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AR9 speakers

xmas111

xmas111

Well-Known Member
I posted yesterday in the Dollars and Sense forum about the AR9's I got off CL.

Very excited to get these babies back up and running!:yes:

Going to have to refoam all the woofers and lower mids and rebuild the xovers.

Shouldn't be to big of a job, I did the same thing on the AR9's I already own about 4 years ago.

I think the 9's are one of the finest sounding speakers around.

Here's a few pics of them. The pics don't show them but all the grills came with the speakers.

And I'll get you all posted as to the restoration process.

John
 

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Great Speakers. I have had my AR-90's for 30 years and will never give them up.
 
In case your interested here's a picture of the xover. Lot's of caps to replace!:yes:

All the woofers and lower mids on the bench waiting to be refoamed.

John
 

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Bi-amp them if you can ( i think the 9's are factory ready to to this.
Give the woofers their own amp..something nice and clean in the 200w ballpark
It will sound even better than the fab sound you have right now
Ive heard it done this way., makes a good difference
 
cornwallguy said:
Bi-amp them if you can ( i think the 9's are factory ready to to this.
Click to expand...

Your correct, they are ready to be bi-amp.

The set I have now are bi-amp with two Carver TFM-45's. That gives them ~1000 watts each.

Bi-amp is the way to go with the 9's. :yes:

John
 
I have a pair of AR-90's, and I should really do a crossover upgrade too. Especially since I have mine apart, doing a refoam. Plus, I already have a spare set of 90 crossovers, and could rebuild the spares, and pop them into place, when the upgrade is completed. Too lazy lately. :boring:

Also, does anyone know the wiring differences between the 9 and the 90's? I'd love to add a second set of binding posts, for bi-amping. I just don't know the wire break-out? Does one set of wires, from each set of posts, go to each of the boards separately, or do the wires 'jumper' from one board to the other? Doesn't really matter I guess, as long as there's wiring from 2 sets of binding posts...

Finally, is one of your upper mid domes damaged? Pushed in? Do you have replacements? Or will you try and 'suck it out'?

Good Luck!

xmas111 said:
In case your interested here's a picture of the xover. Lot's of caps to replace!:yes:

All the woofers and lower mids on the bench waiting to be refoamed.

John
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the links to the schematics. That should help. :tresbon:

Also, what upgrades are you doing to your crossovers? Just a recap?
And what brand(s) of caps are you going to try? Always interested in
what people buy for their upgrades. :yes:

xmas111 said:
I don't know yet what I'm going to do with the upper mid with the crushed dome. Not sure if pulling it out is the cure.

Here's a link to the schematics for the 9's and the 90's.

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/library/acoustic_research/ar-9_series_1978-1981/ar-9_series_schematicsservi/

Hope that helps you with your bi-amp question.

John
Click to expand...
 
I think I have only seen one pair of these that still had the foam inserts around the upper 2 drivers... mine were missing when I bought them. What gives? :dunno:


Also, I would be really interested in a full parts list for a recap job and roughly how much something like that costs, I would like to do that as well...
 
OldSch00l said:
I think I have only seen one pair of these that still had the foam inserts around the upper 2 drivers... mine were missing when I bought them. What gives? :dunno:


Also, I would be really interested in a full parts list for a recap job and roughly how much something like that costs, I would like to do that as well...
Click to expand...

The original 9's I bought when they first came out didn't have the foam around the upper mid, a foam pad was on the tweeter.

I posted a list of caps for the 9's in this link:
http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=444909&page=2
second post down.

I'm pretty sure it's accurate but I'll be reviewing it now that I'm doing another set.

John
 
I always wondered about the foam too. I even bought my AR-90's in-house, through Teledyne, and they came with all the foam. But, I don't think I've ever seen a picture of 9's with tweeter and mid foam... :dunno:

OldSch00l said:
I think I have only seen one pair of these that still had the foam inserts around the upper 2 drivers... mine were missing when I bought them. What gives? :dunno:


Also, I would be really interested in a full parts list for a recap job and roughly how much something like that costs, I would like to do that as well...
Click to expand...
 
xmas111 said:
I posted a list of caps for the 9's in this link:
http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=444909&page=2
second post down.

I'm pretty sure it's accurate but I'll be reviewing it now that I'm doing another set.

John
Click to expand...

Yeah, I remember seeing that. There were a few items in there that I couldn't quite figure out like ".68 GE" and ".1 716P", but after seeing the schematic it makes a lot more sense now...

So far on the Madisound site I am at ~$140 for recapping just the upper section with Solens. Yikes! :eek:
 
Finally have all the woofers and lower mids refoamed.

Next will be xover rebuilding then cabinet refinishing.

I'll post pics when the xovers are done...maybe a while before I get to them. I'm also in the middle of restoring another AR XA turntable. I'm going back and forth between them.

John
 

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AR9 and power

Hi. I noticed you are now the owner of a set of classic AR9 speakers. My parents had a pair in the 80's and I finally located a pair a few years ago.

Give them as much power as you can. During the demo at the store when my parents bought theirs, I was a broke college kid who into audio (and almost done with my EE degree) so, they brought me with for assistance. The salesman paired them up with some standard 100 watt receiver. Sounded okay at low listening levels. He turned the amp up and they sounded awful. I told my parents it's not enough power and asked the salesman to put 'em on the Carver 1.5t..... 375 watts per channel.

He did, popped in the 1812 overture CD (my moms request) and the difference was amazing. All the customers in the store had wandered down to the high end room to hear what was going on. Quite impressive. Never heard anything like it. Stuff was rattling.

When I got my set (via craigslist) I put them on 2 Carver 1.5t amps in bi-amp mode. 375 watts for the low end and 375 for the high (750 watts) for each speaker. Had to run a new AC outlet behind the entertainment center for the second carver amp so it can be on it's own circuit. 1 20 Amp circuit was not enough.

Power.. Power.. Power.. Especially if you are using them in a big room. They are power pigs but give 'em a quality 300 watts each (at least) and you will not be disappointed. The bass is amazing. My AR9's have better bass than my home theater and I have 2 original Sunfire subs on that and the AR9's still produce better bass.
 
We can rebuild them, we have the technology! :D

Those are on my short list of speakers to audition, they look to be on par with my XPL-200A's.

Good luck with them! :thmbsp:
 
xmas111 said:
In case your interested here's a picture of the xover. Lot's of caps to replace!:yes:

All the woofers and lower mids on the bench waiting to be refoamed.

John
Click to expand...

Just curious, why replace the caps? Can you tell when your caps need to be replaced? I've got a pair of AR9s that still sound amazing and are in great shape, all i did was a re-foam - also bought my dad a pair off CL and did a re-foam all around on those - they sound great as well.

Is it obvious when you need to replace caps? I've heard of doing this on guitar amps to fix hums and buzzes i think?
 
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