Aadams

Ella, Very saddened to receive this news. Steve was an early and prolific contributor on CSP before I arrived in 2012, a great source of AR knowledge and speakers in general. He personally helped me at one point. I have been wondering for a while why he stopped posting. He has been missed. Thank you for telling us. Aadams

Compared to a good quality CD, the sound quality difference between 16/44.1 at multi Mbps and a low bit rate file, say 128kbps, is usually easy to hear if you are paying attention. My experience with CD quality and above is, the difference between Hi res formats and CD quality is much harder to discern. For classical music there really aren't that many new Hi res recordings. The majority seem to be remasters into high res of previous releases. The ones I have heard are practically noise free but they still have the narrower presentation that does not approach the level of "you are there-ness" that is found on the very best of recent digital Hi res captures. This is is the best example I know: Classical music seems to benefit more from Hi res than Pop and Jazz because silence and sense of space are often a part of classical music. This is a brand new Hi res Jazz issue, very high quality but you don't feel the space. Also available on vinyl. The biggest factor in Hi res sound quality seems to be the engineering. If you like the sound of a hi res file the chances are you will be satisfied with a CD quality version. Which brings me to DACs. I sweated for months over how much to spend and what brand DAC to purchase for my upgraded listening. It turns out if all you need is one source in and out, you can spend $40 and not look back. I had help. I have the capacity to A/B compare two dacs on a passive switch playing the same source to the same system. I have compared my old 16/44 DAC to my new USB 24/96 DAC and the short answer is, there is no practical difference in sound quality. I have compared my old DAC to my new computer 24/48 DAC using a mini plug to the amp and I cannot swear that I hear a quality difference. But I have compared my old DAC to my old computer 16/44 DAC and there is large difference in quality. All devices were volume equalized before A/B switching was done. Summary: If you have a relatively new computer you might be able to stream high quality sound without an outboard DAC. If you want an outboard DAC for USB out to a power amp you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars to get high quality sound.

Yes. Good job! I have an English pair of 98ls with original LMR that don't have the split.

The answer is no split cone. Check AR55s link from the library forum. The 8inchers for the AR9, ls,lsi were specifically configured to be LMRs. Read note 4 in the pdf on 8 inch drivers for that series.

I remember this Tysontom thread. Unless your woofers have been placed face down or face up for a long time you probably don't have a collapsed spider from prolonged sag. If the woofer voice coil has not been damaged in operation it is more likely that the spider glue bond has broken from the metal frame. There are a few threads here with discussion and images of the problem on that era woofer but no repair instructions. Once the woofer is removed, diagnosis is pretty simple but you will only get one easy shot at repairing it correctly. If you are not experienced at this I would not practice on this woofer. It will not be easy to replace. In order of preference, Contact member @RoyC, Vintage AR on ebay, or Millersound. http://www.millersound.net/

Originally written for virtuoso piano in 1874, "Pictures at an Exhibition" is Mussorgsky's representation, in musical sound, of ten paintings by artist Viktor Hartmann. The work is famous today because in 1922 Maurice Ravel created an orchestral version that is a showpiece of orchestration which has become the default standard version that audiences expect to hear at concerts. There are at least 300 recordings, nearly all of them are competent but vary in the conductor's ability to put across the image of the dancing chicks or the old castle. Perhaps the witch's hut on giant fowl's legs isn't menacing . Sometimes the Great Gate of Kiev isn't great enough. Such is how the critics sort recordings of this work for ranking. Riccardo Muti/Philadelphia/Warner/1979 is considered the best overall recorded performance by many critics. It turns out the critics get so picky about the musical imagery of the pictures that there is no perfect performance/recording but there are several very good ones. For me, given the choice of being in a good seat at a competent live performance of a major work or sitting in front of speakers to hear the very best interpretation available, I would take the live performance every time, which is why I would focus on the recording sound quality more than best historical performance. For best sound there are only a few choices, all from the last 20 years. My default until recently was Lorin Maazel/ Cleveland/Telarc 1979. Jaarvi/Cincinnati/Telarc 2008 is good. Compare those to Karabits/Bournemouth/Onyx/2011 or Gilbert/NYP/NYPhil/2012. I prefer the Gilbert 2012. It is lossless. The presentation is front row center. The recording is an entire concert before a live audience which adds a frisson to the performance. The sound is gorgeous.

The web site "Peter's Planets” is for fans of Gustav Holst’s “The Planets”, first recorded around 1922 and most recently in 2017. Peter has acquired, listened to, and subjectively ranked over 80 recorded performances of the “The Planets”. Now, through the miracle of Lossless Streaming, you can do the same. I won’t be doing that. I already possess two CD versions (Peter’s No.1 and 49) but curious there might be something better, I streamed a dozen others that are offered up as great examples. Do they sound the same? No, mostly not even close. Just like covers of popular songs, they differ in style or interpretation and noticeably, in recording sound quality. Internet searches show the consensus top ranked recording of the “The Planets” appears to be the 1986 Montreal Symphony/Charles Dutoit on Decca, my pick as well until I heard two newer ones; Cincinnati Symphony/ Paavo Jarvi 2009 Telarc and Dallas Symphony/Andrew Litton 1996 Delos. There are a couple of original Hi Res recordings you may prefer or maybe something older. Preference is totally subjective. The only convenient way to do these comparisons and find what you like is Lossless Streaming.

And now we have page three. This is a rare thread, drifting into a dendritic form that is reminiscent of something I have seen on TV. I sense someone is wearing an onion on their belt.

Maybe I misunderstood your objective in naming the thread Replacement AR-4x Tweeter: A Mod In Work. If your objective was to create a mod to satisfy yourself then your thread is done. But, I recall earlier, you stated that you would get response curves from "a friend across town" to show us the difference between a stock PRT and your mod. You also stated that you would lend your finished mod PRT to another qualified forum member for subjective evaluation of the results in a working AR4 model. I bought what you said. Maybe I read too much into your words but they seemed like straight forward English at the time.

I, along with most of the “lurkers and monitors”, await the operating 4x portion of your project, especially the response curves you spoke of earlier.

The last movement of The Young Persons Guide To The Orchestra is among the best 3-minute runs in all classical music. It’s definitive recording was captured by Decca in 1969 with the composer conducting. There have been many recordings since, some better engineered, with more dynamic range, but for 52 years no one ever matched the balance of the full orchestra as presented by Britten and Decca in that last movement. The challenge is in the last minute of the last 3 minutes. The first two minutes are spent with the orchestra following the piccolo, descending into seeming fugal chaos until the full brass and low strings restore order with a grand restatement of the original theme while the high strings and woodwinds continue the fugue. Most recordings allow the brass to swamp the strings. Britten obviously wanted the strings heard singing high counterpoint flourishes over the brass. Goose bumps when it is right. These are excellent recordings and performances of the Britten work. From left to right the recordings get technically better but the 2021 Petrenko from Onyx is the best because it achieves the orchestral balance of the Decca, while being captured in Hi res lossless format. It appears to be available streamed or as downloadable file versions. No hard copy versions. Note: You really need to listen to the entire 16 minutes to fully appreciate what is happening in the last 3 minutes.

Just make it perform and appear correctly. None of the rebuilt dome tweeters you hear about have original coils. Some of them are custom wound for application as either 4 or 8 ohm as specified by the buyer. Some tweeter domes are original some domes are aftermarket. Midranges could be a bit different. Nobody restores them.

Your project is interesting. I would say, just take your project to conclusion and the admin will know in the end whether or not it is an MT thread.

This would be helpful No reason to be shy. If you can credibly restore failed AR5/AR3a/11 midranges for a reasonable fee you will get interest. I am saying what you are doing to the PRT is not practicable for almost all of us, so unless you bring it to market or show us how it is simple to do, this is an academic exercise that should be in Mods and Tweaks. We would pay you for the modified part in the expectation that it would meet expectations. You would build cred as the number of successful transactions increased and through supportive reports of success on this and other sites.

I thought for a while this thread was hijacked. Now I am not sure. What you are doing is interesting but unless you actually get something done, its like listening to grandpa Simpson stories that don't go anywhere. You don't have the name recognition of Allison or Kantor, so even if you put this in a 4x for instance and tell us it is better we will need an easy and inexpensive way to verify your claim. We don't all possess your skills or inclination to invest the time to replicate your efforts so where is this project going? The crossover mods in the M&T thread you mentioned are easily replicable, your surgery and techniques are not. How will this serve the interests of AR4 owners in general after you finish? Otherwise, this thread should be a in Mods and Tweaks. I am still waiting for you to restore 3a dome mids?