AR5 disaster

[Joel]

A friend of mine that lives in a different city called me about some AR5's that he bought. Apparently, they had been badly abused and someone tried restored them. These are the pictures he sent me. They look like a complete disaster to me, but I thought I would post them here to see if there is any hope for them. My advice was to look for an original pair, but he sent quite a bit of money on these.

Obviously the entire front panel has been replaced, but are these even original AR drivers?

-Joel

[Robert_S]

Your pictures appear to show a speaker that was once an AR-58B with only the tweeter being as-was. It's not a model I have any experience with.

For refererence see the "AR58B Specifications" in the site library.

Robert_S

[Joel]

So they aren't AR-5's at all. So I suppose it's not as bad as I first thought. Are the AR-58B's any good? If the drivers aren't original, would they be work restoring?

-Joel

[ra.ra]

I cannot comment on the originality of any of the drivers in an AR-58B, but this is most definitely not an AR-5 loudspeaker. That having been said, it has been my understanding (and experience) that the B series speakers (as distinguished from the BX and BXI series) are in fact, very, very good speakers. Further, I have heard some very knowledgable voices on this forum declare that the AR-58 may have been AR's best-ever 'bookshelf' speaker, and I would guess that the 58B is most likely a somewhat later incarnation. If your friend's speakers have non-original drivers, there may be a somewhat difficult task ahead to restore them. However, depending on the particular components in the cabinets and the intended objectives of the owner, there also might be the makings of a truly great restoration project about to commence.

The entire front panel has not been replaced, but as Robert_S has noted, perhaps some of the original drivers have been replaced.

[JKent]

Like ra ra I have no 1st-hand experience with the 58B but there is a photo here http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/library/acoustic_research/post-classic_series_1981-19/post-classic_series_picture_2/ar58b.html and if you compare that with your photos it's clear the metal-cone mid and the rubber-surround woofer are not original. Can't tell about the tweeter. Your friend could pull all the drivers and look for identifying markings.

How does he think they sound? If he likes them, he may as well enjoy them.

But they ain't no AR-5s NOR are they 58Bs.

Kent

[michiganpat]

if I had to guess, it looks like the woofer is this one from MCM

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/MCM-AUDIO-SELECT-55-2972-/55-2972

and the mid is probably this one

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/MCM-AUDIO-SELECT-55-1856-/55-1856

a proper replacement woofer shouldn't be too tough to find, basically any AR12" from a 3a up should work ok (at least better than the MCM woofer)

the proper midrange might be a trickier beast, but I think it's common between all the B & BX 3 ways

[nfmisso]

The AR58 is very different from other incarnations (B, BX, S, etc). The 58 (no suffix) has basically the same drivers as the 91 including the dome midrange, the models with a suffix have a larger cone mid range drive.