Thx Steve. Considering how much room positioning and acoustic character of each room matters, AR11 and AR12 are more alike than apart. Arkay recommends the 12s as the best ARs ever. So don't mourn over the 11s too much. :thmbsp:
Acoustic Research AR11 recap with pictures
- Thread starter avguytx
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Thx Steve. Considering how much room positioning and acoustic character of each room matters, AR11 and AR12 are more alike than apart. Arkay recommends the 12s as the best ARs ever. So don't mourn over the 11s too much. :thmbsp:
Yeah the 12's are great but man the cabinets turned out so good on the 11's that they were eye candy as well as ear. :yes:
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Yep, they are gorgeous with the walnut. :yes:
Mine need to be refoamed and a new protective coating on the bottoms (scratched). Otherwise they are perfect. The previous owner (and first owner) got sick of changing foam surrounds and used rubber ones instead. This ofc cuts down on sensitivity and that's somewhat of a luxury at 86db factory spec. When I get them back to foam surrounds they should sound perfect as they were meant to sound.
Mine need to be refoamed and a new protective coating on the bottoms (scratched). Otherwise they are perfect. The previous owner (and first owner) got sick of changing foam surrounds and used rubber ones instead. This ofc cuts down on sensitivity and that's somewhat of a luxury at 86db factory spec. When I get them back to foam surrounds they should sound perfect as they were meant to sound.
I have just completed an AR11 recap, refoamed one, built new grills, and unfortunately had to repair the cabinets where the courier dropped one (front top corner just to be really noticeable) which has meant I needed to stain them. Prior to the recap I did an a/b test with the 11's against the 12's (which have been recapped) and found little difference. After the recap using solen fast caps the sonic difference is incredible, the 11's have just so much more clarity the mids and highs sing and the extra bass is welcome and very controlled. The improvement in sound quality actually brought my girlfriend to tears when listening to K.D Lang as the subtle nuances of her singing where clearer. Anyone with old speakers that have not been recapped it is so worth the time and modest expense, recapping is not audiowoo it is simple electronics, the caps go out of spec over time and therefore the crossover frequencies get altered I revisited my soldering skills by first viewing a few youtube vids, and the grills used wood working lessons from when I was about 14.
I will post some pics later
Cheers
I will post some pics later
Cheers
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Hi again as promised here are some pics of my recent recap etc. As I said unfortunately the couriers dropped one speaker resulting in the damage shown, I did the best I could using polyfilla, sadly this has meant staining both boxes which is a shame as the walnut was in reasonable condition (and as you can probably see I am not good with a paint brush, I have since fixed up the light area on the front edge). I made the gaskets out of craft foam, by simply tracing around the outer edge of the drivers then cutting the centre out by placing the cut out foam into the boxes and cutting around the inside edges of the cabinet. (this method means no greasy putty etc). For the tweeter dispersion rings I just got some felt and cut it out.
For the recap I used solen fast caps, from madisound, I live in Australia and the local Melbourne dealer wanted around A$500 for the caps and they were not even the exact UF, madisound supplied them including freight for A$160 and they were here in 5 days plus they were all the correct values so no pairing and soldering. The stands were made by a friend of mine, I think they maybe a couple of inches too high so I will experiment and then ask nicely :ntwrthy:
The refoam was simple, just follow the instructions.
So there you have it, a wonderful pair of speakers for a fraction of the cost of a comparable modern pair.
For the recap I used solen fast caps, from madisound, I live in Australia and the local Melbourne dealer wanted around A$500 for the caps and they were not even the exact UF, madisound supplied them including freight for A$160 and they were here in 5 days plus they were all the correct values so no pairing and soldering. The stands were made by a friend of mine, I think they maybe a couple of inches too high so I will experiment and then ask nicely :ntwrthy:
The refoam was simple, just follow the instructions.
So there you have it, a wonderful pair of speakers for a fraction of the cost of a comparable modern pair.
Attachments
SoundOfSound
Super Member
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
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!The opposite color inductors give it away...I know.)
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.
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...)
And, how the baffles looked once the holes were filled, sanded down, and painted a flat black color.
Did you do this with spray paint? ...I may have to refinish the front of some speakers, this looks nice. :thmbsp:
g-man02tii
G-Man
About fifteen years ago, the edges of my AR-11 speakers were looking like yours. I was living in So Cal at the time so I took my speakers to Orange County Speaker where they re-edged my speakers and tested everything. They are currently sounding awesome with my stereo. The speakers weigh a ton and I would think shipping them to OC Speaker would cost a fortune, glad I was local to them at the time. I'm the original owner of them, bought them in 1980 when I was in the Air Force stationed in Germany. I have the original grilles, can't get them to stay on, tried velco, etc.. and they keep falling off.
G-Man
G-Man