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AR 98LS Info

Hey Madtech, just picked up a pair of these last weekend and was wondering how yours had progressed? Mine have a small tear at the corner of the grill on each of them but I'm not seeing any easy way to detach or remove the grill cloth, have you had any success in this?

I'm also smelling a light smell of burning plastic from them at higher volumes when using my vintage Realistic receiver; I'm theorizing that this receiver (maybe 50-60wps tops) doesn't have enough juice to drive them and is clipping potentially although I'm not hearing much audible distortion or issue. Can clipping occur without being audible? Do you think that is the cause?
 
mccarty350 said:
Hey Madtech, just picked up a pair of these last weekend and was wondering how yours had progressed? Mine have a small tear at the corner of the grill on each of them but I'm not seeing any easy way to detach or remove the grill cloth, have you had any success in this?

I'm also smelling a light smell of burning plastic from them at higher volumes when using my vintage Realistic receiver; I'm theorizing that this receiver (maybe 50-60wps tops) doesn't have enough juice to drive them and is clipping potentially although I'm not hearing much audible distortion or issue. Can clipping occur without being audible? Do you think that is the cause?
Click to expand...

I think these speakers need an amp with a lot of power and current, a 50-60wpc Realistic is going to be struggling badly, no wonder you can smell burning !!!!
 
The AR98LSs are 4 ohm speakers. I would avoid using your Realistic amplifier for fear of damaging your speakers, amplifier or both. You need an amplifier that can clearly handle 4 ohms. My AR's are still in the workshop waiiting for some time to get the re-foam started. I have the foams all I need now is the time!
 
My realistic STA-120 states that it can handle a 4 ohm load and specifies which terminals to connect 4 ohm loads to. However, I believe you are probably right that it's just too weak to drive these beasts. A friend is currently building me a 60wpc Baldwin based tube amp that should drive about any ohm load. Do you believe that this will be adequate? I have several other modern amps such as a 100wpc Yamaha and 100wpc Sony but I'm guessing that in reality they put out less juice than the realistic.

Thanks,

McCarty350
 
The tweeters on the TSW series can be disassembled, and the domes pushed out from behind with a Q-tip.

Alternately you can use a bit of tacky glue on a Q-tip to pull the domes out. the vacuum will work if you can control the amount and placement of suction.
 
Does anyone have crossover schematics for the 98LS out there? Have had immense problems finding them.

Thanks!

McCarty350
 
Speakers made it to the bench ! More pictures later tonight.

AR98LS_1.jpg
 
I debated about removing the thick paper gasket but I don't want to mess with original engineering. There must be some reason that it is there. These look like the original foams and the glue appears to be a clear silicone which sucks. I hope I can get the residue off the cone.

AR98LS_3.jpg


AR98LS_4.jpg


AR98LS_2.jpg
 
Double dust caps on the 8" woofer. I think I may just use the outer one and cut the inner one out entirely.

AR_10.jpg
 
Interesting. Your upper woofers look similar to the lower woofers in my AR94S that I just refoamed.

What do the graphics on the baffle say, any chance of a close-up photo?

How are you going to do the re-foam, shimming the voice coils or with a test tone?

Lee.
 
Woofers are done. Just waiting for some glue to show up in the mail to seal up the inner dust cap on the 8" drivers and it will be time to fire them up for the first time!

AR98LS_40.jpg
 
Madtech, your woofers have tons less corrosion than mine, mine have a lot of white patches on them and the baskets are pitted. Still sound great though. I have all the caps if you are still curious about what I bought and what values they are, I'm just afriad to recap these working through the speaker whole, all my other recaps have been done with crossovers that are removable. These are epoxied in so it will be doing soldering in a confined space which has intimidated me into waiting. I bought all Jantzen for the caps that were off the top of my head 12uf or under and NPE's from parts express for the larger caps.
 
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