Help my speakers project! (AR)

My speakers - and I've been quite candid about this! - are Wharfedale bookshelf models I bought through Amazon for 350.00. I'd quite like to get something like classic Acoustic Research AR-3a 's -- but when these are around they fetch a pretty good price.

Is there a comparable model(s) that I might be nearly as lucky to find? I'd like to know what to keep my eyes open for. How, for example, are the AR-2 's?

THank you,

 

Thank you Gary.

 

Well, if anyone wants to speak up for 1990's-era Wharfedales, I'd listen to them now! Such speakers are not mentioned often - not that that makes them sound any worse - and they were suspiciously cheap (thanks to this newsgroup and others, I've come to feel that real speakers should cost $2000 dollars or more).

Wharfedale fanciers? Show your stuff?

 

Hello,

I have a pair of AR3a speakers that I purchased in 1973. Go to these web site to learn all about how to fix these speakers (after 30 years of use, they will need repair): These are great web sites that are dedicated to restoring AR speakers. The layneaudio has replacement parts for the AR3a speakers.

http://layneaudio.hypermart.net/AR.htm
http://www.arsenal.net/speakers/

Let me tell you my experiences with owning these for almost 30 years:


In general, the Ar3a speakers need A LOT OF POWER to sound their best. They are 4 ohm speakers, so make sure that your amp can deal with this. It is easy to clip your amp with these speakers. I destroyed a number of tweeter and midrange units do to clipping of the amp. My amp had 85 watts/channel. This is not enough.


Bass:
They have great bass, very tight, deep and very well controlled (not boomy). The foam surrounds on the woofer cones will turn to dust after about 15 years and they will need to be refoamed. Not a difficult job to perform, I fixed my woofer surrounds myself. Only one of my woofers is original. I dropped one of the cabinets last year and the magnet fell off of one of the woofers, so I had to replace the woofer. Bummer because the replacement woofer does not have as good a bass response as the original.

Tweeter and midrange attenuation pots:
These things corrode and will need to be replaced.

Tweeter and midrange drivers:
Like I mentioned above, I have had to replace a number of tweeters and midrange drivers due to clipping of my amp. Two years ago I replaced the AR3a tweeters and midrange units with Dynaudio drivers. The Dynaudio drivers really made an improvement in sound. Sweeter midrange and a more extended high end. Due to the large front baffle, these speakers do not image well when compared to modern speakers with narrow front baffles.

The AR3a speakers have a great "classic sound". They are very easy on the ears, no HI-Fi analytical sound. Motown used these speakers in the 1960's to mix their music. If you want to hear classic Motown as it was intended to be heard, listen through AR3a speakers. Awsome!!