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AR9 restoration


Mafia1976

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Hi all i have recently purchased a pair of AR9's & on removing the LMR i have found it to be a non AR substitute! :( i would obviously like to try & source a pair of originals & the refoam the 12".

Although trying to find a pair of LMR is like trying to find needle in a hay stack!

are there any other AR speakers that used the same 8" driver?

also what kind of amplifier would i require to drive them please?

i currently have a marrantz PM7200 would this be ok?

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Hi Mafia1976,

I can't answer your question about the LMR but for amplifier power you'd want at least a couple hundred watts per channel to wake the 9's up. More the better!

John

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Hi John,

thanks for the reply the pm7200 is max 155w into 4ohm so i guess ill have to start looking at pre amp & mono blocks to have adequate power then. :unsure:

Do you have any recommendations please? im in uk so makes like Emotiva are out the question.

thanks Matt

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Matt

While I don't disagree that "more is better", 155 wpc rms into 4 ohms is pretty powerful and will probably be fine. Why don't you get the speakers working first then see what you think.

I'll wait for AR-9 experts to advise you on the LMRs.

If you do want to go with raw power, a big Crown XLS power amp would be a good and economical choicehttp://www.crownaudio.com/xls-series.html

Kent

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More is always better. I feed mine with 1000 watt monoblocks and they eat up the power. They just sound better and better the louder they are. And oh, that sweet bass....I can vibrate floorboards all over my house, actually, I can vibrate anything in my house...and my neighbors.

Have fun with the project! Take a look at my restoration thread!

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Thanks Kent & Shokdu, i am just cleaning up the 4x 12" waiting for repair kit to be delivered next week i hope.

Shokdu i have looked at your restoration & yes they look amazing as does your system.

while i have refomed a set of Ar's before i havent had to rebuild the xo!

the 8uf across 100v across the upper mid is leaking on mine so im going to replace them all.

what difference does it make if i change from 100v to 400v or use a higher voltage cap?

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More is always better. I feed mine with 1000 watt monoblocks and they eat up the power. They just sound better and better the louder they are. And oh, that sweet bass....I can vibrate floorboards all over my house, actually, I can vibrate anything in my house...and my neighbors.

Have fun with the project! Take a look at my restoration thread!

WOW! I'm refoaming my 9s now but I'm limited to 250 watts per channel. Should I push the 9s aside and concentrate on something less power hungry? :rolleyes: I do have a couple of amps in the closet that I can bridge and get 600 watts but they'd be looking at some low amperage loads. They're good into 2 amps.

Not hijacking the post.........just taking a short hop.

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Although trying to find a pair of LMR is like trying to find needle in a hay stack!

are there any other AR speakers that used the same 8" driver?

The basic AR 8 inch driver had many subtle variations, and associated part numbers, for different applications. The correct part number for its iteraton as an AR-9 and AR-90 midrange driver is 12100027-0. The same part number was also used as a woofer for the AR-94s and r models.

Some variations/part number differences of this driver appear to be simply due to dust cover differences and the addition or absence of trim rings. Most of the early 80's versions covering a number of models are very similar in performance.

Roy

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Hi Don, 250wpch is certainly an improvement over my set up! :) have you done any mods to the XO? As I need to recap mine but unsure about what caps to use & if higher voltage caps make a difference.

Mafia. I'm probably the last person here to ask for advice on X overs but from what I've read as long as the voltage on a cap meets or exceeds the original voltage you should ok. I've looked closely at the X overs in mine and there are no leaks so I'll just see how they sound after I get the drivers reinstalled. I'll play at low levels at first. If I do decide to do the X overs I'll have to remove them from the cabinets because trifocal glasses are almost useless peering inside these things at angles. I did at least bring them in the house Sunday but that sapped me of energy and the speakers and I both took naps in the afternoon.

I think 250 watts will be adequate for me in my small home living room since I usually never listen to anything much above 90db for any length of time unless I'm demoing my "sound system" to some of my friends and they're so old they can't hear anyway.

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Thank you Roy so in theory 8" from an AR 6 say would do the job? It seems the 9 LMR had a rather large dust cap which would be replaced while refoaming them. So I could fit the correct size dust cap at the end of the process?

In the absence of the actual original driver, I believe any version of the AR 8" woofer/mid used in the AR9xx models from that era is a better bet than anything else...especially later, alleged "replacements".

Roy

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As further agreement to what Roy says, assuming the AR 8" driver has satisfactory T-S parameters to do the LMR job on the 9 (which they all almost certainly do), the dust cap affects the 8" driver's FR at the very upper end of its range (assuming all the dustcaps are approximately the same mass). Since the LMR on the 9 only goes to 1200 Hz, the dust cap will be a total non-issue.

Steve F.

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Full agreement with the previous comments on the 8" lower midrange.

Try to avoid the "factory replacement" offerings that first appeared in the '90s, and included a polycone 8", among others.

We tried a "factory" polycone replacement in one AR-9 restoration a few years back (photo attached), and it did not give a good result.

The correct part number driver shows up on eBay from time to time, and can be a bargain if in need of a new surround - purchasing as a pair would be advisable.

Would you be able to take a photo of your leaking 8 mf cap?

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Hi ar_pro,

thank you for the advice :) i have a pair of spirit 162 which i paid £16 & refoamed them & they have the polycone as mentioned.

i have tried to upload another pic but cant find out how to do it? i have a pic ready to upload.

ive also seen the drivers on ebay in usa but to costly to get over to the uk unfortunately :(

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hope this works

Those black and red caps have proven to be the least reliable of any other cap used by AR, and should always be replaced, leaking or not.

I agree with ar_pro, the poly cone AR woofers (of any era) are definitely not good replacements for their paper cone counterparts. The polycone drivers were primarily used in the TSW models.

Roy

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Thanks Roy,

I have priced up the black & red caps (clarity ESA) £100 + p&p

Matthew,

The red and black caps Roy was referring to are the original ones in your crossover. KLH used these quite a lot and apparently AR used them in your speakers. They are PVC and the ends don't seal well. They must be replaced but you don't need high-priced caps. There is nothing wrong with Clarity ESA but the cost is excessive (IMHO).

I don't know what's available on your side of the pond. Certainly Solen. Any good film cap will do fine.

Kent

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Kent,

Thank you if I could bring costs down that would be great as things a bit tight these days. What differences would there be between the solen & clarity caps? I'm very new to the electronic side of things. Give me a engine in boxes & ill build it with my eyes closed haha

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