AR48s Compared to New Speakers

[Pete B]

Pete,

I had the both the 10" and 4" drivers refoamed professionally. You were right about the mid surrounds being hard and cracked. They definitely needed replacement.

I've already invested $150 to get the refoaming done and made that decision after auditioning several new speakers in the $1000 per pair range. I'm not sure what you mean by these being a just OK speaker, but to my ear it would take a $2000 per pair set to even come close. Maybe I missed something in my auditioning, but from what I heard the decision to repair these was easy.

I'm curious about your comment on the crossover caps. They are non-polar electrolytics and advice that I have seen here and also heard from some local experts is that they probably don't need replacement. I don't have a capacitance meter, so there is no practical way to test them short of removing them and sending them to someone. That's a lot of work that I would just as soon avoid, but would do it if I thought it was likely to make a difference. Any additional comment or information from you would be appreciated.

Thanks for your input.

Rob

I don't know how anyone can advise not to change them considering how old they are.

Electrolytics utilize a chemical paste that dries out over time. The military specifies a

shelf life of 10 years, and their life is much shorter when stressed with high currents

and temperature.

My pair have one bad tweeter and I'm not going to pay a high price for an approximate

replacement. Mids and Tweeters are easily damaged by bad caps.

Bennic Electrolytics are just fine and I can suggest how to substitute poly film types if

you prefer them.

This is a thread that I started about caps:

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Boar...31&hl=myths

You question modern speakers, you might just want to give PSB Stratus Golds a listen

if you want to see/hear significant progress.

These are quite good for a low cost budget system:

http://www.highdecibels.com/proddetail.asp...CFQoTIgod3wdIXg

http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/605infinity/

How about that frequency response, the low end rise is a measurement artifact IMO:

http://www.stereophile.com/images/archives...nfin360fig3.jpg