AR11 Tweeter Replacement

[Guest Anders-DK]

Hello All on the Classic Speaker Page AR forum

First let me say that I am very happy to have found this web and forum with all you AR interested people and all the good information.

I am a danish AR fan. My first speakers were AR-4Ax (when I was 14 years old) and later I had the AR92 for a while.

Today I am happy to have a set of AR11 (AR11B) that I bought couple of years ago, well used but ok. I restored the woofer suspensions with good results.

Even I have been "dishonest" and have two other stereo sets with fine sound (Dynaudio 52SE's with SUB-300 and Primare I20, and two french Cabasse Sampan 313 with Audiolab 8000A) I can never help being thrilled when I lisen to the AR's. The do benefit from the power they get from the also vintage Pioneer A-80 aplifier - they match very well.

But a tweeter blew off (part no. 200011-1). I have tried to read through the comprehensive posts about tweeters for this speaker and similar, in particular the attempt to get some produced that fits directly (K. Kantor et al.)

As I wanted to get my speakers working soon I decided to try an easy fix and perhaps improve it later. I bought a couple of Peerless (Wifa) that was on hand, the XT25SC30-04 (shielded, 1", 4 ohm, 89 dB and very important outer diameter of base 104 mm).

As it turned out size exactly match the inner diameter of the circle for the original bolts for the original tweeter. Carefully removing the gaskets from the old tweeters and putting them in place again in the cabinet, the new tweeters could be mounted straightforwardly by use of the original bolts having just added washers. As a matter fact the level of the new tweeter match the surface of the front plate and the bolt rest this way both om the tweeter base edge and on the front plate. The only detail I miss to do is to seal the holes for the bolts in the new tweeters to make the cabinet completely sealed.

The sound. I took the 1" instead of going for the 3/4". As the unit has better dispersion the size seems not to reduce the performance compared to the original. I like the sound very much. As I had one old/original and one new working at the same time and I could compare. I have to say that the change has in my opinion been an improvement. The sound level seems alright - I run them on the -3dB on both the Mid and the High.

So, without making special conversion rings/plates or drill in the frontplate it was a simple thing to be alive again. The gap between the ne tweeter and the frontplate is only 6-7 mm - it could be filled with foam or alike. This approach will go for any tweeter of size 104 mm. I paid some 700 DKK (approx. 130 USD) for them, they may be found even cheaper around.

I have attached a few pictures to show how it looks.

Thanks again and regards

Anders

[KlausDK]

But a tweeter blew off (part no. 200011-1).

Hi Anders

From another Danish AR-fan, I have with success and to my great satisfaction had my two AR-10Pi tweeters (the same as in AR-11) repaired in Belgrade by the owner of the company Sinevoice. PM me for details if you are interested.

BRgds Klaus