AR-4Xa

[djcheung]

Just purchased a set of 4Xa last Tuesday. Only had time to look at them on Sunday afternoon. They came in with tweeters not working!

with the grills removed, I have noticed that one of the tweeters connection has been 'repaired'. The tweeter terminals are open . On closer inspection of the wiring , I have noticed that the new wires were actually glued, yes, glued together and not soldered. After fiddling with the multi-strand cable, I decided to gamble and use some heat from a soldering iron to see if they come apart.

And to my surprise and fortunately, they came apart and luckily there was enough of the original wire left. Soldered a strand of the wire and it works!

Not have time to test it yet.

The is the first pair of speakers I ever have with cloth surround. I may need to contact RoyC for that sealant.

Will test to see if I need to open them up to fix that pots.

[ra.ra]

Those look really nice, and it's good to know you've re-activated your tweeter. When you eventually get around to cosmetic attention, I hope you can find another 4xa badge, too.

Generally, the 4x (or 4xa) cloth woofer benefits less than AR's 10" and 12" cloth woofers from the application of the surround sealant because it is not a fully sealed box - - - the porous dust cap in fact does allow some air to pass. However, a light coating of the butyl solution will not be harmful, and I think it does help keep the cloth supple for a new generation of use. No doubt the pots could use some maintenance attention, and the caps should also be checked out while you are inside the cabinet. 

These microscopic tweeter wires drive me crazy, and despite the excellence of these tweeters when they are working properly, I've always felt that this external wiring is a serious design flaw. Just recently I handled four of these (one pair each AR-6 and AR-7), and each time I become a little nervous that I might do more harm than good in the process (hasn't happened yet - knock on wood!) A few years ago I dismantled this same tweeter from an AR-6 and was unable to salvage the entire length of copper tinsel wire, but I was able to re-fashion my own extensions by twisting together several threads of very small gauge copper and then solder it in place to re-connect the tweeter to the terminal on the baffle. My homemade extensions aren't as pretty as the original braided wire, but they have worked just fine.  

Good luck with your project, and keep us posted.