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AR2 trouble shoot

K

Kuzmanoff

New Member
Hi all
Have a set of mismatched AR2 One has oil caps one has the yellow box caps
I re-sealed both woofers and cleaned the controls
The oil caps speaker sounds great. The other one sounded scratchy with no depth
I replaced the box caps with comparable. Still sounds bad…. Any suggestions /advice

Also wondering why the box cap speaker has a strange double stacked pot?
Thanks
 
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It's matter of swapping components to isolate the bad one. First swap the speakers right/left. Does the issue follow the speaker? If no then it's an amp/system issue. If yes then try swapping the tweeters then woofers. If after swapping the drivers and the issue remains in the same speaker then it's a safe bet it's something on the crossover.
 
Thanks for the reply
Definitely not the amp… tried on two different amps. Can’t swap since I sealed up the good speaker already.
Hope I wired the caps correctly?
I connected the common / blue ground to both caps on one end. Then the 2 mfd cap to the black wire and the 6 mfd cap to the green wire .
Can someone verify if this is correct?
 
The tweeter pair might be bad. The cones of the angled large tweeter/midranges in the original 2 often became distorted over time because of the fiberglass against them, and over the more than half a decade since they were produced, they may have given up the ghost. Did you play them before you started fixing them? Did the currently bad speaker work then?
I'm trying to remember details, but it isn't easy. I bought my first pair of speakers in 1974 - an AR 2 and an AR 2a. I converted both of them to the X model with the panel that AR sold that had the little fiberglass covered tweeter/midrange. Even at the time, they were old. I remember reading reviews of the early AR 2 in Consumer Reports in the archives of the library that commented that using the treble control changed the impedance of the speaker, with full output having a very low impedance. That might not have been a problem with tube amps, but it would have been with solid state, and perhaps the stacked pots are an early version of an Lpad, which is what speakers now use to maintain consistent impedance while varying tweeter output.
 
Thanks
If I just connect the tweeter and not the woofer it actually sounds ok. Weak but clear

I am wondering now if the woofer is bad?

Can / do they go bad? Hmmmm?
 

Foam Guard-Speaker Cone Edge Sealer, White PVA, MI-1291FG​


Ordered from simply speakers.. worked great.

Where are you located?
 
I have a pair of Heathkit AS-2 which are pretty much their DIY version of the AR-2. Crossover caps and pot are different but same drivers and cabinets. When I got mine, 3 of 4 mid-range drivers were blown. Possibly because someone cranked up the volume when the caps were way out of spec. Anyway, there are better replacements out there for the mids, which roll off at about 11 KHz. Or converting to a 3-way seems another great solution.
 
Does it sound scratchy when you push the cone, evenly ?

You may have wired the woofer out of phase ( as you mentionned you may did ).
If it does sounds scratchy, try putting the whole speaker upside down for a couple of days.
The woofer's coil may realign.

The best of luck, there !
 
Checked out the woofer and if appears that the voice coil is fine…. It moves freely and the spider is attached.

Back to square one. Any advice?
 
Only thing in the signal path to the woofer is a coil. Could always try putting a jumper around it. They rarely go bad but who knows after 60 years!

Oops, should have said Inductor!
 
Last edited:
Kuzmanoff said:
Checked out the woofer and if appears that the voice coil is fine…. It moves freely and the spider is attached.

Back to square one. Any advice?
Click to expand...

I thought you already isolated the issue to the woofer when you disconnected it? The only other thing involved is the woofer circuit inductor. Maybe swap those between speakers?
 
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