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AR3 tweeter - repair or leave well enough alone


stan461

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Attached is an AR3 tweeter with the dome raised from the faceplate because the 2 of the 3 glue drops have failed.

The tweeter works.

So do I leave it alone or repair it?

I would rather not experiment or engage in any wheel re-inventing.

Anyone here have any ideas or experience with this situation?

Will 2 globs of carpenter's glue while being held in place do the trick?

As always, thank you for any help or advise.

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Hello,

that isn't glue. It is an elastic foam material. The dome assembly appears to be out of position (it has moved forward from its normal non energized position). I would check with Carl of Carl's Custom Speakers (a member of this forum) and see if he will do these types of repairs. Other members may be able to provide you with contact info of other technicians that can repair these drivers. These tweeters are very old and getting rare. I strongly recommend you have it repaired properly or carefully store it away and purchase the HiVi dome tweeters and the inductors recommended by Roy (another member of this forum) to replace the vintage AR domes.

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Attached is an AR3 tweeter with the dome raised from the faceplate because the 2 of the 3 glue drops have failed.

The tweeter works.

So do I leave it alone or repair it?

I would rather not experiment or engage in any wheel re-inventing.

Anyone here have any ideas or experience with this situation?

Will 2 globs of carpenter's glue while being held in place do the trick?

As always, thank you for any help or advise.

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There was a soft sealer used around the edge which appears to be degraded here -- compare it to your other speaker. If you can locate a suitable substitute you can probably reposition the dome and stabilize it.

I would be tempted to use thinned contact cement applied with a fine brush. I would avoid using anything that causes irreversible damage to the driver.

Roger

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I'm sure this has been addressed before. Hope Roy comments. See this thread http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=8105&page=2&hl=blob#entry99498

Those AR-3 tweets are really reaching the end of their useful life. If you can find an AR-3 or AR-2a tweeter for sale I'd go for it. Recent ones have sold on ebay for anywhere from $15 to $50 each ($35 seems to be the most common). The Hi-Vi tweeter is a good replacement but AR-3's have a lot of collectible value in original condition.

As teknofossil said, you could repair it or get a spare 2a/3 tweet, store the originals in case you ever want to sell the speakers and install the Hi-Vi's and enjoy.

Kent

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That pictured AR-3 tweeter had a "popped" dome; i.e., the pressure of the fiberglass damping material under the dome caused the foam suspension to break loose after many years. It could probably be put back into the gap with silicon rubber cement or "Goop" to hold the foam pieces and then a thin bead around the outside gap, but the tweeter would never work properly again. When made, it took a combination of exact compliance and magnetic strength to get the original tweeters to work properly, and more than 50% never made the grade during original production, and each bad one had to be discarded (see attached picture of AR-3a tweeters) and then re-constructed. There was a fine line of acceptance to get the tweeter to perform properly, so to repair one now is a very long shot to get it to return to anywhere near its original specs. But to get it to "work" again is not impossible!

--Tom Tyson

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Thank you for all your expert feedback.

It has been well noted.

In this particular case, the AR3 speaker is not mine.

I informed the owner of the choices (provided by all your responses).

He then owner informed me that he has a pair of AR2A speakers which he is not using.

So I have this situation covered.

As for myself, I chose to replace my AR3a tweeters with the HIVI Q1R.

I have actually swapped out the originals with the HIVI a couple of times and prefer the replacements by a wide margin.

Thanks again.

You guys are the best!

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