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Finally recapped the Rectilinear III lowboys...

mcp1

mcp1

Well-Known Member
...and there is quite a difference in the mids - highs. Greater clarity and extension and still so easy to listen to. I had a tech friend do the work and I'm really pleased with the results...wish I'd done it sooner.
If you're using vintage speakers, I urge you to have the crossovers checked out. In most cases, a recap will really let you know what those beauties really should sound like...
 
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In some cases, I've heard little or no difference after a re-cap, in other cases... WOW!

Congratulations on restoring those wonderful speakers!
 
I told ya. I've recapped several speakers and the biggest bang for the buck was on the Rec III's.

Cheers, Snade
 
I had a pair of Rec III Highboys that I re-capped. Those were some of the smoothest sounding speakers I've ever owned.

Congrats on the re-cap!! You got some sweet speakers!!!
 
Snade said:
I have no experience with the XI, but expect you will hear some improvement.

Snade
Click to expand...

Correct. (I recapped them yesterday). The treble is no longer dull and lifeless. However, I did notice: the left speaker and right speaker have different capacitors in them. They still had the same value (8.2 uF), and the same resistor, etc. in the same configuration, but the capacitor looked like it was from a different brand: different color, different markings, different shape. I know they sold Rectilinear speakers in singles rather than pairs, but wouldn't it have been simple to just mass-order a bunch of 8.2 uF capacitors from the same company rather than from different companies?
 
If your speakers aren't consecutive serial numbers, there's a pretty good chance that the two you own were built anywhere from days to months apart. I'm sure they bought their caps in bulk lots, and what you have there is the difference from one lot to another.

Who knows, it could be that they finished up their supply of one brand, and started on the next brand with the two you own.
 
The crossover was changed at least 3 times on different releases of the III and I have seen several different brands of caps used.

By the way, I participate in a forum of Allison speaker owners including guys that worked at Allison and before Allison worked with Roy Allison at AR. I posted a question about their opinions about the Rectilinear III. They were well aware of the speaker and said it was direct competition with the AR 3a in the early 70's. They had a very favorable opinion of the speaker and said it was noted for a very lush upper bass and mids sound (from an excellent woofer driver and quality cabinet and design) explaining why many jazz lovers like these speakers. They said placing multiple tweeters all over the baffle should not work, but for some reason does work for these speakers giving them good spaciousness and imaging. They liked the AR 3a better but were very respectful of the III.

Cheers, Snade
 
Snade said:
I told ya. I've recapped several speakers and the biggest bang for the buck was on the Rec III's.

Cheers, Snade
Click to expand...


What types and brands do you recommend for caps?

I've read people swooning over their $600 capacitors.
There's no chance that, even if I had it, I'd spend that much.
On the other end of the price spectrum, though, I imagine that below a certain quality level, they'd sound worse rather than better.

thanks,
 
Soggy said:
What types and brands do you recommend for caps?
Click to expand...

If you order them from Parts Express (parts-express.com), your three choices for polypropylene caps at a low price are Dayton, Solens, and Jantzen. There's also the higher-priced caps (Auricap, Sonicaps--at $50-100 each), but I'd stick with the lower-priced ones.
 
yddet12 said:
If you order them from Parts Express (parts-express.com), your three choices for polypropylene caps at a low price are Dayton, Solens, and Jantzen. There's also the higher-priced caps (Auricap, Sonicaps--at $50-100 each), but I'd stick with the lower-priced ones.
Click to expand...

Agree, when you pick-up vintage speakers for a song, I think the low-cost Dayton caps work just fine. If you go with the higher-priced caps you pay more for the caps than you did for the speakers and not sure you get much improvement in sound compared to the Daytons. Just my two cents.

Snade
 
New Rec IIIs

Just came in with a pair of Rec IIIs. I'm a little disappointed compared to my ADS 980s, but I think with a re-cap and proper placement these will sound better. I do get the feeling they will have a spatiality my other speakers do not.

Couple of questions: The grills were nailed on. Is this original? The woofers were very clean and the tweeters all looked original, although it was odd to see 8 ohm symbols printed on the tweeters.

Has dual L-pads on the back for the tweets and mids. This should be the Jensen woofers, then, right?

These seemed to want much more power than my ADS or JBLs. I thought they were about 90 db SPL?

Biggest question, since these have the woofers mounted from the inside of the baffles- How does one get to the crossovers? Do you have to pull the baffles off? Can you get to the xo from the back?

The cabs could use some refinishing work, but other than one chipped corner, they were pretty square.

Thanks for any help. I'm hoping that these are what I think they are, just need some work.
 
ZeroG said:
Just came in with a pair of Rec IIIs. I'm a little disappointed compared to my ADS 980s, but I think with a re-cap and proper placement these will sound better. I do get the feeling they will have a spatiality my other speakers do not.

Couple of questions: The grills were nailed on. Is this original? The woofers were very clean and the tweeters all looked original, although it was odd to see 8 ohm symbols printed on the tweeters.

Has dual L-pads on the back for the tweets and mids. This should be the Jensen woofers, then, right?

These seemed to want much more power than my ADS or JBLs. I thought they were about 90 db SPL?

Biggest question, since these have the woofers mounted from the inside of the baffles- How does one get to the crossovers? Do you have to pull the baffles off? Can you get to the xo from the back?

The cabs could use some refinishing work, but other than one chipped corner, they were pretty square.

Thanks for any help. I'm hoping that these are what I think they are, just need some work.
Click to expand...

Yes, spaciousness to the sound is a strength to these speakers. The recap should give you the detail in the mids and highs you are not hearing.

Many different woofers used in the Rec III. All are good.

Yes, I think you have to take off the baffle.

Several different crossovers, just open it up, look at the two caps and find Daytons close to the same.

Rectilinear never published the efficiency. Although most think 100 watts plus of solid state power is required. I actually ran mine using a Pilot tube amp with 15 watts of tube power and the sound was great. I'm sure if I ran it loud with some heavy bass I might have trouble. But I expect they are over 95 in efficiency.

Best of luck. Snade
 
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