Acoustic Research: power hungry?

First, I need to know what kind of grilles your speakers have. Do they have the gold foil running through them, or are they the off white linnen ones?

 

I guess they're off white, but there is a bit of a pattern to them. I don't see any gold.

 

Is there about a half inch of "molding" around the grille, or is the grille flush with the edge of the speaker. The only reason I am asking all of this, is, AR varied in there grilles as the styles changed. I just want to make sure that I give you the right directions on how to properly remove them with mininal damage. Does it look like the first photo or the second.

 

Trying to send a photo but it's 650k. Seems I've seen larger than that here.

 

Doug, I am glad to see that you joined the Classic Speaker forum. There is a ton of knowledge there, about classic speakers, especially AR.

 

Made a trip up to Montreal. Scored big time on vinyl too, but that's material for a different thread...

 

Thanks, There is lots of stuff there.

My speakers are like the one on the top photo with the darker grille. It looks like the grilles are recessed so I have no idea yet how to get them off.

 

Ok, they are like my AR-2 grilles, which I have removed before. Locate the staples. They are very hard to find at first, but they will become obvious once you find the first one. After you get all of the staples out, carefully pry the grille up. If the glue has dried enough, it will pop right up, however, since the grilles in the early AR-2a's are made of cardboard, it probably wont. Then you will have to carefully remove the short piece of molding on the woofer side, then you will be able to pry the grille up with a putty knife. Thats what I had to do. When I was finished inside, I just glued the piece of molding back on, and used velcro to attach the grilles.

 

Joe, I think I got the staples out but having hard time finding molding on the woofer side. I was able to get a bit of the grille off, but this is a tough job for me so far.

 

The molding is just the half inch of wood sticking up, it makes the frame around the speaker grille. Its about a half inch thick. The blue arrow points to the piece of molding that you want to remove. Be carefull not to crack the wood. However, if you can get enough of the grille up to pry under it with a putty knife, do that. Only remove the molding as a last resort. I ended up having to remove the molding on mine.

 

It sure doesn't look like it's gonna come off. The piece looks no different to me than the other 3 front borders. Could I possibly have something different?

 

It is the same as the other three boarders. It should just pop off by pulling it back with your hand. Thats how I got mine off. If its really on there, give the tweeter side a try. It all depends on how it was glued on.

 

I have AR-90. The woofers are refoamed, the subwoofers are replaced by equivalent one, but its different.
So I want original AR 10" woofers. Found only www.layneaudio has these units.

Looking also for schematic of the crossovers.
How to remove the crossover panel the renew the capacitors, does anybody knows?

Regards

 

Send Larry Lagace an email, he will be able to assist you with both the crossovers and the woofers. He might have them both in stock. His email is [email protected]

 

Thanks for reply

I will send mail to Larry Lagace for xover-help and maybe he has some subwoofer units for me.
That time 1 yr ago I did' know about refoaming and did the most stupid thing in my live.
They ended in the dustbin.

Now i am awake (that was a bad dream).
My AR90 will awake again.
AR forever.

Regards

 

Loudspeaker design is a compromise. In fact, both acoustic suspension and ported loudspeakers have their serious drawbacks.

Ported loudspeakers may be more efficient. But most ported designs are extremely colored and inaccurate in their sound reproduction - mainly due to their use of severely undersized boxes for the characteristics of their woofers (most of today's woofers are, relatively speaking, high-Q designs). A 6.5" woofer in a bookshelf-sized ported enclosure may produce big bass response, but all the designers did was seriously bloat the mid-bass and upper-bass response in order to even get those systems to reach down to even 50Hz. A truly accurate/precise ported loudspeaker system is extremely HUGE - some of those are larger than most living rooms!

Acoustic suspension designs may be technically more "accurate" sounding, but at the expense of efficiency and power handling due to their requirement of extra-long-excursion woofers.

 

Can't beat the classic ARs...I borrowed my bro's latest S-20 mini monitors (before AR went belly-up) and drove them with my 8 watt 300B SET power amp. Voices sound hollow, but these 89dB bookshelf loudspeakers will play up to 100dBs SPL before clipping occurs! They sound nothing like their vintage forefathers, though...how sad.

 

I have AR5's, have had AR3a's and AR4's. Good in their time. Allison had a line of acoustic suspension speakers that were superior in many ways. Better extended frequency response and designs with specific room locations built into the design. Better power handling also. I burnt out so many tweeters in AR3a's and AR5's that I lost count.

Richard.

 

Hi,

I love the AR 2Ax better than any other AR speaker, followed by the AR 4 and AR 5. This AR 2Ax is the most natural speaker I have ever heard. Very accurate and no audible crossover.

 

Roy Allison was an engineer at AR. He designed both the woofer and tweeter in the 4x. He also developed the concept of fluid cooling which was employed for the first time in the AR-9.

In order to not burn tweeters, you need an amplifier that can deliver extremely low distortion into low impedance loads. I have never burned a tweeter in an AR speaker. I have been playing rock and roll through my AR's for a long time, and have never had problems. No less than 200 watts!!

 

I bet Dave Wilson of Wilson Audio, and the guys at Magnepan would disagree with this, as do I.

 

Of course, and AR said that about their products, that theirs were better than anyone elses. I could care less what Dave Wilson says about his product or the folks at Magnepan say. Its all marketing BS. Listen to everything and select what sounds best to you.

I love Magnepans, but they don't produce a focused phantom center. They are great for classical music, and produce an incredibly wide impressive soundstage. They are also very neutral. But classical music and light jazz is all they are good for. I would love to have a pair just for that. I listened to Wilson Audio watt puppy's, and they did absolutely nothing for me. The metal tweeter sounds like metal. It was like razor blades on my ears. Wilson's would be great for older people with hearing loss in the upper end, my father would love them But they are far too bright for me.

Audio is highly subjective. I have listened to many speakers, in many price ranges and I have not found anything made today that I like. One of the only speakers I like made today are the ERA model 4 speakers.

 

Joe NH,

I have been following this thread with interest. I'd be interested in your opinion of more modern acoustic suspension speakers, like say the NHTs. I've recently become quite taken with the sound of my old pair of Boston Acoustics A40s (always really liked that 'A' series from BA) that I put new woofers in. They are, of course, acoustic suspension speakers and it has really had me thinking about trying some others, like maybe the NHT SB3.

Any idea how the newer AS type speakers compare with the old ARs? (I grew up with a pair of AR2's in my house BTW.)

Thanks!

Joe

 

I have a pair of AR-2's too! The newer ones are good, but not as good as the old AR's. There is simply no substitute for a solidly built wood cabinet and alnico drivers.