Bringing some AR-58B's back to life

[RS Steve]

I found these in a local thrift store for 15.00, being a very big fan of AR speakers, I decided to grab them and do a refurbish job to see if I like their sound. I see they are what replaced the AR-11 in later years, the drivers are very nice, and built well. I already refoamed the mids and have the woofers half way done too. I ordered Dayton caps to replace the originals with, I just have a good feeling about these, and I'm looking forward to getting a good listen to them when finished.

 

[RS Steve]

Ok, that has to be the easiest refoam I have ever done, hmmm maybe I'm getting good at refoams:scratch2:. Took all of about 4-1/2 hours to complete, now I'm just waiting until late today to let them dry and let them rip. The new caps should be here by the middle of next week, until then I will see if they sound ok. These are pretty good size, hope they sound even a little similar to the 11's :drool:

 

[winters860]

Cool speakers, but a sad note for AR - the end of an unbroken string of 3-way bookshelf speakers featuring the 11" woofer, dome mid, and dome tweeter stretching from the AR-3 to the AR-58S. I bet they'll still sound great, though, and you certainly got them at the right price.

 

[RS Steve]

Cool speakers, but a sad note for AR - the end of an unbroken string of 3-way bookshelf speakers featuring the 11" woofer, dome mid, and dome tweeter stretching from the AR-3 to the AR-58S. I bet they'll still sound great, though, and you certainly got them at the right price.

Yeah, they had quite a run with that 3 way design. I have pretty much heard most of their line up except the for AR-9's.

I gave these 58's a heavy dose of music this evening to see how I liked them, they have the great bass of 3's and 11's, but a very much brighter top end. They remind me of my JBL L-36's that I used to have as far as the mids and highs go. It would be nice if they had L-pads to do some adjusting. That's probably the only gripe I have with them at this point, maybe some bypass caps would help. Nice pickup though, I like the AR sound they produce. :yes:

 

[eis01]

Oh man... You are one lucky man! I had the 48b's. I bought them brand new back in the late 80's. Wish I never sold them. I've regretted it ever since. Used to run them with a Mission Cyrus One and they sound great.

Enjoy. Good job on the re-foam.

 

[michiganpat]

Yeah, they had quite a run with that 3 way design. I have pretty much heard most of their line up except the for AR-9's.

I gave these 58's a heavy dose of music this evening to see how I liked them, they have the great bass of 3's and 11's, but a very much brighter top end. They remind me of my JBL L-36's that I used to have as far as the mids and highs go. It would be nice if they had L-pads to do some adjusting. That's probably the only gripe I have with them at this point, maybe some bypass caps would help. Nice pickup though, I like the AR sound they produce. :yes:

this might be a case where replacing with NPE's would have been better than polys'....the NPE's slightly higher ESR could help tone down the brightness....could always try putting some 1/4 ohm to 1/2 ohm resistors in series with the caps to attenuate the mids and highs....

while the 12" woof/dome mid/dome tweet is sexy, it's hard to get a dome mid to cross over low enough, and to run the 12" up high enough for it to actually work well.....I could definitely see the 58B potentially having the advantage, as you could drop the crossover frequency down to around 300-400hz, which would work much better with the AR 12" woofer....

anyway, again, I'm jealous you find all these different AR speakers at all, let alone for $15! (you could've just parted them and sold the woofs for 10x your investment) and I think you need to change your name from RS Steve to AR Steve

 

[RS Steve]

this might be a case where replacing with NPE's would have been better than polys'....the NPE's slightly higher ESR could help tone down the brightness....could always try putting some 1/4 ohm to 1/2 ohm resistors in series with the caps to attenuate the mids and highs....

while the 12" woof/dome mid/dome tweet is sexy, it's hard to get a dome mid to cross over low enough, and to run the 12" up high enough for it to actually work well.....I could definitely see the 58B potentially having the advantage, as you could drop the crossover frequency down to around 300-400hz, which would work much better with the AR 12" woofer....

anyway, again, I'm jealous you find all these different AR speakers at all, let alone for $15! (you could've just parted them and sold the woofs for 10x your investment) and I think you need to change your name from RS Steve to AR Steve

I was hoping to find a schematic of the crossover but no luck so far, those are some great suggestions. I do feel that they are lacking in the mid bass area, the highs sound good if I run the high filter in the on position. Very solid sounding speakers, L-pads would of been great though.

AR Steve?, hmmmm, :scratch2: