Acoustic Research AR11 recap with pictures

avguytx

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Today's project was tackling the AR11's that I've had now for a few years. They already sounded pretty darn good with the original caps but I thought it time to go ahead and freshen them up some. I still need to build grills for them since the original foam grill had disintegrated onto the front baffle. The original owner had moved them from California to Texas and they had sat wrapped in cardboard/paper for God knows how many years. That alone was a project to clean up.

I replaced the original 120uf "can cap" with a 100uf and 15uf Bennic electrolytic cap in parallel...I went a little lower in value since these always seem to run high. The original 10uf and 40uf caps were replaced with Dayton 5% poly caps. The job was pretty straightforward with the exception being it was a bitch having to work down inside of the cabinet since the crossover board was glued and stapled to the floor of the cabinets. Awkward? Yes. Plus, the old yellow insulation is always a pleasure to have to work with. Ugh. But everything worked out well and I'm listening to them now with some Don Henley at the moment. Already listened to some Donald Fagen and some Ambrosia....nice, nice....very nice. The AR11's just kill my AR-2ax's in every regard and won't be leaving my collection. They are built solid and are just outstanding in so many ways. I had ordered some of the replacement felt tweeter rings from Madisound on an order a few months ago and put those on today, too. You can buy them from someone on Ebay for $13.95 each if you want to overpay for them....or order them from Madisound for $2.00 each which is probably what that seller does. They are just peel and stick, too.

Crossover network before
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Crossover network after. (Yes, this is the opposite cabinet once finished as I forgot to take a picture of the other before buttoning thing up and I was NOT going to remove that insulation again! :D The opposite color inductors give it away...I know.)
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Some pictures of the cabinets when I had refinished the front baffles a couple of years back before moving from Texas back to Arkansas.

This is a before shot and what the original foam grill looked like once it took residency on the front baffle.
Before.jpg


And a picture once all the crap was removed. Just a note to state the obvious...the foam surrounds have been redone and the center caps pulled out. They look darn good with drivers back in and the cabinets refinished. I'll take finished pictures of them once I take them to my buddy's house (which looks nicer...)
During.jpg


And, how the baffles looked once the holes were filled, sanded down, and painted a flat black color.
After.jpg
 
Amazing....I still have the "itchies" this morning from working on these speakers yesterday. I hate old fiberglass in speaker cabinets. Ugh...
 
It's just down to making new grills now on them. Maybe sometime over the summer I can build them since I'm not taking any classes.
 
Nice work, avg!

Maybe I will start trying to find out how to refinish my AR-5's this summer. They will look great afterwards.

Rome
 
I'm thinking about doing the same thing on the front baffles of my AR-2ax's, too. Most of those older ones had some ugly a$$ fronts on them for sure. I doubt I keep the 2ax's....just don't like the way they sound so there isn't any point in keeping them.
 
Yea, my cabs have some stains on them I would like to see gone & allow a more lustrous finish to shine forth. They don't have any scratches or gouges, just need some professional TLC.

The guy I got them from kept them in his garage & from the looks of them, it was a fair amount of time.

Rome
 
They look great now. It seems to me that once you get the baffles painted you are really on the way. There are things that can take those stains out without sanding. Read the stickies in the Speaker and DIY section about liquid restorers. I bet that's all you need. Those are looking fine!
 
Sheesh....there's a pair of original (or remakes) of the AR11 foam grills on Ebay right now with a starting bid of $89. I knew I should have bought that original pair that sold on there a couple of months ago for $47.
 
those are originals, and being sold by vintage-ar....a great resource for parts, but I've never seen anything offered by them at a price that I'd consider a deal...
 
Me either. Especially those felt trim rings that go around the tweeters for $13.95 each where Madisound sells them for $2.00. But, you gotta make a living somehow I guess.
 
Grills, did you ever redo the grills and how did they turn out?

Inquiring minds want to know.
 
Well, no....haven't gotten to the grills yet. I have to do all of my woodworking now over at my best friends house (since I moved back home to go to college..at 44 years old) as that's where my table saw is at. Plus, the dang heat this summer has been tough to want to work on them with heat index numbers being around 115 to 123 and humidity up around 80%+. Yet, we still seemed to end up working on his (recently turned) 16 year old sons' 1991 GMC Jimmy 2-door that was a ground up restoration. (it is suh-weet BTW) that I did the alarm/remote start on, a lot of electrical work, the majority of the stereo work including fiberglass/wood vinyl covered door panels, etc.

So long story short, no. :D My final semester of college starts in one week, too. But the temperatures have become more bearable this week and maybe we can sneak in a few hours to build them. I also need to rebuild part of one grill, and then recover both, on my Celestion Ditton 44's amongst other projects. Hmmm...
 
I have a pair of AR11s that I bought recently. They have what appears to be the original grilles. I can't say for sure since I haven't seen an AR11 in 30 years and then just briefly. Mine sound very good but not that much better than my AR2ax. The sound of the two, for me at least, depends on the music being played. I haven't pulled the woofers out yet so I don't know if the original caps are still in there. If I do mine I'll pull the crossover out of the speaker so I can see what I'm doing. I pulled them out of my AR2ax without any problem. I'll recap the next pair of your speakers for you if you'll do my AR9s. I need to refoam all six woofers on the 9s and do a cleanup on the cabinets (no dents, corner smashes or deep scratches) just a good general cleaning with Howards RAF. The wood around where the grilles is faded about two shades and I'm hoping Howards can take care of that. I think I'll have to have rotator cuff surgery soon so it may be a while before I do much of anything.
Your 11s are looking very nice. I agree with you about the messy looking boards behind the grilles of some early ARs. But AR never intended for us to be looking at the AR2ax uncovered. Thanks for your post. I'd like to see them when they're finished. By the way I'm playing my 11s with a 30watt tube receiver.
 
I have a really nice looking pair of AR-2ax's, too, that I went thru...refoamed woofers, new caps, pots are spotless, etc. But they sound completely lifeless in comparison to the AR11's. So, the 2ax's will be going away very soon as they'll never get played again. I tried to like them...I've had them for a few years and they've had their chance but, alas, no comparison. And that's with other ears hearing them side by side on same sources, music, etc. Don't get me wrong, the 2ax's sound ok but the 11's do it all better. Well, those and the rest of the speakers I have. But I was glad to give them a try so I know for myself...to my ears, anyway.
 
Since the OP recapped the Acoustic Research AR-11A I will continue the thread with few photos of my own recap of the Acoustic Research AR-11B. I won't open a new thread since the same spec caps are in both his and my speakers.

The difference is in the caps I used. These are an excellent quality film MKT caps made by Visaton Germany. I know people are used to seeing the Parts-Express typical Daytons, Solens etc. But European Audiophiles could use another good reference and these Visaton specially made crossover caps are an absolute gems I wholeheartedly recommend.

Considering I live in Macedonia and this European country is quite small, not the Alexander The Great's empire it once used to be. So with absence of a wealthy and glutenous empire I had to do by combining caps that were left in storage at my local electronic parts supplier - Loging Electronics Skopje.

Although Visaton makes a 10uF MKT cap I had to combine 1,5uF + 8.2uF to get as close as possible to HF cap of 10uF. Doesn't matter, it won't influence SQ if you combine caps to get to the desired specs. But don't drift further away than 5%.

OK. The specs :nerd:

LF: Callins 120uF/50V electrolytic cap replaced by - Visaton MKT 22uF/250V + Visaton electrolytic 100uF/65V

MF: Callins 40uF/50V electrolytic cap replaced by - Visaton MKT 33uF/250V + Visaton MKT 6.8uF/250V

HF: Callins 10uF/50V electrolytic cap replaced by - Visaton MKT 8.2uF/250V + Visaton MKT 1.5uF/250V

Whole batch for both crossovers skinned me for 85$ which I can survive.

Has the Sound Quality improved?

ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME????? There was NO Sound Quality, now there IS one. :guitar::rockon::rockon::rockon:

Here are few photos, unfortunately with a phone cam.

The caps to be installed.
1.jpg


The caps paired and twisted wires tinned with solder
2.jpg


Bit blurry but you can see that I used electricians tape to make them more compact and stable. We all know AR loved using that electricians tape. :D
3.jpg


The patient is on the operating table. I like my objects of fetish laying in horizontal.
4.jpg


Inside and the familiar sight of the soon to be replaced Callins electrolytic caps.
5.jpg


Visaton caps installed and fixated to the board with hot glue.
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The bachelor pad.
7.jpg


System A playing beautifully like never before with the new lungs on the AR-11s. :)
8.jpg


... and yes, those stands are chairs with speaker dampening and concrete slabs.

Big thanks to the OP for opening this thread.

Cheers,

Vlad
 
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Also a cool advice you might want to take in consideration is not to plug in your speakers to an amp directly after recap. Test them first with a multimeter for impedance and continuance or just do the old battery phase test. If you get the scratching noises from the HF and MF and the woofer moves forward, you're good to go. Just don't play loud music immediately. Ease in to it.
 
Nice job, I restored a set of 11B's and early 11's, I sold both pairs even though they were some of my favorite sounding speakers. I'm working on a pair of Heathkit AR-3a speakers at the moment, the drivers and crossovers look exactly like my early 11's. Enjoy those 11's, I miss mine alot but I have AR-12's which sound pretty close and look similar. :thmbsp:
 
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