Newbie: When to refurbish AR 4x speakers

[phivates]

OK I'll check some drivers. Gotta get through xmas first.

[phivates]

I don't know if I have a good one with the ribbed cone like yours. They went through a series of cone treatments that you can see by googling ar-4x. I got plenty of the plain ones...not collecting anymore but I would still have a problem leaving a decent pair on the shelf, unless ePrey priced

[Spinner45]

A place in Florida sells "replacement" woofers for AR, however the speakers are way too stiff for an AR acoustic suspension system.
I had to remove one from an LST system and then have the original woofer re-coned properly with a resonant frequency around 15-18 Hz.
It needs to be very compliant for those sealed boxes or else the bass sounds like cheap crap.

[billsea]

A place in Florida sells "replacement" woofers for AR, however the speakers are way too stiff for an AR acoustic suspension system.
I had to remove one from an LST system and then have the original woofer re-coned properly with a resonant frequency around 15-18 Hz.
It needs to be very compliant for those sealed boxes or else the bass sounds like cheap crap.

I'm encouraged to hear it can be done.

[billsea]

I will have to do some searching. How likely to find someone qualified to recone this thing? It seems a waste to let the magnet, etc., sit idle. I've had a problem with my hand; if I had realized how special these were I would have waited til I was more fit.

[phivates]

I have drawers full of idle drivers since I can't think of them as scrap metal. Spinner is correct re appropriate replacement drivers; the real thing for a sealed box is not to be found for 10 bucks. The Dayton DC 200-8 ($25) at parts express would work, but the original is the real deal. I'll check shipping on Wednesday. Simply Speakers is a standard in the speaker repair world but I have no experience with them. Sorry about your hand. I am enduring some physical challenges myself and the happy lining upside can be hard to find.

[Spinner45]

A place in Florida sells "replacement" woofers for AR, however the speakers are way too stiff for an AR acoustic suspension system.
I had to remove one from an LST system and then have the original woofer re-coned properly with a resonant frequency around 15-18 Hz.
It needs to be very compliant for those sealed boxes or else the bass sounds like cheap crap.

I'm encouraged to hear it can be done.

If you REALLY want to have the woofers re-coned/repaired properly, and to original specification, see Bill at http://www.millersound.net/

I'd insist that the man knows his trade extremely well, because I won't deal with less than perfection.

[phivates]

No perfection from my corner of life, just a healthy pair of genuine 4x woofers.

[billsea]

Spinner 45's words prove prophetic. Oh sages of the vintage HiFi, I seek wisdom! I am now afraid of blowing James Brown band's basslines straight through my AR 4x cones. Aside from dropping only tunes (and not phones) through my surrounds and cones, are there treatments, goop, precautions, etc., I can take to preserve my cones and cloth surrounds? I have heard of Vintage AR man and his products on ebay.

[billsea]

I'm leaning toward sealing the cabinet once the woofer is replaced with replacement putty. My woofer patch was an absurdity considering the compliance issue. I also patched my tweeter cone. I'm hoping compliance doesn't factor as much for the tweeter so my patch doesn't ruin it as well.

[Spinner45]

Spinner 45's words prove prophetic. Oh sages of the vintage HiFi, I seek wisdom! I am now afraid of blowing James Brown band's basslines straight through my AR 4x cones. Aside from dropping only tunes (and not phones) through my surrounds and cones, are there treatments, goop, precautions, etc., I can take to preserve my cones and cloth surrounds? I have heard of Vintage AR man and his products on ebay.

As I mentioned, Bill at http://www.millersound.net/ is an expert with the AR woofers.
The top-of-the-line AR "LST" woofer I had Bill do a few months ago, was absolutely a fantastic job.
Response matched perfectly with the other speaker's woofer.

[billsea]

I think I read somewhere that classicspeakerpage's AR 3x restore guide would be helpful for the 4x as well.

[billsea]

Hi Bill, and I'll add my welcome!

One thing for sure to consider is replacing the single crossover capacitor from the aluminum electrolytic to a poly-film type. Also, those potentiometers are known to corrode, so consider by-passing the level adjuster (but leave it in series), or replacing them altogether.

If I understand correctly the capacitor could even harm my drivers if it far enough out of specs. I am a little confused as to how to choose the correct cap. I see talk of Uf's and I really don't know what in the Uf :lol: people are talking about. I see Vintage AR guy on Ebay is 'away'. If someone could help me know how to pick the right cap I would be grateful.

[phivates]

First step would be a meter which includes capacitance and inductance as well as resistance and voltage - I bought a semi-fancy one that is hard to use so someone will have to recommend one. Welcome to speaker tweakering.

[billsea]

Thank you! I had half an idea of what was involved so I grabbed a multimeter a couple of weeks ago. It has everything but capacitance testing. I'll hit up the inlaws maybe. I havent gotten far into the cabinet. I assume its soldered in there.