biggal76 Posted November 8, 2017 Report Share Posted November 8, 2017 Picked up a really rough pair of 2a's at Goodwill. Was going to restore them but I think they have alnico tweeters which I haven't measured resistance yet, but they seem to work equally well. It seems that they may be worth as much or more than the speaker will be if I restore it. The speakers will never be perfect...(I broke the grill frames getting them off, the cabinets are horrible scratched, the badges are discolored and paint will come off if I polish them, two of the mids are torn which I repaired but it's highly visible, etc. The pots are highly corroded-I'm not sure if I can fix them or if they need replacing, and they will likely need a recap as there is no sound from mids or highs when I hook up to the speaker terminals on the back, even when turning the pots.) The only thing they have going for them are the alnico woofers in good condition and the tweeters. So my question is, are the attached pics indeed alnico tweeters? I'm not sure how to tell. Would you agree I should just part them out? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lARrybody Posted November 8, 2017 Report Share Posted November 8, 2017 if you are going to part them out I would be interested in the grill (broken frame and all) if the cloths are original. More pictures of the cabinets and woofers would be nice. Maybe they are not too far gone to someone willing to do the work. You can always replace the dual midranges with 2ax mids making them essentially 2ax"s. Maybe they could be made to look like these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biggal76 Posted November 8, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2017 Original grill cloth was ripped and dirty. I already disposed of it. I messed with them some more. Cleaned the pots and I know for sure the drivers all work. Not sure about xovers yet but I'm pretty sure the culprit of no sound in tweets and mids was the pots and think they will work when I put them back together. I don't like changing caps unless necessary. I've had amps and speakers recapped and it's ruined the sound for me so I'll try these out with the old xover caps. I'll see if I can work some magic on the cabinets and I can figure out a way to use the old frames and have some offwhite grill cloth that looks good on AR's that I can throw on. Guess I'll fix them up. So, those are alnico tweets, right? The stickers on the back of cabinets with serial #'s are gone, so I can't look up what tweets would have been used based on serial #'s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lARrybody Posted November 9, 2017 Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 Yes those are the alnico tweeters. The same ones used in the AR3, AR2a and early AR2ax. I am sure that most your problems are with the potentiometers. There is plenty of information on refurbishing them here and at Audiokarma. I also would bet that the the wax caps are way out of spec. I used some Carli caps from Madisound on mine and they sound wonderful. Probably less than $10.00 in caps. Good luck on some wonderful vintage AR's. https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/carli-capacitors/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biggal76 Posted November 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 They work. For now, I am not planning to do the caps but maybe later. How does the sound of the alnico tweets differ from ceramic? I know people slightly favor the alnico woofers but not sure what people think about the tweeters. I have AR3a (my main speakers) with ceramic tweeters and wondering if it's worth swapping these in. I doubt it's worth it and would ruin the originality of the 3a's, but wondering what people think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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