broken ar18s

[Guest tonysparents]

hi, i had a set of perfect ar18s which got torn up in transit on my way to uni.. i have raked the net for replacements but the closst iv come are some ar4xa's, are these on a par? also, ca i have an idea as to how much money i broke when i broke my speakers? not that it was money that bothered me as i loved these speakers, and also what wattage were they, about 35rms? iv saved the tweeters and am determined to build or buy another ar set!

[ninohernes]

AR-4xa's or AR-4x's are very good. The bass response from the 8 inch woofer is wonderfully large and full, and the tweeter also has very smooth response. I personally prefer the AR-4x as opposed to the 4xa. I like the way the larger tweeter sounds, its midrange seems to be a bit richer and more natural sounding. I have used my 4x's with up to 125 watts of clean power, with no problem. The AR-4x and 4xa are much older than your 18's.

[Guest dogmeninreno]

>hi, i had a set of perfect ar18s which got torn up in transit

>on my way to uni.. i have raked the net for replacements but

>the closst iv come are some ar4xa's, are these on a par? also,

>ca i have an idea as to how much money i broke when i broke my

>speakers? not that it was money that bothered me as i loved

>these speakers, and also what wattage were they, about 35rms?

>iv saved the tweeters and am determined to build or buy

>another ar set!

AR4ax's are really good and there are lots of them out there.

I have a nice set of AR18b's that I would sell.

I had used them for rear speakers in a HT system.

Interested?

Please email me. dald@sbcglobal.net

I also have a set of refoamed woofers for the 18 series.

Dale in Reno.....

[Guest tonysparents]

cheers, i have found a u.s company called simply speakers who make a woofer foam replacement, and it is only my woofer foam that was torn up, the woofer skin and tweeters are fine. it is a diy kit, has anyone had any experiences with these? iv also seen a gorgeous set of ar9ls on ebay.com, pity theyre in america and the guy wants $340 for shipping!

http://www.simplyspeakers.com/

[Guest Brian_D]

I have owned several pair of AR 18's, various itterations including the 18s the 18b and the 18's precursor, the 17. I paid $150 plus shipping for the 17's, and between $100 and $70 for the others. While the 17's are older speakers, they have a hardwood veneer and a larger cabinet. In my opinion, they are of higher construction grade than the 18.

You are lucky that the foam was all that was damaged in transit. The repair of the foam surrounds on these speakers is very easy. Just follow the instructions and be sure to leave the dustcap removal unil last, you don't want the nasties getting in the coil gap.

The 9ls is a very large (and heavy) speaker, though $340 is a bit steep. If you're still interested, get the weight specs from someone here who knows the speaker better than I, then call around for a trucking company who will pick-up at his address. You don't have to ship his way, just make sure he packages them well before your company picks them up. They would be well worth the effort, I've heard them and I love them. (Almost as much as my 9's!)

Good luck, and feel free to ask about refoaming... lots of us have done it.

-Brian

[r_laski]

As Brian said, some of us do our own re-foaming. I do not use Simply Speakers kits because they advocate re-foaming without removing the dust cap and shimming the voice coil. I would recommend you get a re-foam kit that includes shims and replacement dust caps (although I can usually reuse the original dust cap), such as from Parts Express, or if you get the Simply Speaker kit, shim the voice coil anyway.

Rich

[Guest Gwenfo]

Careful!

Simply Speaker foam is WAY TOO STIFF for this series of 8" woofer. Free air resonance frequency measures at over 40Hz with a "restored" woofer.

NEWFOAM is WAY TOO PERMEABLE to use...any "Acoustic Seal" is destroyed.

I have one original 2000037 woofer with intact and pliable original foam. It is VERY thin and non permeable. Free air resonance is about 29Hz.

I am beginning to wonder if the home diyer CAN restore these woofers to anywhere near original spec. As they were used with no crossover components the high end frequency response is also critical, and this is strongly dependant on the surround. Was this the function of the thick ring of glue(?)at the edge of the half roll? Is there anywhere where we can get hold of the correct type of foam?

By the way...a view from Britain. AR, through to the mid-eighties, were one of the very few non-British looudspeaker manufacturers which could compete with the homegrown companies- KEF, Rogers, Mission etc. The cabinets were built over here but the drivers were imported from the USA. The UK speakers looked different in small ways. I remember finding any excuse to babysit at a neighbours house so as to listen to his his hi-fi- the speakers were largish AR from the "classic" series. Not 3's- too small- but way larger than the 7 etc. I'd love to know what they were now. They sounded fantastic. As soon as I could afford a "proper" hi-fi I got the 18s which were huge sellers over here. They, again, sounded fantastic and suited our generally smaller rooms beautifully. I have never heard any speakers as good as these 2 pairs. I have heard more "impressive", perhaps more detailed etc. speakers, but none have ever have had the emotional impact and, perhaps paradoxically, the fun factor. AR 18s still have a large following in the UK and will sell for about £100 on ebay, even with deteriorating surrounds. Other AR speakers of any vintage do not achieve anything like this price. AR UK reintroduced the 18s as the Redbox 2 in the late eighties.

[Guest tonysparents]

thanks for all the help, despite the warnings il still have a go at the replacement, il look at other brands though as suggested. now that i know the value,power and quality of these speakers il definately be looking for some more, if i can get any ar9xx il be the happiest student around! especially if i can out drown the acoustic solutions fan downstairs! one more question though-do foam replacements mean i can treat these speakers as 100w again, or should i be conservative with power now? iv attached an image of the least damaged speaker.

ps iv also seen an ar tds202 sound enhancer on ebay, do they do as stated and whats a reasonable price for one?

[ninohernes]

Your power handling will be the same, but you will be able to play them louder, before the woofer bottoms out, due to the fact that the new surrounds will be a bit stiffer than the originals.

From the picture, the tweeter dust cap looks pushed in. You can fix that yourself. Just take a pin, and insert it into the dustcap, and pry it up, the dustcap should pop back to its original shape. Just be very carefull not to tear it.

[ar_pro]

Doesn't that hemispherical dustcap play a part in the tweeter's dispersion? If so, that looks like a broken tweeter.

[ninohernes]

>Doesn't that hemispherical dustcap play a part in the

>tweeter's dispersion? If so, that looks like a broken

>tweeter.

Nope, its a cone tweeter, as far as I know, the dustcap just keeps dust out of the gap. It should operate as normal if you pop the dust cap back into shape.

[Guest btbos]

I've used the foam kit on one pair of AR 18s. Results were so good I purchased another pair that need foam replacement and will fix those as well. How did your repair work out?