Jump to content

New AR3 mids?


Turbon

Recommended Posts

BTW - I have the feeling reading these pages that the mids have been refurbished by as I believe RoyC. My reason for this is that the mid on the one speaker I've fixed so far doesn't sound at all :(. The new HIVI Q1R sounds good and reacts allright turning the old cleaned pot.

RoyC, would you have the time to refurbish mine? Please PM me about this.

Good news - testing with a tonegenerator there was sound. I probably made an error connecting stuff so the woofer needs to be detached again.

But still the fixed speakers mid sounds weak against the non fixed one - but then again both was tested in circuit and the fixed one have good caps.

Regards

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can only wonder if the Speaker Exchange has somehow acquired the old ABtech Services business. Their story seems eerily similar. Prices high and parts on back order with no ETA. IF that's the case, then will what they get (eventually from China most likely) meet or even come close to AR OEM specs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, Carlspeak said:

I can only wonder if the Speaker Exchange has somehow acquired the old ABtech Services business. Their story seems eerily similar. Prices high and parts on back order with no ETA. IF that's the case, then will what they get (eventually from China most likely) meet or even come close to AR OEM specs.

That is why I didn't place an order as I do not know what comes out of it. IF they are somewhat close to the real thing - do you still think that 110$ is much?

Regards 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Before spending that much on a questionable replacement, I'd buy a set of AR91/92/58s dome mids (not AR9/90 mids) .  Structurally, they're pretty much the same mid, and should have the frequency extension, to match up with the 3/3a woofer.  Visually, they look different, but their ring horn can be removed, and the 3a mesh and damping material, can be added.  I've read here, that this is a feasible thing to do, as a replacement; and since the Vertical mids are more readily available, why not?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Carlspeak said:

I can only wonder if the Speaker Exchange has somehow acquired the old AB tech Services business. Their story seems eerily similar. Prices high and parts on back order with no ETA. IF that's the case, then will what they get (eventually from China most likely) meet or even come close to AR OEM specs.

Hi Carl, As we previously discussed, one of ABT's former employees has begun wholesaling some replacement drivers. These are retailed by Simply Speakers, Vintage AR, and others. I have had the opportunity to test the "replacement"  mid discussed above as well as the AR-3a and Advent replacement woofers. The woofers look good but are way out of spec in terms of compliance. The mid may work in a pinch in a 3a or AR-9 series model, but it is not the same as original. I have never understood why ABT would go to the trouble and expense of having specialty replacements made, and not make sure they were within spec of the originals.

Turbon, Whether you were to use a 3a mid, later AR-9/91/92/58 series mid, or the replacement mid mentioned above, a crossover change would be needed. None of them can be simply dropped into the cabinet to provide the same response as the unique, original AR-3 mid. With that said, given the nature of its deterioration, I doubt any original AR-3 mid is within spec these days...so it is likely your functioning AR-3 mid is not responding properly either. Imo, it would be risky to go to the effort and expense of overseas shipping for the type of repair I've been doing. If they were my AR-3's I would replace both mids with much more reliable AR-3a (or, as Stimpy mentioned above, AR-9/91/92/58 mids if no 3a mids can be acquired) with the addition of a parallel .4mh coil. The 3a mid was used in this way in the last version of the AR-3, so using it would still result in a later AR-3 iteration.

Roy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Roy, I've had some conversations with the design folks at MISCO about the potential to have AR-spec drivers made, and while the physical mounting configurations are easy to customize, the actual working bits inside are another matter. So it's likely that the ABT drivers have always been the innards from a manufacturer's standard catalog in customized housings and mounting flanges.

Since we've had such satisfactory results with the HiVi tweeter, perhaps we should be taking a look at HiVi's dome midrange?

297-415-hi-vi-dmn-a-specifications.pdf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, genek said:

Roy, I've had some conversations with the design folks at MISCO about the potential to have AR-spec drivers made, and while the physical mounting configurations are easy to customize, the actual working bits inside are another matter. So it's likely that the ABT drivers have always been the innards from a manufacturer's standard catalog in customized housings and mounting flanges.

Since we've had such satisfactory results with the HiVi tweeter, perhaps we should be taking a look at HiVi's dome midrange?

297-415-hi-vi-dmn-a-specifications.pdf

Thanks for the insight, Gene. It makes more sense than ignorance on the part of ABT.

I believe Carl has done some work with the HiVi mid with good results. I've had my eye on it for some time, but knowing it would take some crossover changes, I've been opting for the various iterations of the AR mid discussed above. These are getting more expensive and harder to acquire in decent condition, so the day to take a closer look at the HiVi mid may be coming.

Roy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking forward for your views all on what changes to make on the crossover. I believe I'm in a position now to take the leap. I will build the X-over outside the box for easy change of parts. I would appreciate your thoughts on where to start given what you know about the Ar3 and HiVi mids.

Regards

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, RoyC said:

Thanks for the insight, Gene. It makes more sense than ignorance on the part of ABT.

I believe Carl has done some work with the HiVi mid with good results. I've had my eye on it for some time, but knowing it would take some crossover changes, I've been opting for the various iterations of the AR mid discussed above. These are getting more expensive and harder to acquire in decent condition, so the day to take a closer look at the HiVi mid may be coming.

Roy

While I may have dabbled a bit with that MR from HIVI, I just don't recall and cannot find any records on my computer. Any evaluations may have been in preparation for the introduction of the 3a Super-Mod Kit. However, I ended up settling on a lovely marriage of a Seas H1262 midrange and H1189 tweeter. The Seas mid is a perfect drop in fit to the rabetted midrange hole in the baffle board. The down side to using this mid is that it's has an open back design and one must thus fabricate a small chamber to install on the backside of the BB. I used a 6 inch diameter X 5 inch long thick core material tube which I glued a 1/2 inch thick MDF plate to the back side of. That plate had a hole in the middle for a threaded rod I used to pull the tube up against the backside (after applying a generous amount of carpenter's glue around the face of the tube beforehand. Ran the mid wires up thru that hole then sealed it with caulking and lastly stuffed the chamber with polyester. Fun stuff to work out these 'fixes'. Below is the entire Super-Mod schematic with the H1262 portion clearly shown for those brave enough to take on using the Seas Mid.

 

super mod seas schematic.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi.

I would of course agree to an sensible offer on a genuine working AR-3 mid as the other one I have seems to work very well. PM me.

The right on as you can see have the q1r mod and the second have only the caps and cleaning of the pots made. The pots works fine now.

On the left one the tweeter is very unsensitive but works - the mid works very nicely. On the right one the q1r works very good but the mid is very insensitive.

A road forward is appreciated and we still need to settle the mid long term problem... If I get my hands on a good mid as the good one I have  I could lean back and just enjoy. But that ain't me. Sure - I would really like to have one to keep as a reference but more important is to secure the resemblance of the real stuff or even better it as I believe is possible. Very much new music has been produced with different gear and settings since the heydays of AR. We should not be afraid of keeping up with the day. To resemble the old tune  doubble the XO and make it selectable by a switch or by your remote. An Ol'England speaker I like is the Linn Kann II, I believe the B139 could make an excellent mid for AR3 but it won't fit in the mid hole :)

 

Regards

 

ar3-20160707.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...