They know the value of original tweeters, I'm skeptical as well.
AR3A Disappointment-- Aid Requested
- Thread starter krg291
- Start date
Freds.Bands
Live Music Listener
A lesson maybe. Show up at a shop/store while you ask questions about valuable items and be ready to buy. Don't give them time to reconsider and do your homework.
Lots of lessons in this story. Expensive lessons. Lessons that are disappointing on many fronts.
Hey Nat,
Yes, I brought the 3's to the last Frankenfest gathering, powering them with the JVC M-7050, P-L10 preamp setup.
They normally sit in our family room, hooked up to the JVC A-X9, and they sound great with this integrated as well.
Roy C. had rebuilt the mids on this pair, and I really wanted Roy to hear them. This set has been recapped as well, the tweeter domes reglued as they were lifting a bit, so are pretty much fully restored. This is why I always say you need to hear a properly restored set of 3's to know what they can do. Most 3 owners, have compromised mids, sometimes tweeters, and out of spec caps. Luckily, the woofers are very robust, and usually need no work, except at times needing the surround and spider's masonite rings re-glued to the basket. A somewhat common issue that's easy to fix.
Rex81
Well-Known Member
I figured I would update this thread since I'm the new owner of these speakers, and if you were like me, you were losing sleep knowing that a pair of AR-3a's were not sounding the way they should. 
I was interested in this thread from the beginning because I have a great affection for AR-3a's (having much enjoyed restoring a previous set I bought on AK) and I was hoping someone could get them back to their former glory. Once I figured that I was only about 1.5 hours away from KRG and his price was low enough for me to take on the risk, I reached out and we made it happen. Thanks again for a pleasant transaction!
I must say, these are fabulous examples. They were obviously well cared for throughout their life. The cabinets are probably 9.5 out of 10. The best I've seen, personally. Apart from one dented corner (a rear one, thankfully) and a couple of scratches on the bottom, they're mint. Even the original grill cloth is hanging in there, at least to the point where I didn't think it needed to be replaced just yet. So thankfully no cabinet refinishing is needed, as this is the most tedious part of restoring these speakers.
I got them home and hooked them up. Sure enough, they didn't sound quite right. They were pretty muddy and had the typical cutting in and out of the mids and tweeters. I was hoping there wasn't a more serious issue with the drivers as we all know replacements can be difficult (and expensive) to find. So I put them on the bench and went to work. I pulled the woofers and saw that they are the original ceramic-ferrite magnet woofers with a nice new refoam and dynamat sound deadening treatment to them, so that was a bonus. I cleaned off the mortite seal from the backs of the woofers and the cabinet and replaced with foam insulation tape. I also saw the original caps in there (the big, textbook-sized 150/50 combo and the candy bar 6uf). So that tells me these are either from 1969 or 1970. So I immediately cut the leads, removed the caps and duplicated my Parts Express order from a few months ago for another set of caps.
Next I opened up the pots (without desoldering them this time!) and found only a small amount of oxidation. Way less than on the other pair I restored, which surprised me considering the amount of dropouts I was hearing when I had them hooked up. I put the buffer wheel on the Dremel, shot some DeOxit in there and spent a couple minutes on each one to clean them up. They looked brand new when I was done. No pitting whatsoever. Applied some dialectric grease, buttoned those up and remounted them.
Even though the cabinets were lovely, I decided to just put a coat of Howard's Restore A Finish in Mahogany on there, mostly to ease out the scratches in the bottom. Those buffed out almost entirely. A final coat of Howard's Feed N Wax, and the cabs looked brand new.
The caps came in yesterday so I soldered those in and mounted them to the back. Remounted the woofer, installed some velcro on the grills and hooked them up on the main stereo which is a Parasound 2125 v2 (225wpc into 4 ohm) fed by my new Bluesound Node 2i. They sounded beautiful! Big, warm, and clean. Just like AR-3a's are supposed to sound. Except these sound even better than the one's I had before. Recall that these have a non-original tweeter. The previous tech removed the original tweeters and put in AB Tech Services tweeters. The bad news is that they're not original. The good news is that these are widely considered the best replacements. They were likely sourced from Vintage AR off ebay, which is a good thing. I've dealt with Vintage AR before and he knows his stuff and only provides the highest quality parts. These have the correct inductor already wired in and mounted to the back of them. So I'm going on record to say that the replacement tweeters sound better than the originals. Or at least sound better than what the originals sound like after 50 years. They're crisp and sweet and deliver additional detail that my others did not. Oh, and there is absolutely no noise or cutouts from the pots now, which is pretty amazing.
So I just wanted to let everyone know there is a happy ending to this story. I'm sorry you're not able to enjoy these now, KRG. But I sure am. And likely someone else will enjoy them after me, for at least another 50 years, if that's any consolation. These speakers are a joy to work on. If I had a steady stream of them coming in for restoration and I could make any money on it, I would quit my day job and toil along happily. And more importantly, they sound fantastic. While I own "better" speakers, I could be happy listening to these all day.
I was interested in this thread from the beginning because I have a great affection for AR-3a's (having much enjoyed restoring a previous set I bought on AK) and I was hoping someone could get them back to their former glory. Once I figured that I was only about 1.5 hours away from KRG and his price was low enough for me to take on the risk, I reached out and we made it happen. Thanks again for a pleasant transaction!I must say, these are fabulous examples. They were obviously well cared for throughout their life. The cabinets are probably 9.5 out of 10. The best I've seen, personally. Apart from one dented corner (a rear one, thankfully) and a couple of scratches on the bottom, they're mint. Even the original grill cloth is hanging in there, at least to the point where I didn't think it needed to be replaced just yet. So thankfully no cabinet refinishing is needed, as this is the most tedious part of restoring these speakers.
I got them home and hooked them up. Sure enough, they didn't sound quite right. They were pretty muddy and had the typical cutting in and out of the mids and tweeters. I was hoping there wasn't a more serious issue with the drivers as we all know replacements can be difficult (and expensive) to find. So I put them on the bench and went to work. I pulled the woofers and saw that they are the original ceramic-ferrite magnet woofers with a nice new refoam and dynamat sound deadening treatment to them, so that was a bonus. I cleaned off the mortite seal from the backs of the woofers and the cabinet and replaced with foam insulation tape. I also saw the original caps in there (the big, textbook-sized 150/50 combo and the candy bar 6uf). So that tells me these are either from 1969 or 1970. So I immediately cut the leads, removed the caps and duplicated my Parts Express order from a few months ago for another set of caps.
Next I opened up the pots (without desoldering them this time!) and found only a small amount of oxidation. Way less than on the other pair I restored, which surprised me considering the amount of dropouts I was hearing when I had them hooked up. I put the buffer wheel on the Dremel, shot some DeOxit in there and spent a couple minutes on each one to clean them up. They looked brand new when I was done. No pitting whatsoever. Applied some dialectric grease, buttoned those up and remounted them.
Even though the cabinets were lovely, I decided to just put a coat of Howard's Restore A Finish in Mahogany on there, mostly to ease out the scratches in the bottom. Those buffed out almost entirely. A final coat of Howard's Feed N Wax, and the cabs looked brand new.
The caps came in yesterday so I soldered those in and mounted them to the back. Remounted the woofer, installed some velcro on the grills and hooked them up on the main stereo which is a Parasound 2125 v2 (225wpc into 4 ohm) fed by my new Bluesound Node 2i. They sounded beautiful! Big, warm, and clean. Just like AR-3a's are supposed to sound. Except these sound even better than the one's I had before. Recall that these have a non-original tweeter. The previous tech removed the original tweeters and put in AB Tech Services tweeters. The bad news is that they're not original. The good news is that these are widely considered the best replacements. They were likely sourced from Vintage AR off ebay, which is a good thing. I've dealt with Vintage AR before and he knows his stuff and only provides the highest quality parts. These have the correct inductor already wired in and mounted to the back of them. So I'm going on record to say that the replacement tweeters sound better than the originals. Or at least sound better than what the originals sound like after 50 years. They're crisp and sweet and deliver additional detail that my others did not. Oh, and there is absolutely no noise or cutouts from the pots now, which is pretty amazing.
So I just wanted to let everyone know there is a happy ending to this story. I'm sorry you're not able to enjoy these now, KRG. But I sure am. And likely someone else will enjoy them after me, for at least another 50 years, if that's any consolation. These speakers are a joy to work on. If I had a steady stream of them coming in for restoration and I could make any money on it, I would quit my day job and toil along happily. And more importantly, they sound fantastic. While I own "better" speakers, I could be happy listening to these all day.
Attachments
Too bad about the tweeters.
But a happy end to the story.
Congrats to all parties for making it work.
I can't really add any more technical advice than Glenn and others have already provided.
Lawn chair quarterbacking at it's finest here, BUT... if anyone needs a source for restoring AR components to their original values, without replacing components, message me. It's not me, but I am happy to refer you to this person. Just don't want to broadcast his info without his permission. He did a SICK job restoring all 8 of these original AR tweeters for a set of LST-1s for a client. The client had the speakers "restored" by a different speaker shop in Massachusetts about 10 years ago where the paper domes were replaced by poly domes that didn't fit the voice coil openings. they also rewired the drivers incorrectly and out of phase with each other.
Not all audio repair shops are created equally, especially when it comes to speakers! Buyer beware!
But a happy end to the story.
Congrats to all parties for making it work.
I can't really add any more technical advice than Glenn and others have already provided.
Lawn chair quarterbacking at it's finest here, BUT... if anyone needs a source for restoring AR components to their original values, without replacing components, message me. It's not me, but I am happy to refer you to this person. Just don't want to broadcast his info without his permission. He did a SICK job restoring all 8 of these original AR tweeters for a set of LST-1s for a client. The client had the speakers "restored" by a different speaker shop in Massachusetts about 10 years ago where the paper domes were replaced by poly domes that didn't fit the voice coil openings. they also rewired the drivers incorrectly and out of phase with each other.
Not all audio repair shops are created equally, especially when it comes to speakers! Buyer beware!
I figured I would update this thread since I'm the new owner of these speakers, and if you were like me, you were losing sleep knowing that a pair of AR-3a's were not sounding the way they should.
I must say, these are fabulous examples. They were obviously well cared for throughout their life. The cabinets are probably 9.5 out of 10. The best I've seen, personally. Apart from one dented corner (a rear one, thankfully) and a couple of scratches on the bottom, they're mint. Even the original grill cloth is hanging in there, at least to the point where I didn't think it needed to be replaced just yet. So thankfully no cabinet refinishing is needed, as this is the most tedious part of restoring these speakers.
I got them home and hooked them up. Sure enough, they didn't sound quite right. They were pretty muddy and had the typical cutting in and out of the mids and tweeters. I was hoping there wasn't a more serious issue with the drivers as we all know replacements can be difficult (and expensive) to find. So I put them on the bench and went to work. I pulled the woofers and saw that they are the original ceramic-ferrite magnet woofers with a nice new refoam and dynamat sound deadening treatment to them, so that was a bonus. I cleaned off the mortite seal from the backs of the woofers and the cabinet and replaced with foam insulation tape. I also saw the original caps in there (the big, textbook-sized 150/50 combo and the candy bar 6uf). So that tells me these are either from 1969 or 1970. So I immediately cut the leads, removed the caps and duplicated my Parts Express order from a few months ago for another set of caps.
Next I opened up the pots (without desoldering them this time!) and found only a small amount of oxidation. Way less than on the other pair I restored, which surprised me considering the amount of dropouts I was hearing when I had them hooked up. I put the buffer wheel on the Dremel, shot some DeOxit in there and spent a couple minutes on each one to clean them up. They looked brand new when I was done. No pitting whatsoever. Applied some dialectric grease, buttoned those up and remounted them.
Even though the cabinets were lovely, I decided to just put a coat of Howard's Restore A Finish in Mahogany on there, mostly to ease out the scratches in the bottom. Those buffed out almost entirely. A final coat of Howard's Feed N Wax, and the cabs looked brand new.
The caps came in yesterday so I soldered those in and mounted them to the back. Remounted the woofer, installed some velcro on the grills and hooked them up on the main stereo which is a Parasound 2125 v2 (225wpc into 4 ohm) fed by my new Bluesound Node 2i. They sounded beautiful! Big, warm, and clean. Just like AR-3a's are supposed to sound. Except these sound even better than the one's I had before. Recall that these have a non-original tweeter. The previous tech removed the original tweeters and put in AB Tech Services tweeters. The bad news is that they're not original. The good news is that these are widely considered the best replacements. They were likely sourced from Vintage AR off ebay, which is a good thing. I've dealt with Vintage AR before and he knows his stuff and only provides the highest quality parts. These have the correct inductor already wired in and mounted to the back of them. So I'm going on record to say that the replacement tweeters sound better than the originals. Or at least sound better than what the originals sound like after 50 years. They're crisp and sweet and deliver additional detail that my others did not. Oh, and there is absolutely no noise or cutouts from the pots now, which is pretty amazing.
So I just wanted to let everyone know there is a happy ending to this story. I'm sorry you're not able to enjoy these now, KRG. But I sure am. And likely someone else will enjoy them after me, for at least another 50 years, if that's any consolation. These speakers are a joy to work on. If I had a steady stream of them coming in for restoration and I could make any money on it, I would quit my day job and toil along happily. And more importantly, they sound fantastic. While I own "better" speakers, I could be happy listening to these all day.
My dad and I lost our butts on these speakers, and while we probably could have worked on them, I just didn't have the time or knowledge. I've got a demanding full time job, first time house owner with lots of upkeep, young puppy, and a pile of speakers that need refoamed.
I had slightly higher offers from non-AK members, but I went with AK because I knew that whoever got them would take care of them, and more importantly, AKers are usually really good people. I'm glad to see the results of this thread. I'd love to someday hear what AR3A's are supposed to sound like.
BTW Rex, there's another pair in Fort Wayne for $600, I talked to him before I listed mine and my guess is he may go lower.
Same gent rebuilt a set for me for a restoration commission and they sounded great. He does great work!Too bad about the tweeters.
But a happy end to the story.
Congrats to all parties for making it work.
I can't really add any more technical advice than Glenn and others have already provided.
Lawn chair quarterbacking at it's finest here, BUT... if anyone needs a source for restoring AR components to their original values, without replacing components, message me. It's not me, but I am happy to refer you to this person. Just don't want to broadcast his info without his permission. He did a SICK job restoring all 8 of these original AR tweeters for a set of LST-1s for a client. The client had the speakers "restored" by a different speaker shop in Massachusetts about 10 years ago where the paper domes were replaced by poly domes that didn't fit the voice coil openings. they also rewired the drivers incorrectly and out of phase with each other.
Not all audio repair shops are created equally, especially when it comes to speakers! Buyer beware!
