AR915 Woofer~!!

[Guest james choi]

Hello, My name is James and would like to ask some questions regarding AR915 speakers.

I purchased a new AR915 speaker in 1982. I also have the AR full 5-year warranty.

On Nov 1, 03, I needed to exchange the old Edge with a new Edge, so we called a "Speaker Specialist". He came to my house, and took our 2 woofers(left speaker, right speaker)to his work place. I made sure to look over my speakers prior to getting them fixed and noted the features.

Two days later, on Nov3, 03, he came back to my house with the 2 woofers with new edge. But, these woofers were not mine. The reason being that one woofer had a round magnet shape, but looked old. The other woofer's magnet shape is square(attatched files).

If these Ferrite magnet shapes were ever made square or ever sold with two different type magnets, would you please let me know when it was made and if it is made in AR.

He has denied any wrong doing, so in order to go forward with a complaint I would appreciate any help you can offer by way of pictures(real AR915's woofer) and or written document.

Thank you for your assistance,

James

[Guest dogmeninreno]

Both woofers look like AR but I am not familiar with the series you have. Suggest you post the part #s of the woofers and someone here will be able to assist. I have run into this on the LST-2's where round and square were used depending on the age. Also on AR5's as I recall. Dale in Reno.....

[r_laski]

James,

Please refresh all our memories. The AR915 – is that the last iteration of the AR91 – three way 4 Ohm speaker with vertically aligned drivers. The same drivers as AR9?? (I’m asking this after finding nothing on the Classic Speaker Pages about this particular model except being listed in the Verticals/High Tech series).

>> If these Ferrite magnet shapes were ever made

square or ever sold with two different type magnets,

would you please let me know when it was made and if

it is made in AR.<<

I’m not an expert, but I can tell you that AR produced 12 inch woofers PN 200003 and 200003-1 with both round and square magnets. I don’t know if any square magnet woofers were used in the AR-3a. From personal experience, I know both round and square magnet woofers were used interchangeably in AR11s and in AR9s.

As far as I know, AR is the only speaker manufacturer to use the truncated (2 flat sides) basket in its 12 inch woofer. As Dale said, from your pictures, those look like AR woofers.

I sense that the issue is not so much whether you were given AR woofers, rather the “speaker specialist” did not repair and return YOUR AR woofers.

Rich

[tysontom]

>

>Two days later, on Nov3, 03, he came back to my house with the

>2 woofers with new edge. But, these woofers were not mine. The

>reason being that one woofer had a round magnet shape, but

>looked old. The other woofer's magnet shape is

>square(attatched files).

>

>If these Ferrite magnet shapes were ever made square or ever

>sold with two different type magnets, would you please let me

>know when it was made and if it is made in AR.

>

>He has denied any wrong doing, so in order to go forward with

>a complaint I would appreciate any help you can offer by way

>of pictures(real AR915's woofer) and or written document.

>

>Thank you for your assistance,

James,

I can't speak for the fact that you may or may not have received your original woofers upon repair, but I can say that AR definitely used both the square and round magnet assemblies on the 12-inch woofer, and these woofers have exactly the same characteristics. From your pictures, you definitely have the 12-inch woofers ("12W") with the truncated sides. The square magnets began to show up in the early 80s I believe.

I think the differences were due to magnet supplier; AR used different suppliers to source the same materials, and some magnet companies used the square magnet for some reason. It's definitely uglier, but it weighs the same and works exactly like the round one. Someone pointed out that some versions of the 10-inch woofer used a square magnet, and this is true, and probably by the same supplier.

--Tom Tyson

[Guest Nigel]

> Please refresh all our memories. The AR915 – is that the last

>iteration of the AR91 – three way 4 Ohm speaker with

>vertically aligned drivers.

Hi Rich;

The AR 91.5 is a later lower cost version of the AR91. It has the squared off cabinet with fake wood veneer like the AR92, rather than the clipped top corners and real wood of the AR91. In addition, the AR91.5 has only two cheap plastic knobbed connectors on the back, rather than the classic three metal knobbed ones on the AR91. It has the same drivers as the AR91.

I have a pair of AR91.5 speakers, and my ex wife has a pair of AR91 speakers. We are both using Adcom 545 II amplifiers with them. They sound the same, but the AR91 speakers look better.

[r_laski]

Nigel,

Thanks for the info. I’ve seen these referred to as AR915s and AR91.5s. I wasn’t sure if they were the same model. I didn’t know how much later the AR91.5s were to the AR91s and whether they were a carry over into the LS/LSI series with Tonegen drivers. Thanks again for clearing that up.

>>I have a pair of AR91.5 speakers, and my ex wife has a pair

of AR91 speakers. We are both using Adcom 545 II amplifiers

with them. They sound the same, but the AR91 speakers look better <<

In the early ‘80’s I recommended to a friend he get a pair of AR91s and drive them with a Hafler DH500 amp / DH110 preamp. That was a great combination. Haflers and Adcoms always seem to work very well with AR speakers.

Rich