StimpyWan
Addicted Member
Which capacitors? Anything fancy? Oh yea, which binding posts did you use? (Did I ask you this before? It seems familiar. Too many brain cells gone to remember).
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AR58s yes or no?
- Thread starter Grenadeslio
- Start date
Which capacitors? Anything fancy? Oh yea, which binding posts did you use? (Did I ask you this before? It seems familiar. Too many brain cells gone to remember).
Grenadeslio
Lunatic Member
Well not that cheap, $275 but way less than I was expecting for real wood AR 3 ways. Seller says all the drivers are working and he's not bothered by the midrange issue, I'll give them a listen, see if I can affect some sort of fix, then decide if driver replacement is necessary.
Grenadeslio
Lunatic Member
Well if only a dented dustcap then I would agree, but the dome is the actual diaphragm and any deformation will affect output SQ. As the midrange covers the largest part of the audio spectrum it's SQ will play the largest roll in the speakers systems SQ as a whole.
If the output from one midrange is affected enough I would think it akin to having different drivers in the two speakers and soundstage could definitely suffer even if overall SPL doesn't.
Grenadeslio
Lunatic Member
Well, we have an update on my recent speaker buying extravaganza.
The little lady just put her foot down on all the audio gear, apparently I'm not going to be homeless, I'm just going to have to get her a BIGGER house lol. I'm screwed.
The little lady just put her foot down on all the audio gear, apparently I'm not going to be homeless, I'm just going to have to get her a BIGGER house lol. I'm screwed.
Soooo, no AR58's for you? Bummer.
Grenadeslio
Lunatic Member
Oh no, I'm getting the speakers, she just laid down the law, if we're going to keep getting audio gear we need more room......for the audio gear heh heh heh.
The I'm screwed meant "oh shit, I hate moving, and of course bigger means more $$$$$$$$$" otherwise it's a huge win for this insane audio nut lol.
StimpyWan
Addicted Member
Fudge! I was just getting ready to head out for another pair of 58's...!
Glad to hear they'll find a home with you. Enjoy. 
michiganpat
Super Member
binding posts from parts express, caps were a mix from PE and madisound....IIRC films for less than ~40 uF, NPE's for bigger values
pretty sure these were the binding posts
https://www.parts-express.com/parts...y-speaker-wire-binding-post-terminal--260-302
Grenadeslio
Lunatic Member
Well with traffic my 2 1/2 hr drive turned into 3 1/2, one way, but the eagle has landed. The speakers are home, connected, and already warming up. Too soon to give a real evaluation, will listen and tweak placement through the weekend and post my thoughts on their merits then.
On the tweaked midrange dome, it looked much worse in the pictures, must have been the lighting / angle.
On the tweaked midrange dome, it looked much worse in the pictures, must have been the lighting / angle.
Were you able to pop it out?
Grenadeslio
Lunatic Member
Really didn't need to, it wasn't that bad. The seller wasn't there, I met with his son so it's possible the seller popped the dome back out.
Picked up a couple of small wood stools about 6" high on the way home to use as stands to raise the tweets to ear level. Right now enjoying some boxing on Showtime through them so not the best thing for speaker evaluation lol. Although the punches do seem to be landing with pretty good authority.
Listening to them sans subwoofers, the whole point to this experiment. My lady and I have decided to clean things up with the living rm system. Went from biamped Heresys sitting on the Twin Dayton subs, to the Jamo C103's sitting on the same subs. Looked better but still an awful lot going on with all the cabling etc.
Was wanting to go with a pair of Jamo C109's sans the subs, and if I catch Amazon running a sale on the gloss black or walnut finished models I will. But for now I'm hoping these will get me there until that happens.
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I don’t think you’ll need subs with the ARs. They are known to have great punchy deep bass. I have 5 pairs of ARs!
Good to hear the tweeter is a non issue.
Glenn
TomBig58
Super Member
I will be adding to this thread at some point in the future as I too have recently purchased some AR58s. Totally by chance I spotted them in an out of town CL ad ( I'm in Chicago and they were in Madison WI). Since we are talking dollars in this thread I will mention I recently picked a pair or AR18's for $30 and refoamed them. They're the model with the -3db high level switch in the rear and I love them with my low watt tube amp in an office setup. Now I see what the fuss was about! They are real nice little speakers.
Anyway the 58s were kind of a throw in with a mid level Pioneer surround receiver with HDMI, microphones, etc. listed for $110. There were no pics of the speakers but he mentioned they were recently refoamed and also one had a woofer buzz that would go away by fiddling with the rear wiring connection. I got him to add some pics to the listing and they do look decent enough. I'm not really interested in the receiver but at that price I figured I can't go wrong. A friend of mine who lives up that way was nice enough to make the transaction for me so all the gear is safely stored at his house until I go up for a visit. With a skittish seller (he wouldn't text or contact me by phone) and my buddy who never made any kind of CL transaction ( they met in a parking lot haha) I consider myself lucky I was able to even make this happen. I can't wait to get them home and give them the once over and a good listen. I will certainly add to this thread when I do.
Anyway the 58s were kind of a throw in with a mid level Pioneer surround receiver with HDMI, microphones, etc. listed for $110. There were no pics of the speakers but he mentioned they were recently refoamed and also one had a woofer buzz that would go away by fiddling with the rear wiring connection. I got him to add some pics to the listing and they do look decent enough. I'm not really interested in the receiver but at that price I figured I can't go wrong. A friend of mine who lives up that way was nice enough to make the transaction for me so all the gear is safely stored at his house until I go up for a visit. With a skittish seller (he wouldn't text or contact me by phone) and my buddy who never made any kind of CL transaction ( they met in a parking lot haha) I consider myself lucky I was able to even make this happen. I can't wait to get them home and give them the once over and a good listen. I will certainly add to this thread when I do.
Grenadeslio
Lunatic Member
Well, the preponderance of the reviews online mentioned they were bright and the only con was the lack of midrange and treble controls as on the AR11's. There were some that thought they were nice and punchy.
So I was thinking, hell I love my Heresys and don't find them bright in the least so how could I go wrong either way. Well these are bright, not as much as the Jamo C103's right out of the box but once the Jamos broke in I didn't find them bright at all. Now that was "with" the subs so......
But as I said, the whole point to this was removing the subs from the system. All that said, the ad mentioned the woofers had "new" surrounds so maybe just a break in issue, hopefully not a "these are the wrong surrounds" issue lol.
Will be running them pretty constantly over the next couple of weeks so will follow up then.
StimpyWan
Addicted Member
I never found my AR's bright. Whether my AR90's or my AR58S speakers. The dome midrange is a strong driver, capable of very clear mids. And the 58's frequency response isn't tailored to deliberately roll off, like 3's and 3a's. So, they don't hide anything in the music. It comes through, warts and all. Plus, a good front end helps, due to the resolving nature of the speakers. Give them time. I hope they grow on you?
Also, I don't know if you're the type to recap vintage speakers, as general maintenance? My AR90's used red/black Callins capacitors. They didn't age well, and the sound suffered for it. But my 58's used Unicon caps. The Unicon's held up much better. They still sounded great, on first listen. They may be fine as-is for you? Though, fresh capacitors would probably help tame the brightness too. They use 4uF and 24uF series caps, and 8uF, 40uF, and 100uF parallel shunt caps.
Also, I don't know if you're the type to recap vintage speakers, as general maintenance? My AR90's used red/black Callins capacitors. They didn't age well, and the sound suffered for it. But my 58's used Unicon caps. The Unicon's held up much better. They still sounded great, on first listen. They may be fine as-is for you? Though, fresh capacitors would probably help tame the brightness too. They use 4uF and 24uF series caps, and 8uF, 40uF, and 100uF parallel shunt caps.
StimpyWan
Addicted Member
Once I finish my AR90 refurb, I'm going to do that exact thing. I already have the crossovers. Though, you need the AR91 crossovers, to match the 58S's. The 92 crossover is different. One less capacitor, and an 80uF instead of a 100uF, on the bass shunt. A different inductor too. It's confusing when looking for the correct crossovers, as the boards are marked AR 91/92, since the same masonite board is used for both crossovers.
I did not realize the difference between the 91 and 92 crossover. Different inductor and shunt cap value makes perfect sense seeing how one is a 12 in woofer and the other a 10 in. Recently put together a collection of parts to put together some AR58S's. Woofers from some 11B's, midranges and crossovers from some 91's and tweeters from some 58S's. Just need the cabinets, or maybe I will try to make some reproductions.The boards do say 91/92 and sure fooled me. Assume nothing.
StimpyWan
Addicted Member
Most eBay sellers don't realize the differences either. That's how I ended up with AR92 crossovers, when I ordered what was advertised as 91 boards. Still, I can use my 58 boards, to mod them into something that will work.
Oh yea, the AR91 crossovers have 5 capacitors, with the 100uF bass shunt. The 92's have 4 capacitors, with an 80uF bass shunt. So, it's generally easy to tell which is which. As long as you have decent pictures to go by.
