Transmaster Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 I have a question about the AR-7 Woofer. I once had a set of AR-7's and was very pleased by the sound. Presently I have a pair of Wharfedale W-35's one of which has suffered a failure in it's woofer. The 8 inch woofer for the AR-7 at least dimensionally, and visually is identical to the BIC-8950 woofer installed on these 1972 W-35's. I can rebuild the present BIC woofers but I think a modern replacement would be better. I am looking at the replacement 8 inch speaker AB Tech Services has for the AR-7 is this a good unit or is there a better one out there some place. I need to re-cap the cross overs on these old buzzards so if I think it is necessary I can tweak the cross overs on these 3-way W-35's to accommodate the new woofers..Thanks in AdvanceKen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted March 26, 2012 Report Share Posted March 26, 2012 Just to make things more confusing: Apex Jr has some 8" NHT woofers for $11 each: http://www.apexjr.com/speakerstuff.htmKen Kantor was director of R&D at AR, then went on to found NHT, so there is a logical lineage if you are looking at AR drivers.Specs for the NHT drivers are listed on the Apex Jr site but I have no idea how they compare to the Whafedale (or AR7) specs. Maybe some other member can comment on that.The 8" woofer AB Tech is selling is a "Standard or 'universal' model, paper cone/ foam surround, fits almost all models cabinets" for $60 ea. I don't believe AR used the same woofer in all its speakers (AR4x and AR7 had different woofers, I'm sure) so you would be getting a "one size fits all" replacement. In that case $22 for a pair of NHTs is much less of a gamble than $120 for a pair of "universal replacements."Just my 2 cents........Kent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Transmaster Posted March 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2012 Thank You!!! One of the things that was giving me pause was the cost of the AR-7 replacements from AB Tech Services $60 bucks each they have foam surrounds, I prefer rubber. I'll bet the NHT woofers are better then the originals anyway better materials and manufacturing technology. I have been unable to find the spec's on the BIC-8950's the W-35's have installed. Kent you have saved me a considerable amount of money. New cap's and woofers and the W-35 will be good to go.I posted a new thread with a youtube video showing a large Peavy speaker being re-coned. The technician makes it look easy but you can see there are all kinds of things a first timer could do wrong.I was looking at the Peavy website I did not know Peavy made subwoofers, if they are anything like their bass guitar amps you should be able to do cardiac resuscitation 100 feet away.Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted March 26, 2012 Report Share Posted March 26, 2012 Glad to help. Let us know how that works out. Apex Jr is a pretty cool site. It's a one man operation (AFAIK) and Steve is a good guy to deal with. I've bought several things from him--a plate amp to convert my VMPS sub to a powered sub, several jacks and connectors, a few capacitors, knobs, switches, shrink tubing and some drivers. I'll be using his $1 tweets in an upcoming super-cheap speaker project. Bought some surplus M&K 3" full-range drivers to try as replacements for KLH Eight drivers. Lots of cool stuff!Kent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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