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Got some AR93s

davidhun

davidhun

Well-Known Member
A few weeks ago, I purchased some Acoustic Research AR93s off of FBMP. Just now getting around to undressing it and having a look. They definitely spent some time sitting on the floor of a damp basement. Mildew all over the lower parts of the cabinet, smellin' kinda funky. Of course, the surrounds on the drivers are rotted out. Good news is that they look to be all original and the cones seem to be in good shape -- no tears or creases, don't hear the voice coil rubbing. I did get ahead of myself at one point and hooked them up. No dead drivers. All in all, they appear to be nice, original speakers that have been neglected, but not abused.

One dressed, one naked:
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Clorox wiped down and repainted the naked one. The "flat" black I used seems to have a bit more luster than I anticipated. Not sure if I'll try to dull it or leave it alone:

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Bought refoam kits from Rick Cobb on eBay, and am doing the first one now (foam to cone stage):

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Silly phone thought I was taking a picture of food.
:crazy:


If anyone has some advice, I'm more than glad to hear it. This is my first speaker refurbish...ever. I'm really excited to give these speakers a listen. These will be the nicest speakers I've had in a long while. Definitely the first ones that I've put a not insignificant amount of time/effort/money into.
 
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A decade ago I used Rick's foam surrounds for my Infinity Watkins woofers, still going strong! Looks like you got the right fit! Nice scroe on the AR's!
 
Some glued up drivers! The instructions said NOT to peel up the spacer gasket on the rim of the basket. I did on one because I got ahead of the instructions. However, I've found that it is much easier to glue the foam surround to the bare metal that it is to try and adhere it to that gasket -- if I'm actually referring to the correct thing.

On second look, I think I was just peeling up some dried, thick glue and not gasket. Instructions did say it was only on some models. If anyone can provide clarity on this, that'd be much appreciated!

Going to go have a listen now!

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Hooked the single speaker up to my little 551. It sounds pretty nice. I'm wondering if the caps need to be replaced -- I mean they likely do. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it so far! It seems to favor some genres/kinds of music over others. I'll need to go back and revisit some pieces after the other speaker is done and they're both out of the basement.

Hitting the "loudness" button on the Sansui is not recommended with the AR. :p

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Fast-forward: they're finally finished! Washed the socks with some Woolite, hit the tops with some 220 grit and Watco tung oil. They got some new Dayton Audio / Solen caps, too.

Been giving them a listen to with the 551. Want to try it with the CR-620 and see what the difference is like. The Yamaha will have to sit on top of that little console, since it won't fit in the slot.

Some difficulties I had: on the second pair of drivers, I got a bit of ticking on one of the woofers. Tried trimming away any old dried glue where I thought it might be flapping, and even pulled up the surrounds again for a re-glue. It sounded better after all that, but I can still hear it a tiny bit using the 30Hz test tone CD. I don't hear it under normal listening.

More troubling was after installing the caps in one speaker, it had initially been ok, but then when I moved the speakers into place, it sounded muffled. I thought maybe I mishandled it, but the other speaker has been fine. Solder connections are good, caps are glued into place. I fiddled with that 60uF cap (Dayton Audio film) a little, and the sound popped back in. Sigh. I will just have to watch it, I suppose. It's sounded fine after hours of listening at this point. Could I have mangled the cap somehow? Overheat during soldering? Bad cap?

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the re-foam and re-cap. They've been fun to listen to all kinds of music on.


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They look good. I'm one of the few here who strongly recommend cutting the dustcap and using shims when refoaming.
 
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