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AR 93's


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I recently bought a pair of AR93's (Teledyne, vintage 1985 I suspect) for $120 and just finished replacement of the foam surrounds on the mid- and bass-drivers. That went well. I got the foam surrounds at IMMEDIA SOUND & LIGHT in Worcester, MA for just $6 each. They wanted $40 each speaker if they did the work.

I was hoping to replace the electrolytic capacitors in the crossover networks. I saw the name SOLEN in the upgrade for the AR3 et cetera, and what I was hoping you could give me a line on a source for those capacitors.

I'd also be interested in any comments about other possible improvements to the speakers, by way of retrofit or other reasonably priced upgrades, you might make. I have a small complaint about the speakers being a bit bass-shy but all-in-all the AR93's are pretty nice, especially for the price I paid.

Thanks for keeping the website up, it was very helpful as I was able to get the specs for the speakers from the AR9 family spec-sheet that is there, and it led me to sites that made me believe I could do the surrounds myself, i.e., shims, cone cover removal, et cetera.

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>I recently bought a pair of

>AR93's (Teledyne, vintage 1985 I

>suspect) for $120 and just

>finished replacement of the foam

>surrounds on the mid- and

You got a good deal! I'm a big fan of the AR9 series. I have a pair of AR91's at home that have entertained many people since purchased and they'll be going for many years to come with the refoamed woofers.

>I was hoping to replace the

>electrolytic capacitors in the crossover

>networks. I saw the name

>SOLEN in the upgrade for

>the AR3 et cetera, and

>what I was hoping you

>could give me a line

>on a source for those

>capacitors.

It was quite a while back that I bought the Solen caps for my AR3 upgrade, which has been stalled for a couple years. I may have purchased them from Madisound?? I think you can also order from Solen directly.

>I'd also be interested in any

>comments about other possible improvements

>to the speakers, by way

>of retrofit or other reasonably

>priced upgrades, you might make.

Hmn .. this would be best left to Stephen Tidwell from Layne Audio to address. I've never personally worked on the AR93's, and I never thought my AR91's needed upgrading.

Stephen can also hook you up with the correct Solen parts.

He'll probably make a visit to these message boards soon.

>I have a small complaint

>about the speakers being a

>bit bass-shy but all-in-all the

>AR93's are pretty nice, especially

>for the price I paid.

This you can probably address through the crossover upgrade I would imagine .. the woofers should be pretty robust in the 93's. What type of amp are you driving them with?

>Thanks for keeping the website up,

>it was very helpful as

>I was able to get

>the specs for the speakers

>from the AR9 family spec-sheet

>that is there, and it

>led me to sites that

>made me believe I could

>do the surrounds myself, i.e.,

>shims, cone cover removal, et

>cetera.

I get a lot of positive comments on the site, even though it's been neglected for over two years! I'll have the new site up soon .. really!

Mark

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Hello,

Going through the crossovers and replacing the old electro's with poly caps does make a big difference in the overall sound quality of these, and most speakers. I just finished rebuilding my AR 338's [8" 3-way, think a "baby" 3a] crossovers and the difference was quite amazing, especially on the top-end resolution. The better the drivers the more difference you'll notice, but you can easily hear an improvement even with the simple cone tweeters in the 93's. In addition to improving the sound quality, there is also the mater of durability. Quite a few tweeter failures can be traced back to old [and not so old] electro caps gone bad from age or excess power. If they get overloaded [not hard for a 50v electro] and arc/ short internally, often the connected tweeter goes with them. Modern poly caps do not degrade with age, are self-healing in design, and basically impossible to overload under any home audio situations. The tweeter caps are a small value and cheap, maybe $3-$3.50 each. There will be a much larger cap on the 8" midrange, in the 40-60uf range if I remember correctly, and a straight poly cap of that value will be around $15-$18. For larger values you can get away with a new electro cap bypassed with a poly cap and save a bit of money, but not a lot.

About the only way to "squeeze" any more bass out of the 93's is to do a woofer upgrade. The 93's dual 8's will play quite loud for a sealed system, but they will only go so low. The big limitation here is total cabinet volume...take the very nice stock AR 8" woofers and make the box twice as large and you'd be quite happy with their bass.... but since you can't do that, it comes into a tug-of-war between the driver's Fs and Vas. The driver of choice here is one of the Peerless [Denmark] poly cone models. With an Fs of 15+ Hz lower than the AR woofer, they are capable of considerably more bottom end from the given cabinet size. They are a drop-in fit in most cabinets, but you do have to re-drill the screw holes. These woofers run $56 for the "standard" model which is an admirable performer, to $69 for the all-out large magnet DVC model that is nothing short of spectacular [an 8" that will put most 10's to shame]. Only drawback would be your total cost. Even going the cheapest route for the woofers, you're still looking at over $220 to refit both cabinets. For that type of investment you could spend a few dollars more and build yourself a good subwoofer to fill out the bottom end, leaving your AR's intact.

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