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My $10 AR-2a's

NealinNevada said:
Well, lo and behold, guess what do I find at the Salvation Army today? A set of AR-2a's for $12.50 :banana::banana:...sold to the guy with the ailing SX-1050! Pictures are coming very soon :yes:...this afternoon.
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Welcome to the club!

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Wow, those cabs are in great shape. Well worth the extra $2.50, I'd say. :)
 
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Spent a few hours on one of them today. Cleaning the pots is pretty simple with a Dremel tool, it's just getting to them that takes time. Used plenty of DeOxit before putting them back together, so hopefully won't have to repeat this process for a few years. I didn't unsolder anything, was able to work through the woofer hole. Both rotate smoothly now, and confirmed they were working with a DMM before buttoning up.

The long gloves were essential to prevent a case of the itches when removing the fiberglass stuffing. I used plumber's putty to reseal the woofer. At full settings, the mid and tweet are quite hot, so I think the caps are OK, and am not planning on replacing them (trying to keep the entire cost of these at $10).

A bit of Howard's left over from the Advents, and they look pretty decent. Will do the Feed 'n Wax treatment later.

Managed to break one of the tiny aluminum wires on the tweet - damn. I know it's impossible to solder aluminum without exotic tools, looking for suggestions on a simple repair.

Was doing all this work outside on a perfect fall day - managed to annoy the neighbors driving this with just a 15W T-amp. I know these like power, but they do OK with smaller amounts.

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I think the best way to do that is a VERY small crimp connector. Take a look on classicspeakerpages, it's been discussed there at length.
 
The grill cloth on those is classic. Try to clean them carefully & restore the original cloth. There's threads here on how to restore the grill cloth without damaging it.

Nice find .............
 
I'll be reading and learning......
Joined the AR2-ax club by finding a free pair left for the re-cycler.
A few nasty cab scratches, but working with grills and badges.I'll be tackling the pot cleaning ritual on one with non-responsive tweet and mid. Can't wait to get them going.
 
After you remove the 30+ staples from the grill (you'll probably mis a few) you will need to be very careful removing it from the box. If you look at chicks pics you can see the points where it is glued on. I start at the bottom and pry one corner out of the slotted edge of the cabinet. Then I peel the cloth loose from the frame being careful not to stretch it. This allows me to get a putty knife through the speaker openings in the frame and pry the glued areas loose. I use a spray adhesive, conservitively, the re-fasten the cloth.
 
Sorry. I didn't look at the entire thread before I posted. chics is the orig op and is way ahead of me.

I have a pair od 4xs on the way. Curious to see how they compare.
 
A bit of Howard's Feed-N-Wax adds some sheen. Managed to twist the tiny broken aluminum wire together using two tweezers (one with built-in magnifier). Seems to be working, but will look for something more permanent after starting on speaker #2. Tarn-X isn't doing the job on the badges, looking for suggestions...

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Gongrats on your find and getting pots cleaned and working. If they go again there's a great fix using 8
OHM L-Pad combined with resistors to get very close to original 15 OHM pot.

That old style (ribbed) AR woofer is killer. I actually prefer my older style 2AX (same woofer/tweeter as yours with different midrange) to the newer style.

Welcome to the AR club. As you are finding they can sound fine with low power amp, trust me they turn into wolfman on high power. I started out with 40 WPC Pioneer SX3700. When I moved up to a Sui 890DB it was night and day.

They were built in tube era. But high power SS really wakes them up.
 
shacky said:
Welcome to the AR club.
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Actually, I was a member way back in the late '60's - my first system in high school included AR-4's and an AR-XA TT. Just re-upping my membership after a lengthy lapse. :)

Looking forward to A/B'ing these against my NLA's through the MAC-1700. What I'm hearing through the one so far, on minimal power, is quite promising.
 
Got the pots on the second speaker working, buttoned back up, and have the two units stacked in the garage (no room for proper stereo spacing out here). Listening to weft.org right now, Java's Bachelor Pad. Who knew Dean Martin sounded so good singing On The Street Where You Live? Don't think I own any Dean Martin, may have to reconsider that...

Will sand and finish the second cabinet on the weekend, then need to decide what to do about the grillcloth - they're not up to WAF, so may need to replace them. The 18ct Irish Linen I'm looking at will triple the price of the speakers! May have to make a trip to Joann's tomorrow an look around for something...
 
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I bought very nice linen cloth at Joanne's for < $10. Ask for the linen section. Can't remember name but it's something like off white.

Here it is on my KLH

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shacky said:
I bought very nice linen cloth at Joanne's for < $10. Ask for the linen section. Can't remember name but it's something like off white.
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That looks like the Osnasburg muslin I used on a pair of little Heathkit AS-18's a while back, similar to what I remember my AR-4's having. Would prefer to keep these AR-2a's with the more "vintage" 18ct natural brown variegated linen, but it's very pricey. Maybe Joann's will have something...

Here are my Heathkit AS-18's, nuttin' to brag about sonically:

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shacky said:
As you are finding they can sound fine with low power amp, trust me they turn into wolfman on high power. I started out with 40 WPC Pioneer SX3700. When I moved up to a Sui 890DB it was night and day.

They were built in tube era. But high power SS really wakes them up.
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Ya think 105WPC will do it? :D No wolf-hairs or fangs in evidence (yet) :pawprint:

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