JKent Posted January 18, 2018 Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 20 minutes ago, larrybody said: Was just wondering how AR placed them originally. Pretty sure they were both on the bottom (long side when placed horizontally on a shelf). That's how the badges were placed on the AR-3 and looking at some old blurry ads I think the 2a was that way too. Tom would know for sure. OTOH what does it matter? Put it where you think it looks best (I know--heresy!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ar_pro Posted January 18, 2018 Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 I remember them on the corners of the long/bottom side, as Kent has mentioned, with the "AR" emblem always occupying the same position in the Classic series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted January 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 9 hours ago, ar_pro said: I remember them on the corners of the long/bottom side, as Kent has mentioned, with the "AR" emblem always occupying the same position in the Classic series. Given the logo placement seen in the initial pics I posted on pg 1 of this thread, that makes sense. I am curious as to whether the 2ax's are best listened to on their side or standing upright with the tweeter and mid on top? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD70 Posted January 18, 2018 Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 1 hour ago, Michael T said: Given the logo placement seen in the initial pics I posted on pg 1 of this thread, that makes sense. I am curious as to whether the 2ax's are best listened to on their side or standing upright with the tweeter and mid on top? Depends on where the speakers are placed. If on stands on the floor, than vertical would be better to get the mids and tweeters closer to ear level when sitting. If on a shelf, then most likely horizontal, with the tweeters to the outside for better wider sound stage. Woofer placement is not critical for low frequencies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted January 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 On 1/16/2018 at 12:23 PM, JKent said: I'm thinking any Fisher speakers in a real walnut veneer cabinets would be the early ones and may be good. But free is always good. When you get them post photos and give the model number Trying to find information on these fishers is like trying to find information on my Onkyo Fusion AV series, one step above impossible. The only thing I found was a post in AudioKarma that the person stated that any of the ST series fishers were pretty low grade on the audio side. Anyway, they are ST-445s and here are a few pics. they have been in his garage for a while and are pretty dirty but the surrounds are very pliable and for what its is worth, tapping the woofer give a pleasant deep sound. Not sure if anyone here knows much about fishers but chime in if you do. (sorry, off topic) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted January 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 oh yeah, he said the grills are long gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted January 18, 2018 Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 Those surrounds may be rubber. If so, no need to replace. I'd say listen and see if you like them. If so they can always be used in some "secondary" spot like a den, bedroom, workshop. Or give them to someone needing speakers. You can easily make grilles and that one corner bash could be filled with brown epoxy or Famowood (I don't recommend Plastic Wood). Kent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted January 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 1 hour ago, JKent said: Those surrounds may be rubber. If so, no need to replace. they are. I'm not gong to spend much time or money to restore them. I'll clean them up, patch the corners (that is not the only damaged corner) and test them out. The guy who gave them to me really liked them, he just stopped using his stereo system when he found that his hearing was going about 10 years ago. He said they just didn't sound right with his hearing aids. We will see what happens, need to finish they ARs first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted January 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 Given that this thread is 9 pages long I figured I would summarize the general steps I took to restore my speakers. This does not include any of the cabinet restoration. This is not intended to be a recommendation for anyone venturing into the restoration of a pair of Acoustic Research speakers, it is simply one man’s ADHD rabbit trail to reach the point of having a fully functional, nice sounding pair of AR-2ax speakers. In the beginning I saw a pair of AR-2ax speakers, and they were good. I saw that the foam surrounds on the woofers were bad so I knew that when I tested for audio I would need to do so at a very low volume to avoid damaging them. I heard sound from woofers but nothing from the mids or tweeters. Turned the pots to see if I could get sound from them. Pots were very stiff and I still could not get sound from mids or tweets. I carefully removed the woofers. After lifting the first one up I decided to take them outside to continue because the rock wool inside the cabinet was very broken down and small particles of it were floating around my living room at this point. I really didn’t think about what would be inside them. I have only taken apart newer speakers up to this point and they all have had poly-fill. After removing the rock wool I took my air nozzle at a low pressure setting, got behind the speaker, put a cloth over my head and face, and blew out the cabinets (I am not recommending doing this, just reporting what I did). I found them so much more enjoyable to work on them with the insides cleared of that dust. I then applied a very low volume signal to each tweeter and mid at the output of the pots. They all worked. They also ohm’ed out good. I took pictures of the wiring and components inside since I knew I would have to remove and replace things. I then removed the tweeters and mids because with my 6’5” frame and large hands there was no way I was going to work inside the cabinets without doing so. I then clipped the wiring, I used a pencil to mark the location of the boards, then carefully removed them. I have a tack removal tool that works great for removing staples. I removed the pots and opened them up. There was more blueish green corrosion than metal inside. I soaked them in a solution of salt and vinegar then took a soft tooth brush to clean them up. The discs were very pitted and chipped. Decided I would need L-Pads. The particular speakers I had were originally manufactured with cloth surround woofers. I was informed that the original cloth surround woofers and the ones with foam surrounds used different inductors. When the woofers in my speakers had been changed out, the inductors had not been changed so I had the wrong coils for the existing woofers. I had two choices, re-foam the existing woofers ($26) and purchase the correct coils ($25) or purchase a pair of cloth surround woofers ($$$). I decided to purchase cloth surround woofers. I purchased a pair of 6 ufd caps and a pair of 3.9ufd caps to replace the existing ones. I purchased 4 L-Pads and 2 25ohm 10w. resistors to replace the pots. I wired up the L-Pads, capacitors, and resistors. I made up a schematic to make sure that I had the wiring right. I used hot glue and staples to attach the crossover boards back in place. I had some weather stripping in the garage to use for sealing the drivers. 3/4" wide x 1/2" thick. After scraping all that nasty black stuff off the drivers and the cabinet and putting in the weather stripping, I installed the tweets and mids and wired them up. I purchased 4 bags of the pink home insulation, from Lowe’s. Home Depot sells a similar insulation in yellow that can also be used. I stuffed 2 bags into each cabinet leaving the woofer wires hanging out of the cabinet. I found some cheese cloth in the pantry that I put under (behind) the woofers to keep the fiberglass dust out. I then wired up the woofers and installed them, sealing them with the weather stripping. I had a few issues that I found with the woofers which were easy fixes using epoxy and glue, and which I will not cover in this summary. I then hooked up my receiver to my speakers. I gradually turned up the volume, listening for any issues. I got them up to a volume beyond normal listening levels and they still sounded great. SUCCESS Well worth the effort. I leave you with this quote: “Always remember the last words of my grandfather, who said ‘… a truck’” Emo Phillips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted January 21, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2018 In case anyone is interested, I posted a couple videos over in AK. They are comparisons of my Onkyo towers and my Ar's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stan461 Posted January 24, 2018 Report Share Posted January 24, 2018 I'm interested. Can you post links? I searched Audiokarma but couldn't find them. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted January 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2018 2 hours ago, stan461 said: m interested. Can you post links? Yes I can. They are recorded with a phone so the audio is, of course, not great. But there is a difference between the speakers that is audible. I would recommnd listening to the videos through headphones. I'm honestly not completely sure which I prefer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stan461 Posted January 25, 2018 Report Share Posted January 25, 2018 More detail, bass and larger soundstage on the Onkyos. Seems like the AR2AX's top end is missing a bit. However, the AR2AX sounds more natural. Nothing is like being there but thank you for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted January 25, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2018 5 hours ago, stan461 said: More detail, bass and larger soundstage on the Onkyos. Seems like the AR2AX's top end is missing a bit. However, the AR2AX sounds more natural. Nothing is like being there but thank you for sharing. I noticed that the top end was missing a bit as well. I have the l-pads on the tweets at 95% and the mids at about 60% on the ARs in the video. I now have the mids turned up to about 80%. It seems to have helped some. I am wondering now if I have the polarity right on all the drivers . I feel like sometimes the stage seems shifted too far to the right when I sit straight on and last night watching tv I was sitting in my recliner which is quite a bit left of center (actually a bit left of the left speaker) I was hearing wide open stereo with sounds coming well left of me and well right of the right speaker. This could be the crazy layout of my living room but I am going to open them up this weekend just to double check myself. believe it or not, I am human and have been known to make mistakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted January 31, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2018 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gahamby Posted February 1, 2018 Report Share Posted February 1, 2018 There back! Thanks to all who contributed to this site and the nice folks who run it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted February 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2018 On 2/1/2018 at 1:11 PM, gahamby said: There back! Congrats. The rest of the story would be good though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted February 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 I ordered some original ARinc badges today. A guy has been trying to sell them for $30 for weeks now. I offered him $20 and he took it. I'm sure I could recoup close to half my money if I sold the one I don't use . 1 step closer . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted February 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 It's a little thing but I now have all the badges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted March 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2018 Nevermind. Got darker laminate, starting over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted March 25, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2018 I don't have the skills of Glenn, but for my first attempt I'm ok with the results. And yes, I did make the stands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dxho Posted March 25, 2018 Report Share Posted March 25, 2018 Looks quite nice from here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael T Posted March 25, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2018 1 hour ago, dxho said: Looks quite nice from here. Thanks a lot. Still working on the other one. I had something come up before getting it as dark as I wanted it and it dried. I cannot seem to get it to darken now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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