frame. The existing grills are sculpted, I figured I would make cutouts for the woofer and tweeter in the back grill section and then glue that to the front section.

4) What are the odds the crossover capacitors haven't suffered the same decay as the foam?

Thanks in advance for any advice. -- Jeff

Jeff, I can point to an answer for question #3 in a thread about restoring AR-11s. It is recent, just read-through the thread. Someone found grills for about $100/pair. That's high, but that's also the only place I've even heard of selling them since AB-Tech stopped. I probably won't invest $100 in grills for 14s again.

Question #4 is somewhat easier.

In two pairs of 14s , one brass the other aluminum badged, both had "modern" electrolytic capacitors in them (small things). Odds are that these capacitors are still "okay." The set I replaced measured good on a capacitance meter, but I didn't know that until I had them out.

These are not large or exotic, so they are cheap. I would probably replace them with new non-polar electrolytic capacitors *strictly* to be on the safe side. Better safe and $2.00 poorer than sorry and tweeterless.