Acoustic Research AR3a Help

[hake0015]

Hello,

Hoping for some help here. Purchased a restored set of AR3a’s recently. Speakers sound great except at medium to high volume, the cabinets start to distort. None of the drivers are distorting however. It’s more of an air resistance or leaking sound. Think (pfffffffff). If the midbase driver is unscrewed and pulled away from the cabinet a few inches (effectively creating a port) the distortion goes away and the speaker performs at the same volume. I am not looking to crank on these speakers, just want this noise to go away so I can enjoy them. Any help is greatly appreciated. I have done all the basic troubleshooting methods. All drivers are tightly and securely fastened.

 

[Stillhouse]

Do they have any sealing putty around the drivers? Woofer, mid and tweeter should all have it around them.

More in-depth info here:

https://community.classicspeakerpages.net/topic/4095-restoring-the-ar-3a/

 

[homebrew]

Cabinets don't distort. Sounds like a leaky driver seal. The 3a's are true acoustic suspension speakers which means they have to be sealed completely. Air leaks can be audible, especially at high volume.

 

[hake0015]

There is definitely no sealing putty around any of the drivers. Even at medium volume there is a steady stream of air emitting from the perimeter and wire holes in the tweeter. Sounds like I’ll be applying some putty which I’m guessing is referenced in the link you shared… thank you.

 

[Dswankey]

Purchased a restored set of AR3a’s recently.

There is definitely no sealing putty around any of the drivers.

Can you post some pictures of the speakers?

That's not a good sign that they are not sealed which leads me to believe whoever had them before you might of not known what they were doing if the didn't reseal them.

 

[GD70]

You’ll need to pull all the drivers, run a bead of sealing putty around each opening, then reinstall the drivers. Seems very odd that whom ever worked on them, didn’t do this. It’s a critical step in the reassembly.

 

[hake0015]

Looks like I came to the right place. Thank you speaker homeys. Is there a specific sealing putty I should be looking for?

 

[kryten79]

mortite or parts express plug duct seal or gasket strip tape (like weatherstripping)

 

[gkimeng]

These might be later versions that were assembled with foam gaskets rather than mortite, and whoever did the "restoration" either left them out during reassembly or didn't check to verify that they hadn't been compressed too much to make a proper seal anymore. Makes me wonder what else might not have been done right.