New acquisitions here in AR dryland

[KlausDK]

Here in Denmark, far from the AR mainland, the time between interesting AR speakers up for sale tend to be very long. My favourites are the speakers from the 70'ies, but lately I have had to stretch into the 80'ies, to have something to play with. On the other hand, these two are the first samples of these models I've seen offered for sale, in the 10+ years I have monitored the market for second hand AR speakers here in DK.

Last year I managed to lay my hands on a set of AR-58s speakers, real walnut veneer cabinets in very good condition, foam surrounds have been replaced and capacitors updated in the cross-over:

Then this week I managed to acquire another (for me) first timer, a set of AR-98LS Improved in very good condition and complete with front grills and also in real walnut veneer cabinets. These still remains to be restored. I am not sure that I like the strange upper midrange/tweeter combo in these speakers, but I look forward to see what they'll sound like once restored. Still marketed as a bookshelf speaker, however, with a heigth of 30", I will have a hard time to find a bookshelf here at home, where they will fit The "Shelf/floor" switch is not present on my speakers.

BRgds Klaus

[DavidDru]

Great Klaus!

So are Dynaco speakers readily available there? What others?

[ra.ra]

Looks like a couple of nice finds there, Klaus. I don't know the 98LS at all, but any speaker with 19 or 20 crossover components has received some fairly serious engineering consideration. Is there any chance that your two new pairs of speakers share the exact same woofer?

The 58s (not very common here in the U.S. either) is regarded as a terrific 'bookshelf' speaker, and your specimens appear to be in very fine condition. It has always seemed to be a slightly simplified version (i.e. switches deleted) of the excellent AR-11, and even though the drivers, specs, x-o components, baffle layout and cabinet volumes of these two models are all different, they still strike me as closely related first cousins of each other.

Interesting to see your re-built crossover relative to cap choices. Appears that you used mostly relatively low voltage electrolytic Mundorfs, but maybe a couple of film caps? Nice work, let us know your listening impressions.

[KlausDK]

Great Klaus!

So are Dynaco speakers readily available there? What others?

Dynaco speakers were made in Denmark by the "Scandinavian Dyna Production Company", and speakers for the Danish market were marketed under the brand name "Scan-Dyna" but with the same model name/numbers. Scan-Dyna speakers were typically producet as 4 Ohm units, whereas the Dynaco branded speakers were 8 Ohm. The reason that AR speakers from the golden period from the late 60'ies to the start of the 80'ies are rare here is, that they were quite high priced in Denmark.

BRgds Klaus

[KlausDK]

Looks like a couple of nice finds there, Klaus. I don't know the 98LS at all, but any speaker with 19 or 20 crossover components has received some fairly serious engineering consideration. Is there any chance that your two new pairs of speakers share the exact same woofer?

The 58s are equipped with the square magnet AR 12" woofer, also used in AR-91, and some of the late 70'ies production speakers, whereas the 98LSI has Tonegan woofers; they do not look like they have ever been opened, so it seems they were produced that way?

Interesting to see your re-built crossover relative to cap choices. Appears that you used mostly relatively low voltage electrolytic Mundorfs, but maybe a couple of film caps? Nice work, let us know your listening impressions.

I have used quality non-polar electrolytic capacitors for de-coupling cap's, whereas for the coupling cap's, I have used polypropylen film types. So far I would say, that the soundstage is probably better defined with the 58s compared to my 3a Improved, but the sound quality as such is maybe marginally less musical/warm, difficult to describe, but I think I like my 3a Improved better.

BRgds Klaus

[ra.ra]

Thanks, Klaus, I understand your cap selections now when I look at the x-o pic and the schematic. Sounds to me like a very sensible strategy, and in fact one that I think I will adopt when a similar situation comes along. Regarding the woofers, the mention shown below is what made me curious, and I possibly mis-read the intended thought.