AR58s yes or no?

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.
Well to be fair I do have them lifted about 6" off the floor, and about 2' from the front wall so no real bass reinforcement, and I understand these were designed to be against the wall and either on the floor or horizontally in a bookshelf. Most likely if placed on the floor and pushed against the wall the bass would drastically improve in output, but not necessarily in quality.

The amplification could also be playing a role as the seller had them powered with a Sansui when auditioned. He even had the highs turned up a bit, so I adjusted the controls to flat and they sounded rather dark, I assume why he tweaked the treble.

Currently driving them with my Kenwood KA7300 Integrated, so might put one of my Belles 1 amps in line with the Kenny only pulling preamp duty. Ran my Heresys this way biamped with twin Dynacos and liked the results, especially with the twin Dayton subs.

But again, I'm trying to avoid using the subs so either these will break in and get me where I want to go, will be powered by the Belles and improve, or the Jamos and subs go back into rotation and the AR's will be moved on. I realize I'm just being picky, most would probably give their right arm to have these awesome speakers, maybe I'm just getting spoiled having subs.

It's a tough world having so many great options to choose from lol.
 
mine are on the floor, 6" from the wall, and there's no lacking of bass....well there is now, as the marantz2265 I drive them with has a bad cap in the power supply board and needs to be repaired....d:
 
So far as popping the dome out. I've had good success using a screen shaped to fit the dome placed between the dome and the vacuum.
 
Apparently the new woofer surrounds are beginning to break in, the bass is becoming less wooly and at the same time punchier. I'm also wondering if these speakers sat idle for some time due to the woofer surrounds being in need of repair. The reason I say this, it seems the midrange and tweeter are also breaking in, becoming smoother and more musical the more I use them.
 
Interesting. I thought my 18's were pretty thumpy for 8" small box speakers but are mellowing out with playing hours after the refoam. I also have backed off the -3db switch to flat after thinking they were too bright earlier. With all the foam gone, gone, gone I'm sure these sat for a very long time before I started using them.
 
Apparently the new woofer surrounds are beginning to break in, the bass is becoming less wooly and at the same time punchier. I'm also wondering if these speakers sat idle for some time due to the woofer surrounds being in need of repair. The reason I say this, it seems the midrange and tweeter are also breaking in, becoming smoother and more musical the more I use them.

caps if sitting idle for a long time will reform after use....
 
Update, the speakers have settled in nicely, positioning playing a big role as usual with any speaker. These were voiced at a time when it was the norm not to toe in the speakers, this really smoothed out the response and opened up the soundstage even more.
 
As mentioned in another thread, I've spiked the speakers, the bass is now what I was hoping for, no subs needed. All told the speakers are about 11" off the floor, the imaging is superb, my lady is proffering comments without my asking. Normal response has always been "it always sounds nice", this is why her comments are so telling.

I can't say enough about how much adding the spikes to the speakers made them so much better, and not just the bass.
 
58s in the House!! Finally!....Well as far as the garage anyway. I finally got them home from Wisconsin. (post#34) All drivers work and they sound as good as can be expected up on horses pushed by a small Denon. Dang, those things are heavy! I've got to make some room before I bring them inside for some critical listening. The cabs should be OK but need refinishing. There's some big veneer chips around the base I can't fix easily. I'm thinking of making some special stands that have a lip to cover the chipped veneer, easier I think. The grilles have a bad case of cat scratch fever I will need to order some brown. The drivers all look to be in good shape, frequency separation seems OK but I still plan on rebuilding the crossovers. One of the spring connectors is broken I'll probably just replace them all with binding posts. The tweeters look original but are different from other pics on this thread. Any input? I won't know for sure until I pull them and check the numbers. I have some nice 10" 3-ways (Infinity Qb and Nova 7) but these are my first 12". I will surely put them through a head to head later. I can't wait! Of course I brought out the 18's for a little stack fest.

 

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58s in the House!! Finally!....Well as far as the garage anyway. I finally got them home from Wisconsin. (post#34) All drivers work and they sound as good as can be expected up on horses pushed by a small Denon. Dang, those things are heavy! I've got to make some room before I bring them inside for some critical listening. The cabs should be OK but need refinishing. There's some big veneer chips around the base I can't fix easily. I'm thinking of making some special stands that have a lip to cover the chipped veneer, easier I think. The grilles have a bad case of cat scratch fever I will need to order some brown. The drivers all look to be in good shape, frequency separation seems OK but I still plan on rebuilding the crossovers. One of the spring connectors is broken I'll probably just replace them all with binding posts. The tweeters look original but are different from other pics on this thread. Any input? I won't know for sure until I pull them and check the numbers. I have some nice 10" 3-ways (Infinity Qb and Nova 7) but these are my first 12". I will surely put them through a head to head later. I can't wait! Of course I brought out the 18's for a little stack fest.

Congrats, you're going to like them. I haven't seen every AR so I could be wrong but I would venture to say the tweets are not original.
 
Congrats, you're going to like them. I haven't seen every AR so I could be wrong but I would venture to say the tweets are not original.
Agree. Otherwise they look very good. Add an application of Watcos and they should clean up nicely.
 
Thanks GD. I don't have the time or the talent to do a cabinet restore par with your work but I'll show 'em some love.
 
Suitable tweeters are almost always available on eBay. AR9's, 90's, 91's, 92's, 915's, and 925's all use the same tweeters as the 58S. So, easy to find. But new tweeters will probably cost as much as the speakers. Worth it though. Enjoy.
 
those tweets aren't original, they're hivi K1's.

http://www.hivi.us/products/ProductEva.aspx?pid=100000091866230

don't stack and wire them in parallel, the AR 12 woofers drop under 4ohm (3.8ish?) inductance at resonance, IIRC. wiring them in parallel even with an 8 ohm speaker will give you potentially a 2.5 ohm, amp frying load.

if redoing the grilles, I did mine in AR3 style linen, they look fantastic. I wish I would have run a 1/2" chamfer on the grilleboards similar to the ADD style foam grilles....

I refoamed, recapped, and refinished mine, are driven by a marantz 2265 and are fantastic
 
If you plan to stack, wire in series with these. I'd also bee on the hunt for correct tweeters. You can sell the HIVis to recoup some of the cost.
 
Reawakening an old thread I finally moved these into the house and I gotta agree with you all these 58s have it going on. A little bright and not as much bass as I would like but I think the the woofers are re-breaking in from sitting idle or maybe still breaking in from the refoam prior to me getting them. Does anyone know the number of the correct 58s tweeter? It seems to be fairly proprietary in the AR line of similar speakers. I'll be opening them up soon and checking the other drivers, etc.

Just what I need....another pair of speakers I'm falling in love with. Somethings gotta give.
 
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