AR-3 problem

[Guest]

I have a set of AR-3's that are completely original except for the replacement pots I put on them.

I have noticed that one speaker sounds completely flat compared to my other speaker recently. My wife described it best by saying it sounded like listening to music with water in your ears. I've determined that it is just a total lack of clarity/brightness in the midrange.

I originally thought that that the midrange was out, but it is still producing sound. The tweeter still sounds very bright and the woofer sounds great. Is it possible that the midrange has died to cause this problem or maybe it is a failure in the crossover?

I have thought about swapping the mid drivers between the right and left speaker to help troubleshoot my problem, but I've had some bad experiences with aluminum wire before.

Does anyone have any expert advice on what the problem with this speaker may be?

Thanks,

Steve

[ninohernes]

I too had this problem. I rebuilt the crossovers with parts from Layne Audio. This solved the problem.

[tysontom]

Do the level controls work through the *full* rotation of the knobs? If so, and if there is still very reduced sound coming through the midrange, it might be the crossover capacitors. Be sure to eliminate the level controls first. Another thing to determine is that the driver output itself has weakened for whatever reason. It could be that the dome has broken loose from the suspension (foam pieces in the four notches), and the voice coil is not all the way in the gap. This is more common to the tweeter than midrange, but can happen in both instances. Carefully inspect the dome midrange around the edge of the dome itself. This can be difficult, especially if your midrange has the felt ring and fiberglass damping pad under the screen. You should see a white rubber-like material around the outer edge of the 2-inch dome, and then there are four foam areas located symmetrically around the outer edge of the dome, under the white material. If the dome has broken loose, one edge will have popped up slightly, and the output can be either reduced or distorted. If all is well with the level controls and the driver itself, it has to be the crossover.

--Tom Tyson