• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

AR2s found - worth going for?

Kencat

Kencat

Super Member
Hey all,

My good wife saw some ARs in an unlikely little antique/collectible shop, and gave me a call at work. I stopped by (picked up some french fries at the truck next door) and saw that they were AR2s. Both papers on the back of one and one paper on the other. The cabs have been refinished and look good - dark color. Look like original grill material from pictures I've seen while researching tonight. No badges though :worried:

No idea what drivers are inside or if they work. The terminals on the back are in good shape, and the straps are in place.

35$ CDN.

Whaddaya think ? :scratch2:
 
Register to hide this ad
Ken if there's nothing seriously wrong with the drivers, there's not a lot else to go wrong with them. Pretty straight-forward and durable little speaker, and since it's a first-gen AR, they should be a pleasing listen too. They're also likely to be cloth surrounds as old as they are, and if so, the woofers are going to be just about as durable as a driver can be made to be. I own two pair of AR's with cloth surrounds, and they're killer speaks. A re-cap and giving the level controls a good going over is usually about all that's called for.

Oh yeah, that's a pretty good price also!
 
I paid $50.00 for mine. Cabinets are scratched but no dings or any other damage. If you are a fan of AR's it is a good price.

cubdog
 
I'm real tempted to take a chance on these. Those bloody grills are stapled on so no way I can check to see what's inside. These are way out of place in this little shop with antiqy furniture and nick knacks...doubt the owners even know what a tweeter is.

yup, for 35 bucks....think I'll take a gamble and see what might happen. They are definitely a little slice of speaker history....and I think in my neck of the woods, they might be the last old ARs I'll ever see.

Might be good for a little more discussion on the ole forum eh?
 
cubdog said:
I paid $50.00 for mine. Cabinets are scratched but no dings or any other damage. If you are a fan of AR's it is a good price.

cubdog
Click to expand...

Well, I don't know if I'm a fan yet....as I've never heard any. Guess I need to give em a try.

Do you like yours cubdog? How would you describe the sound?
 
I'm with you Kencat. That's what its all about. Get something cool and have a good time playing with what you found. I would go for it for sure, but Ross would remind you that I buy just about everything I see. Maybe, but I'm sure having a good time!

Take care,

Ed
 
Ken not to put a damper on things but I don't care for mine. But I also don't like my Large Advents :sigh: Oh well, they will be going away soon anyway. They do have alot of fans, just don't fit my ear I guess.

cubdog
 
The next time you go to check them out Ken, bring a bright little flashlight with you. You should be able to see what condition the drivers are in right through the grills. The 35 bucks is a very fair price indeed. Be prepared that they will be much different than what you're used to litening too (your Mach's and HPM's). They will have a much warmer sound compared to those speakers, but I think you will be very pleased :yes:
 
Grayhouse said:
The next time you go to check them out Ken, bring a bright little flashlight with you. You should be able to see what condition the drivers are in right through the grills. The 35 bucks is a very fair price indeed. Be prepared that they will be much different than what you're used to litening too (your Mach's and HPM's). They will have a much warmer sound compared to those speakers, but I think you will be very pleased :yes:
Click to expand...


Hi there Grayhouse....good to hear from you again. warmer sound you say ? Sounds like they may be like my old trusty Optimus 5Bs. I like your flashlight idea. I have one of those mega zillion candle power spotlights that plug into a car lighter plug....would that do ? Don't think I can get the car close enough though....dang. Maybe a good thing, the spotlight might fry the drivers from such a close range :lmao:

Sounds like another project coming up though :D
 
I would go for it. Bought mine new in the 50's and still have them, though I have had to make repairs and since they were birch, both have been refinished. Parts are available on ebay every so often, so repairs or driver replacement is possible. The hardest part of making repairs is getting the grill cloth off without damage. I finally bought a pair of 2ax grills and now they look and sound great!


Clyde
 
Ken the only negative thing I can say about the AR speakers that I've been exposed to (AR-4x's - AR-3's) is that first-gen AR's tend to fall a little flat when it comes to hard rock. With Jazz, Country, Classical, Vocal stuff they are killer, but the response seems a little dull with SOME rock. Funny thing is, I can't say as a really blame the speakers, I think it has way more to do with the recordings. I have some rock recordings that are killer on my AR's.
 
They're Home !

Well,.....I scooped them up and brought them home. Actually, my wife picked them up. I think they are now hers... :D ......she's starting to get into this too I think. She was all worried when I brought out the multimeter explaining that we should make sure the resistance reading was ok so we didn't risk blowing up the Denon. She said she hoped she didn't buy some duds.

Readings were about 6.5 Ohms on both with the straps on....good to go. Hooked them up and ........damn, they work. Plug and play 35 + yr old speakers. Cool. Had them on the floor in front of the Machs and not very near any walls. Put on the Metallica Black album CD (figured I'ld give em a real good thashing out of the box, not real loud though).......these guys do bass, nice bass. Deeper than the HPM-60s I think. YUP. Just put them on top of the Machs and put on Metallica. I thought they would lose the bass support from the floor....nope. This is clean punchy down-low bass. Magical. The electric guitar riffs are clean , voice is clear and audible but not forward. Highs....hmmm.

May have a problem with one of the speakers that is coloring my liking of the high end. These speakers, unfortunately are not near each other in serial number. One is B5069 and the other is B60XXX. There are differences in the terminal area cover plate, and the pot knobs are different. Surprisingly, the older one seems to work best, with the pot working, and the treble is not bad.

The other newer one has a pooched pot I think. Rotating it, it feels lifeless, and I don't detect any change in the highs. The high end volume is subdued.

Based on the good one, the highs could be acceptable, but no where near the Mach2 or HPM-60's. In fact I wish the HPMs had the bass of the AR2's...that would be nearly the perfect speaker I think, cause the mid and highs on the HPMs are real clean and crisp.

These are first impressions. More listening needed, but I'll also have to address the pot on the one speaker. I read about redoing capacitors and stuff as well, which is new territory for me. Are the caps definitely gone at this point on these speakers?

I'll start by taking off the grills I guess and see what shape the drivers are in. Too bad, these a new grills that someone has very nicely done actually. No idea at this point how the drivers come out or how to get inside the box to the pot/crossover. Any prior experienced help would be appreciated.

I'll get some pics up as well when grills come off.
 
The pots are likely not shot, the contacts are just covered in a lovely green crusty substance I have come to call AR rust. They should clean up with some scrubbing & DeOxit, and a little dielectric grease. Caps are probably no where near as fresh as they should be, but the only to know for sure is test them. Access is through the woofer opening, once removed along with all the fiberglass insulation, you'll be able to get at the crossover. There are a couple of really good walkthroughs posted here in the speaker forum, Grayhouse did a real good one with pictures, and I think there are a couple more as well. I think all of them were on AR-3's or 3a's, but the process is almost identical.

Good luck, keep us up on how they go - BTW, if they have new grill cloth, there's a fair chance they won't be stapled or glued down. Go easy with them and they should just pop out. Only danger is that the frames are pretty brittle.
 
Congrats, Ken. You got the AR bug now and there's no shaking it. Wait untill you land yourself a pair of 3's, or better yet 3a's (a superb rock speaker). The bass on my Mach's and Altec's still pale in comparison.

It deffinently sounds like your L-pad needs some attention in that one speaker. It's a very simple procedure once you gain access to the pot. The hardest part like fotno said is getting the grill off.

Here is the thread where I give detailed instructions on how to clean the pot once you get to it.

Here's some lit on the AR-2 I had laying around you also may be interested in.
 
Warning! Those cabinets are air tight so when you go into them be sure to re-seal around whichever components you remove when you reinstall them. Weather stripping putty works fine.

Mine are nearly 50 years old and my pots still work like new so you may have a bad mid/hf speaker. I had the same problem and found replacements on ebay. Even if one of the pair still works, replace the whole unit.

Your wife has very good taste.

Cyde
 
fotno said:
BTW, if they have new grill cloth, there's a fair chance they won't be stapled or glued down. Go easy with them and they should just pop out. Only danger is that the frames are pretty brittle.
Click to expand...

Frames on AR2s ???

No such luck fotno, there are no frames. The new grill cloth is stapled directly to the baffle. Guess who ever did this wasn't really into speakers...upholstry maybe. They look like little narrow beefy staples too...buried deep by the look of it. It may be destruction city on these grills :D

Hey, thanks all for the advice. I figured on a bit of a project picking these up. More on-the-job training coming up.
 
No problem my friend, sorry to hear about the hack job on the grill cloth - Good news is, they're still great speaks, and you can always cut a grill frame out of some flexible masonite. Holler if you get stuck, we'll figure it out.
 
Bummer about the grills, but the good news is that it's a fairly easy job making new ones out of 1/8th masonite available at any building center. That and a simple jig saw and your good to go. The main problem is finding matching cloth.

I do have some large Advent grills that have excellent "mint" cloth on them. The color is a little darker than the AR color, but they are still a very atractive coffee like color. If you want 'em there yours for the cost of shipping. I already gave one of the good woofers to Mark. The grill boards also have alot of unused wood near the bottom so there's plenty of space if you need to trim the boards to fit. I'll take a pic or two for you so you can better decide.
 
Kencat said:
Frames on AR2s ???
Click to expand...


Mine didn't really have frames either. AR supplied what looked like heavy cardboard which is why removing the grills was such a pain. You should also notice a groove cut into the sides of the cabinet where the grills go. To fix them right you need to use heavy cardboard again and size it so it tucks into that grove on all four sides. That way the edges of the grill cloth is hidden.

Clyde
 
Again, thanks guys for all the great advice. I'm bookmarking this thread for future reference for sure.

I have mixed feelings about these speakers. I get flashes of brilliance while listening to them, and then other times they sound "off". I can sense that they have potential to be better. The lower highs of the one speaker with the non-functioning pot is certainly not helping.

I'm thinking of picking up a couple of the replacement pots being sold by Vintage -AR on ebay. Link is http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5814180349&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

What do you think ? These new pots sound like they would be good. The bad pot is in the newer speaker, and does not have the larger button on the shaft...it is basically the shaft with a slot on the end painted, and it does not rotate any where near the number of turns as the older one. Something funny going on here with the pot situation :worried:

I am planning on beginning to remove the grills and begin tearing apart the drivers for a good inspection and check out the resistance of the mid/tweeters in the bad speaker (in good one too I guess just for the fun of it)

Do you think I should work towards replacing the caps for good measure as well, while I have them all tore apart and putting in new pots ??? I don't know how you go about testing caps, but given the age of these, couldn't it be a good bet that they are probably in bad shape ? Unless they are known to be bulletproof from the get-go :scratch2:

I would like to refurb these to try to get the best possible sound from them, as they look to be in great solid condition, and look pretty good as well. Could use a better refinishing job , but that can wait to see if the performance can be improved.

I need to get a photo shoot going. There are some interesting differences in the two speakers, and I'ld be interested to hear any explanations from the more knowledgeable whether these are normal or if there's been some "MODS" made in the past.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom