kj2005 Posted January 5, 2013 Report Share Posted January 5, 2013 Hi AR friends,I have received a pair of 200003 11" woofers from a pair of AR91, because the new AR91 owner changed to replacement units from AB Tech.I am a little experienced with the work, and have changed foam surroundings ( the real 16mm types) on both woofers and checked the units. Everything seems to be in perfect shape...no contact from the voicecoil to the magnet gap and centerpole piece.Does anyone here know whether there are different woofer parameters from late AR3a woofers and up to the woofers used in AR91? The question came up because my AR3a speakers (woofers)with renewed foam surroundings sounded a bit deeper compared to the test units from AR91, which I mounted in the AR3a boxes.Does the 200003 11" woofers from AR91 have slightly higher Fo....say 22Hz ( I think we got 14Hz or 16Hz on the AR3a woofers), or is it just because the AR91 woofers were hardly used and the spider were less flexible? The 200003 woofer from AR91 has the "smaller" fiber woodring of approx. 7mm. See attached picture.Please write back on this issue.I have a amateur site for AR and other electronic stuff: http://www.tubeamp.hobbysider.dk/%C2'>Best regardsKim , Denmark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryM Posted January 5, 2013 Report Share Posted January 5, 2013 Yes,the 3a woofer produces the most bass and the AR-11 woofer produces a little less bass and the AR-91 produces a little bit less then the AR-11 woofer.There is a thread on here that discusses this,I have all of these speakers and I run them all together. It's kind of like listening to a live orchestra because each speaker sounds a little different so you hear different sounds coming from different area's. I also have them a different heights so that helps create the illusion of different instruments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyC Posted January 5, 2013 Report Share Posted January 5, 2013 Hi AR friends,I have received a pair of 200003 11" woofers from a pair of AR91, because the new AR91 owner changed to replacement units from AB Tech.I am a little experienced with the work, and have changed foam surroundings ( the real 16mm types) on both woofers and checked the units. Everything seems to be in perfect shape...no contact from the voicecoil to the magnet gap and centerpole piece.Does anyone here know whether there are different woofer parameters from late AR3a woofers and up to the woofers used in AR91? The question came up because my AR3a speakers (woofers)with renewed foam surroundings sounded a bit deeper compared to the test units from AR91, which I mounted in the AR3a boxes.Does the 200003 11" woofers from AR91 have slightly higher Fo....say 22Hz ( I think we got 14Hz or 16Hz on the AR3a woofers), or is it just because the AR91 woofers were hardly used and the spider were less flexible? The 200003 woofer from AR91 has the "smaller" fiber woodring of approx. 7mm. See attached picture.Please write back on this issue.I have a amateur site for AR and other electronic stuff: Best regardsKim , DenmarkWelcome to CSP, Kim...You are correct. Later AR 12 inch woofers had a somewhat stiffer suspension and an original Fs over 20hz. Earlier woofers had more compliant suspensions, and an original Fs of around 18hz or less. Fs of 14hz or 15hz indicates some wear, but will provide the deeper response you describe...at the expense of some power handling capability.Roy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj2005 Posted January 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2013 Yes,the 3a woofer produces the most bass and the AR-11 woofer produces a little less bass and the AR-91 produces a little bit less then the AR-11 woofer.There is a thread on here that discusses this,I have all of these speakers and I run them all together. It's kind of like listening to a live orchestra because each speaker sounds a little different so you hear different sounds coming from different area's. I also have them a different heights so that helps create the illusion of different instruments.Thanks HarryM, your answer did help me a lot! I have been listening many hours to AR's different 11" woofers, and I think the 3a's beats them all. I looked closely to the AR91 11" spider but cound not see whether the thickness was increased on that one. And yes....who says that a speaker should be linear? When you listen to music in a living room everything reflects the sound, but the point is ....does it sound right ? :-) The AR3a does that....IMOBest regards Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyC Posted January 5, 2013 Report Share Posted January 5, 2013 The AR-3a provides less output in the mid/higher frequencies in the overall balance than both the AR-91 and the AR-11. This difference in voicing will alter the perception of bass response at relatively the same listening levels. Many people prefer the "warmer", more reverberant character of the 3a.Kim, The subjective thickness of the spider won't provide any pertinent information. It has also been speculated that cone mass and magnet strength differed somewhat in later versions of the woofer to increase power handling.Roy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj2005 Posted January 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2013 Welcome to CSP, Kim...You are correct. Later AR 12 inch woofers had a somewhat stiffer suspension and an original Fs over 20hz. Earlier woofers had more compliant suspensions, and an original Fs of around 18hz or less. Fs of 14hz or 15hz indicates some wear, but will provide the deeper response you describe, at the expense of some power handling capability.RoyThank you Roy.... Nice to be here. The more stiff suspension makes the bass sound "more slender". Not bad at all but less convincing. I would describe the bass sound from the three way original AR3a speaker as being authoritative and powerful. I don't mind the loss of power handling capability....Thumbs up for Edgar's 3 way speaker:-)Best regards Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj2005 Posted January 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2013 The AR-3a provides less output in the higher frequencies than both the AR-91 and the AR-11. This difference in voicing will alter the perception of bass response at relatively the same listening levels.Kim, The subjective thickness of the spider won't provide any pertinent information. It has also been speculated that cone mass and magnet strength differed somewhat in later versions of the woofer to increase power handling.RoyYes it seems as if you receive less bass sound from the AR11, compared to the AR3a, and that the AR11 sounds more "open" as a result of the higher output frequencies from the woofer.No you might be right on that one with the spider....but I had at that moment four diffenrent woofers from four time periods, two AR3a woofers ...one speaker with frontwiring of tweeter and midrange, one AR3a with backwiring, one AR11 later model and finally one AR91 woofer. When you made a slight pressure with two fingers on the spider, it was possible to feel the difference in flexibility between the four woofers. The two AR3's sounded almost the same...the AR11 with slightly less bass and so on. My friend works with audio measuring equipment. I might be able to borrow his testing facility some day :-)Best regards Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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