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AR-11 tweeter question?

navmark

navmark

Where words fail, music..
Hey everyone,

I'm going through a pair of AR-11 speakers that I bought at an estate sale and cleaning them up. Going to be rebuilding the crossovers, doing the cabinets, and the re-conning the woofers. Everything is original ( early AR-11's ) and I noticed that one of the speakers has a yellow tweeter and the other one has a black tweeter. I noticed one speaker seems to have sharper highs then the other. But that may be the cross overs? I was thinking of trying to find a match to one of them? Does anyone have an opinion about what I should do if anything? Or about the two different tweeter. They both have AR part numbers.

I appreciate anyone's advice or opinion:dunno::dunno:!!!
 
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The black one was probably a replacement or it's from a later model there is a listing for nos tweeters on ebay from vintage ar but they are not cheap
 
I'm currently at work and not going to be home for another week. Sorry for not being able to get the part number. I would assume the yellow one may be from early model or AR-3? The black one from when they changes to the brass badges, and went to the black badges. I can hear a bit of a difference between the two, but back further back in the room the pair sounds really good, maybe I'm being OCD about it. I did read I think though that the early tweeter, the yellow one I think. May not have ferrofluid and the black ones did? So they may sound similar but if I push the volume over time it may blow the yellow tweeter? Again open to any suggestions.
 
navmark said:
I'm currently at work and not going to be home for another week. Sorry for not being able to get the part number. I would assume the yellow one may be from early model or AR-3? The black one from when they changes to the brass badges, and went to the black badges. I can hear a bit of a difference between the two, but back further back in the room the pair sounds really good, maybe I'm being OCD about it. I did read I think though that the early tweeter, the yellow one I think. May not have ferrofluid and the black ones did? So they may sound similar but if I push the volume over time it may blow the yellow tweeter? Again open to any suggestions.
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The early AR-11's I once owned had the yellow tweeters, the later 11B's had the black if I remember correctly. Both yellow tweeters were blown, and I had to replace them. They should pretty much have the same sound though if working properly.
 
navmark said:
May not have ferrofluid and the black ones did? So they may sound similar but if I push the volume over time it may blow the yellow tweeter? Again open to any suggestions.
Click to expand...

That is correct. The yellow tweeter was used in the earlier AR-11 series and has no ferrofluid. The black dome version was used in the later AR-11 "B" series.

It is not unusual for AR enthusiasts to prefer the yellow dome version. It has been speculated that this is due to the possibility of old ferrofluid issues in the later black dome version.

The NOS tweeter being sold by Vintage AR is actually the AR-9 tweeter, and works well as a replacement, but it is not an exact match to either original AR-11 tweeter.

Roy
 
Thank you so much guys for your knowledge. I did look in the forums everywhere for a couple weeks amd gained as much knowledge first. But still had some doubts. Thanks for the clarifications. I guess I'll see if I can find another yellow one. Or use the ar-9 ones. Or find a black one. Choices. Hmmm.
 
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