AR3A

Ryanj52

Ryanj52

Active Member
I found some AR3A speakers, the pictures that i have seen look like they have cloth surrounds, and it looks like there are some dimples in the cloth surrounds. Is this an issue with these speakers? I am going to try and see them in person in a couple of days. They told me they have no way to play them.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
The earlier AR-3a's employed the 12" cloth surround woofers with alnico magnets, and it is not at all unusual to see them without perfect shape profiles. Later AR-3a's used the new foam surrounds and had round ferrite magnets. When checking these out, aside from cosmetic appearance (cabinets, grilles, badges), you mostly want to see if all drivers are performing adequately. Replacements for these can run into some expense, so negotiate accordingly.
 
Thanks, I am on vacation and came across them so I don't have anything to test them with. The speakers don't have grills and one of the dust caps on one of the woofers is pushed in. They are in semi rough shape but look restoreable.
 
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Besides ra ra's great advice, you'll want to test them. As tyella said, bring an amp, some speaker wire, an iPod and cables to listen to them.
To make sure the drivers are all working, turn the pots back and forth and listen for either drivers cutting out, or coming to life. If either mid or tweeter is dead, there's a good chance the pot or pots are corroded, which is a common problem.
Keep us posted.
 
Looks like a pushed in tweeter dome on the same speaker as has the pushed in woofer dustcap. The tweeter is a bigger deal than the woofer. There are a couple of options for replacement- check the guide to rebuilding AR-3a on the vintage speaker pages website (an invaluable resource for these speakers). Or contact member RoyC here to see if he can rebuild it.

The woofers are the more desirable Alnico version. They look to be in good shape - the dimples in the surrounds shouldn’t be an issue.

And the tweeter and mid level controls are almost certainly bad. Working them back and forth should find a good spot, which will let you know that the drivers still work.
 
If the price is right (that's always the rub), grab them. A $10 meter can tell you if the drivers are open-circuit or not.

Nearly everything can be "fixed" in one way or another. I had to go the HiVi tweeter replacement route. It's a pretty cheap fix for bad tweeters.

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/...ing_the_ar-3a/restoring_the_ar-3a_full_pd.pdf

There's a couple folks that say they can rebuild the mids and tweeters depending what's wrong with them. L-Pads and rheostats are available. Probably due for a re-cap.

You will need a decent amp to make them sing.

FWIW I probably have more in mine than they are worth since the original tweeters were toast. Buy wisely and realize they are old and will need work.
 
Well I just picked them up for $200 I will post some more pics when I get home i couldn't test them he claimed they work and he had pots cleaned. Only problem he didn't have the grills.
 
Ryanj52 said:
Well I just picked them up for $200 I will post some more pics when I get home i couldn't test them he claimed they work and he had pots cleaned. Only problem he didn't have the grills.
Click to expand...

Congrats! You stole them.

Grille's are easy, whether you choose to buy replica's or make your own.
 
Thanks! Do you know who makes replacements? I may try and make them myself, but would like to check them out.
 
I just got home I haven't hooked them up yet. I did use the hot glue gun stick trick and popped out the woofers dust cap. I heated up the end of a hot glue gun stick stuck it to dust cap and pulled up on stick until cap popped out. Would this possibly work on tweeter? I have done it a couple of times on woofers but never a tweeter. I am going to wait until I hool them up before I do anything else. I happy with them so far. He even had the warranty card. A couple of spots on the back edge has a few spots where the veneer is cracked but overall it is in good shape.
 
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Ryanj52 said:
I just got home I haven't hooked them up yet. I did use the hot glue gun stick trick and popped out the woofers dust cap. I heated up the end of a hot glue gun stick stuck it to dust cap and pulled up on stick until cap popped out. Would this possibly work on tweeter? I have done it a couple of times on woofers but never a tweeter.
Click to expand...
They're pretty fragile. You might pull the dust cap/voice coil loose.

I am going to wait until I hool them up before I do anything else. I happy with them so far. He even had the warranty card. A couple of spots on the back edge has a few spots where the veneer is cracked but overall it is in good shape.
Click to expand...
They look great!
 
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