bassment142 Posted December 17, 2015 Report Share Posted December 17, 2015 Bringing them home from the estate sale..Grills were still glued on from the factory.. had to slice away the old yellowed cloth.RoyC helped me tremendously with the crossover, pots and a new tweeter.Then he did an awesome job with the grills.Woohoo!!These are going to be family heirlooms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dxho Posted December 17, 2015 Report Share Posted December 17, 2015 Beautiful. Like the sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Posted December 17, 2015 Report Share Posted December 17, 2015 Very nice - congratulations! I've enjoyed my pair of 3a for 45 years now. Still remember bringing them home.der Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmas111 Posted December 17, 2015 Report Share Posted December 17, 2015 Awesome! They look great and you had one of the best (RoyC) help you out with them.You'll enjoy them for many years to come.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VintageMan Posted December 18, 2015 Report Share Posted December 18, 2015 Nice job!I hope that is not your living room? What Amp is there on the right with the wooden enclosure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidDru Posted December 18, 2015 Report Share Posted December 18, 2015 Ha, thought the same thing as Vintage above. Need to see them in a pretty living room or something.Beautiful looking for sure. Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted December 18, 2015 Report Share Posted December 18, 2015 They look wonderful.Roy is always so giving of his knowledge and expertise.ENJOY ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassment142 Posted December 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2015 Some day they will be upstairs in a living room.. but right now I have a 1 and 3 year old. That means toys.. drinks.. vomit etc in way too close proximity to the speakers.. not to mention it would be open season on the tweeter domes. I dont think I need to say much more..Right now I have Smaller Advents in my bedroom and Boston CR75 speakers in my living room. Gives me something to look forward to!!I love the sound.It is simply amazing to me that a piece of technology sounds acceptable when its from the 60s!!! That would be like buying a 1965 station wagon and saying it drives just as good as a modern Lexus.This is a dream come true for me. I am a family friend of RoyC and used to drool over his systems when I was in high school. Now here I am with a pair of my own! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Posted December 19, 2015 Report Share Posted December 19, 2015 Some day they will be upstairs in a living room.. but right now I have a 1 and 3 year old. That means toys.. drinks.. vomit etc in way too close proximity to the speakers.. not to mention it would be open season on the tweeter domes. I dont think I need to say much more..Right now I have Smaller Advents in my bedroom and Boston CR75 speakers in my living room. Gives me something to look forward to!!I love the sound.It is simply amazing to me that a piece of technology sounds acceptable when its from the 60s!!! That would be like buying a 1965 station wagon and saying it drives just as good as a modern Lexus.This is a dream come true for me. I am a family friend of RoyC and used to drool over his systems when I was in high school. Now here I am with a pair of my own!I am really happy for you. I know how much pleasure I've gotten from my AR3a over the past 45 years! Merry Christmas.der Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakecat Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Some day they will be upstairs in a living room.. but right now I have a 1 and 3 year old. That means toys.. drinks.. vomit etc in way too close proximity to the speakers.. not to mention it would be open season on the tweeter domes. I dont think I need to say much more..Right now I have Smaller Advents in my bedroom and Boston CR75 speakers in my living room. Gives me something to look forward to!!I love the sound.It is simply amazing to me that a piece of technology sounds acceptable when its from the 60s!!! That would be like buying a 1965 station wagon and saying it drives just as good as a modern Lexus.This is a dream come true for me. I am a family friend of RoyC and used to drool over his systems when I was in high school. Now here I am with a pair of my own!Congrats!....you couldn't have a better family friend than Roy for audio. He also helped me turn into an AR lover and have been thru many series of them and have leaned much because of him. Enjoy those 3a's and don't sell them!... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tysontom Posted December 22, 2015 Report Share Posted December 22, 2015 Bringing them home from the estate sale..Grills were still glued on from the factory.. had to slice away the old yellowed cloth.RoyC helped me tremendously with the crossover, pots and a new tweeter.Then he did an awesome job with the grills.Woohoo!!These are going to be family heirlooms.Congratulations, bassment142! You got an early pair of AR-3as -- likely 1967-1968 judging by the tweeters -- that are very original. What are the serial numbers? What was the date-stamp on the tweeter that was removed? There are not too many of those early versions floating around, and it's good that you have Roy to help you with them! Hope you didn't have to do too much with the crossover.--Tom Tyson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyC Posted December 23, 2015 Report Share Posted December 23, 2015 Thanks for the kind words, guys. I've actually known Brian (bassment142) since he was knee high to an AR-6. He called me about these estate sale specimens when I was away visiting friends, and I encouraged him to acquire them for himself...with the promise of providing assistance.The crossovers required the usual capacitor replacement and control work, and one tweeter was dead (for which I had a replacement). I replaced the grill cloth with the preferred Wichelt 18ct Lambswool linen, and he will be dealing with some cabinet refinishing at a later date. Fortunately the woofer surround and spider ring glue, which has degraded on so many of these old timers, is still intact on both woofers.I ran into an atypical problem when doing some final testing of the mids and tweeters. One mid would intermittently cut out. After much head scratching, I finally tracked it down to a bad solder joint at the .5 ohm nichrome resistor in the mid circuit. This component is rarely a problem, and is easy to take for granted after working on so many 3a's.Tom, I seem to recall seeing 1969 stamped on the dead tweeter.Roy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassment142 Posted December 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2015 I still cant believe how modern they sound. I was thinking these old things would be dated.. dull.. not exciting.. but they sound just as good if not better than my computer age ADS L880s. The ARs certainly have better bass reach, especially at lower volumes. Funny thing to note, when I ripped out all the stuffing (outside Roy's home) one was filled with the old nasty rockwool and the other was filled with the yellow fiberglass. Here are the numbers!Also, I did the Barkeepers friend treatment to the top of the one speakers that had the black ring, it actually did lighten it up. Not 100% gone, but perhaps 30% of what it used to be. Before I applied a little restore a finish to the top, the part that was the black ring was actually lighter than the rest of the top?? Strange. Also, when you look closely at the ring, it almost seems like someone hit the speaker with a frying pan. The areas that are dark are also dented down as well. Does the veneer shrink when it gets wet and then dries? you can actually feel it with your fingers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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