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AR-2ax Speaker - what kind of wood veneer? Pine?

doctorolds said:
Damn, clean or not clean???
You can easily disassemble those pots to clean them properly, and if you didn't then they are not really cleaned and lubricated properly in my opinion!
They need a bit more attention I think? :dunno:
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Well, here we go…

Will I be embarrassed or prove myself to be correct?? Maybe embarrass the naysayers??

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So far, so good…

OMG!!!!!!

I was WRONG!!!

Look at all that hidden dirt and corrosion!!!

I’m thoroughly embarrassed!!!:bowdown:

I really thought I knew what I was talking about! I’ve been schooled, no doubt!

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And now for the second pot…. What will I find???? Guess I’d better apologize now!!

You good folks are right. Too dirty!
 
Bill S said:
I had pots that looked good but still didn't work well. Out of circuit with a probe on each of the 2contacts you should get zero at ctr, +15 ohms on one side and -15 ohms on the other side. Proper procedure is disassble and polish wiper to a shiney surface with 320-600 grit and finish up with a pencil ereaser. Coat wiper and coil with dielectric grease and reassemble. You do you though.
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Im still trying to figure out your advice here. All surfaces are already shiny and polished. No eraser rub downs needed. I can’t seem to get that +15 ohms, 0, and -15 ohms reading with the wiper in the center position, either…

Coat wiper and coil with dielectric grease? Why? That will turn to “gunk” over time as dust from the fiberglass batts collect on the grease. What a mess! I may coat the rivets with clear nail polish just to add some corrosion prevention. Since I have the shafts exposed, I’ll use a little bit of silicone grease on the shafts.

Looking at a Sony (STR-V4) receiver on my workbench, I’m wondering how many folks desolder and remove all their pots and switches, then disassemble each one, so they can “properly” clean them? Why not? As apposed to using Deoxit or CRC contact cleaner?

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HamboneF18 said:
Im still trying to figure out your advice here. All surfaces are already shiny and polished. No eraser rub downs needed.

Coat wiper and coil with dielectric grease? Why? That will turn to “gunk” over time as dust from the fiberglass batts collect on the grease. What a mess! I may coat the rivets with clear nail polish just to add some corrosion prevention. Since I have the shafts exposed, I’ll use a little bit of silicone grease on the shafts.

Looking at a Sony (STR-V4) receiver on my workbench, I’m wondering how many folks desolder and remove all their pots and switches, then disassemble each one, so they can “properly” clean them? Why not? As apposed to using Deoxit or CRC contact cleaner?

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I don't care what you do or dont do. I just thought you have them out, why not look at them as it takes 10 sec to open them. I have some that look like yours but they don't work well. I put in new 15 Ohm but I had to. If you don't, great. Now if your tweets dont work well you'll know why - the suspension adhesive has dried up on them. Maybe, maybe not. But you already know that.
 
Since my new caps won’t arrive for 5-6 more days, I’m going to put all the components back in. I’ll solder and heat shrink all the connections except the capacitor leads. I’ll temporarily hook up the original capacitor for protection. I’m going to hook this speaker up to a music source and see what does, and doesn’t work. The tweeter suspension seems to be compliant. But I won’t know if it works until I apply a music signal 5 kHz+.

Both of my pots work smoothly, reading smoothly on my LCR meter 0.3 ohms to 15 ohms, changing resistance as I rotate the wiper. No hiccups of 0 ohms, or high resistance, during the rotation. They settle nicely at 7.5 ohms in the center position.
 
Googling the 2ax schematic, I found many errors, and many more mod’d schematics out there. Since my pair had never been opened, never corrupted, I found it far easier to just trace the wires and write my own schematic that represents exactly what I actually have, from the AR factory. It’s much less confusing. Down the road, I may look at peoples mods.

Fact is, I’ve already figured out how I’m going to “fix” the phenolic dome tweeter, if it becomes an issue. Because “life” happens, I haven’t yet put a music signal to these. I plan to get to that this weekend. (I already mowed the lawn last night!) I’ve rebuilt no less than 7 tweeters so far for Polk speakers. I started out redesigning perfectly working tweeters for my old 1985 (I’m the original owner) Monitor 4s. I didn’t like the sound. These AR tweeters are very crude. The phenolic domes are heavy. But I want to give them a good listen first, as they may be perfect as is!

I’ve also done conversions of cone midranges to dome midranges. That may be something I want to look at, also.
 
Surprised to see my package from Parts Express today! So tonight I’ll change out the capacitors and try out one speaker. I haven’t touched the other speaker yet.

I bought 2 and 4 uF metal film 5%.
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For grins and giggles, I did some calculations on the reliability of the original capacitors, although I normally don’t do R&M for electronic components. I’m on the mechanical side of R&M for the NASA SLS. It amounted to 0.24 failures per million hours. Short circuit is the #1 failure mode. These drifted. These were beyond normal reliability 20 years ago. LOL! No surprise there!
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Listening to the one “internally refurbished” speaker. Sounds NICE! Clean, more detail than I expected. My first time to experience the AR sound! I’m impressed. These need breaking in, since it’s been many years since the tweeter moved in response to a music signal.

Next move is to make the baffle have a presentable appearance without the grill cover. I’ll use a razor scraper to shave off the old glue and smooth it up. Then carefully sand it, followed by a coat or two of satin black paint.
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HamboneF18 said:
Listening to the one “internally refurbished” speaker. Sounds NICE! Clean, more detail than I expected. My first time to experience the AR sound! I’m impressed. These need breaking in, since it’s been many years since the tweeter moved in response to a music signal.

Next move is to make the baffle have a presentable appearance without the grill cover. I’ll use a razor scraper to shave off the old glue and smooth it up. Then carefully sand it, followed by a coat or two of satin black paint.
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They are a very nice speaker when done up right.
 
HamboneF18 said:
I’ve been enjoying this speaker this evening. I switched my amp to mono and I’m just listening to this one speaker. It’s a little tricky getting the pots adjusted for balance in my room. But I’ve got them pretty much where I like them.

Here’s a sample:


https://youtube.com/shorts/hPa7-tz-ujY?feature=share
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So what are your conclusions for the issue with them at first? The pots were functioning fine you say. Caps had drifted but not more than 20%. Was that the contributor in your estimation?
 
All I know is that despite turning the pots over and over again, I got no sound from the tweeters, and very low output from the midrange drivers. Both speakers were the same as far as failure mode/sound. I haven’t touched the other speaker. I’ll make a video of it playing today..

Oh… And my boss says she wants black grill cloths. She really doesn’t like the old ‘60s, early ‘70s style grill cloths. Too dated for her tastes. Since she is letting me spend time and money on these, I need to accommodate her. I was surprised by that; she is 71 years old, and I figured she would want the retro look.
 
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HamboneF18 said:
All I know is that despite turning the pots over and over again, I got no sound from the tweeters, and very low output from the midrange drivers. Both speakers were the same as far as failure mode/sound. I haven’t touched the other speaker. I’ll make a video of it playing today..

Oh… And my boss says she wants black grill cloths. She really doesn’t like the old ‘60s, early ‘70s style grill cloths. Too dated for her tastes. Since she is letting me spend time and money on these, I need to accommodate her. I was surprised by that; she is 71 years old, and I figured she would want the retro look.
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Yes, that's odd. The cap drift is a problem but for them to pass very little sound? Glad you have them working. Once you have both in stereo you'll like them even more. They are stil reasonably priced compared to the 3s and don't give up that much.
 
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