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AR2ax rebuild opinions wanted


quigon58

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I'm a new member and have looked at as much info on rebuilding the 2ax as I could. I got a nice set from ebay, they are in good physical shape. The seller claimed they sounded great, when I got them and hooked them up, e-gad they sounded like my parents AM radio from the 1950's. So it was off to "The Giant Throbbing Brain". So here is where I'm at.

The woofers rattled when I played them, found the surround had separated from the basket, they are the older Alinco cloth woofer. So after finding out that I can glue it back on I did that today with Gorilla glue. I used that because I had it. Tomorrow I'll hook them up and see what I have. If they seem ok I'll coat the surround with the Permatex that was suggested in a post. My question on that is should I do the front side only, the back side, or both? I also read that the dust cap is made of the same material, should that be coated as well?

On to the rest, I am going to assume that the pots are junk, either way I would replace them they turn pretty hard. All the other driver work, I connected a audio source to them all. I found a 2ax xo upgrade kit at speaker supply (Layne Audio) for $48 for a pr. Poly caps for mid and tweeter, new level controls. This sounds good to me, has anyone dealt with them? If someone wants to suggest the individual components that's ok but please give specific part #'s from PE or where ever. I'm not an electronics tech, but I can solder and take things apart and put them back together.

My goal is to restore them to be used long term and not have to be fixing something on a regular basis. As I remember from back in the day this speaker was kind of dull sounding, a little more open sound would be good. I ended up getting Rectilinear IIIA's btw. Still have them, hard to beat. Anyone feel free to e mail directly to me or post your thoughts. Paul

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I'm a new member and have looked at as much info on rebuilding the 2ax as I could. I got a nice set from ebay, they are in good physical shape. The seller claimed they sounded great, when I got them and hooked them up, e-gad they sounded like my parents AM radio from the 1950's. So it was off to "The Giant Throbbing Brain". So here is where I'm at.

The woofers rattled when I played them, found the surround had separated from the basket, they are the older Alinco cloth woofer. So after finding out that I can glue it back on I did that today with Gorilla glue. I used that because I had it. Tomorrow I'll hook them up and see what I have. If they seem ok I'll coat the surround with the Permatex that was suggested in a post. My question on that is should I do the front side only, the back side, or both? I also read that the dust cap is made of the same material, should that be coated as well?

On to the rest, I am going to assume that the pots are junk, either way I would replace them they turn pretty hard. All the other driver work, I connected a audio source to them all. I found a 2ax xo upgrade kit at speaker supply (Layne Audio) for $48 for a pr. Poly caps for mid and tweeter, new level controls. This sounds good to me, has anyone dealt with them? If someone wants to suggest the individual components that's ok but please give specific part #'s from PE or where ever. I'm not an electronics tech, but I can solder and take things apart and put them back together.

My goal is to restore them to be used long term and not have to be fixing something on a regular basis. As I remember from back in the day this speaker was kind of dull sounding, a little more open sound would be good. I ended up getting Rectilinear IIIA's btw. Still have them, hard to beat. Anyone feel free to e mail directly to me or post your thoughts. Paul

You've come to the right place for informatio on rebuilding your 2AX. Awondeful speaker well worth the effort to take your time and do things right, My best advice is to stop, do nothing else till you've gathered a lot more information, then take your time and restore these beauties to there original wonderful sound and performace. They will not sound dull. They will not be forward. They are one of the best of the traditional East coast sound - a bit laid back with lots of great tuneful bass.

Read up on the AR 3a Restoration guide. Most will apply to your 2AX's. And make sure your wooffer's VC is centered after your surround to basket fix.

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Personally, I would not replace the pots with aftermarket ones. Unless they are so corroded that the spiral wire is broken, the original pots can be cleaned up, coated with dielectric grease and reassembled. They will work perfectly and probably last a lot longer than you will need to care about.

In any case, the 2Axs are nice speakers and were my first ARs in 1965 or was it '66? I can't recall. :rolleyes:

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You've come to the right place for informatio on rebuilding your 2AX. Awondeful speaker well worth the effort to take your time and do things right, My best advice is to stop, do nothing else till you've gathered a lot more information, then take your time and restore these beauties to there original wonderful sound and performace. They will not sound dull. They will not be forward. They are one of the best of the traditional East coast sound - a bit laid back with lots of great tuneful bass.

Read up on the AR 3a Restoration guide. Most will apply to your 2AX's. And make sure your wooffer's VC is centered after your surround to basket fix.

I've already read the 3a restoration along with many other AR posts. I have already went ahead with reattaching the woofer as per a post here the said it should go back into place on it's own. I hooked them today and the rattle is gone, they sound fine. The next thing I want to work on is the crossovers and pots. Who ever the original owner was took pretty good care of them and I am guessing finally got rid of them when the woofers started to rattle or the pots screwed them up.

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I've already read the 3a restoration along with many other AR posts. I have already went ahead with reattaching the woofer as per a post here the said it should go back into place on it's own. I hooked them today and the rattle is gone, they sound fine. The next thing I want to work on is the crossovers and pots. Who ever the original owner was took pretty good care of them and I am guessing finally got rid of them when the woofers started to rattle or the pots screwed them up.

I've had lots of success with recapping with Slens caps from Parts Express. You can Either clean and reuse your pots or replace with L-Pads and the 25 OHM resistor set up from the 3a restoration guide. I'm about to try the L-Pas/resistors for first time on an AR 5 project.

Make sure to reseal everything up tight and sit back and enjoy.

By the way Layne Audio is a dead site. Nothing for years. But good information.

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  • 1 month later...

They are done. They really sound sweet. Here is what I did. Replaces the caps with Solens. Replaced the pots with the SA-16-AR from jvb electronics, spent an afternoon soldering them together. The cabinets were in very good condition for a speaker from 1965. That was the date on the newest cap in them. One of the cabinets had 1964 stamped in it the other had nothing. Cleaned the cabinets, gave them 2 coats of Waltco. The grilles were also in good shape so I figured I'd try to clean them with Oxyclean. There were a couple of stains on the bottom but they cleaned up nice. They did smell pretty bad when they were wet. I lightly coated the cloth surround on the woofers with the Permatex hi tack gasket sealer. I said to my wife several times while I was working on them " look at this, they would never make speakers like this now". Great craftsmanship on the cabinets.

Some of my observations so far. I switched to a smaller receiver, I had a 85 watt /ch on them but that might be too much for them. With some of the newer cd's I have the bass gets to be too much for them to handle. I put a 45 watt/ ch on it just to remove the temptation. They play plenty loud, but I'm thinking there weren't a lot of 85 watt+ amps around in 1965. I have been playing around with placement. Luckily I happen to have bookshelves in the room I have them in. Well worth the work to bring them back to life. Thanks to everyone who has posted info on restoring this great speaker.

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They are done. They really sound sweet. Here is what I did. Replaces the caps with Solens. Replaced the pots with the SA-16-AR from jvb electronics, spent an afternoon soldering them together. The cabinets were in very good condition for a speaker from 1965. That was the date on the newest cap in them. One of the cabinets had 1964 stamped in it the other had nothing. Cleaned the cabinets, gave them 2 coats of Waltco. The grilles were also in good shape so I figured I'd try to clean them with Oxyclean. There were a couple of stains on the bottom but they cleaned up nice. They did smell pretty bad when they were wet. I lightly coated the cloth surround on the woofers with the Permatex hi tack gasket sealer. I said to my wife several times while I was working on them " look at this, they would never make speakers like this now". Great craftsmanship on the cabinets.

Some of my observations so far. I switched to a smaller receiver, I had a 85 watt /ch on them but that might be too much for them. With some of the newer cd's I have the bass gets to be too much for them to handle. I put a 45 watt/ ch on it just to remove the temptation. They play plenty loud, but I'm thinking there weren't a lot of 85 watt+ amps around in 1965. I have been playing around with placement. Luckily I happen to have bookshelves in the room I have them in. Well worth the work to bring them back to life. Thanks to everyone who has posted info on restoring this great speaker.

Congratulations! You've done a great job on your first pair of AR's.

Mine are from same time period. I like mine with my 85 WPC Sansui 890DB. They didn't have as much deep bass with my 45 WPC Pioneer SX3700 but sounded nice. I think the highest risk of damage is clipping which will happen more with lower power. So don't be afraid of using your 85 watter.

You'll hear everything from passive bi-amping (OK) to ripping them up for "econowave" projects. I like them just they way you have them. All that's left is to kick back and enjoy your favorite tunes in a "new" vintage light!

How about some pics?

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When I refurbished my AR2ax's some time ago I re-capped my crossovers as it seemed to be the thing to do. Everything I read pointed towards re-capping because of the age of the original caps. So I ordered new Solen caps and installed them and connected them and put everything back together. At first I was somewhat disappointed. No, change that, I was disappointed because I did not hear any difference at all based on my memory of the way they sounded before the changeover.

I began to think that the recap was a waste of my time and money as I felt there was no improvement in sound to my ears. I expected at least a noticeable difference but I could not convince myself that it was there (if there was). However, I had also read (with skepticism) that new capacitors and/or new speaker components needed play time to "break in". Well, apparently, that break in time finally took place as I now can honestly say that my "new" AR2ax's sound very sweet to my ears and, without hesitation, have found a permanent place in the master bedroom. Some day I hope to acquire another pair and, perhaps, stack them. I love these speakers.

I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine and just wait until those new caps finally break in. Your work will come to complete fruition when it does. Enjoy!

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Guest oldfart

as far as breaking in C's hahaa, not neccesary, though there is something as rejuvinating older larger c's by slowly bringing them to nominal voltage, especially if it hazs been lying on a shelf ,gathering dust fore some years....NOS....

the same for tubes, , some call this breaking in, actually, with most tubes, they do not perform maximally from the first moment that you fire them up....

two things here, tube break in , firstly, by heating up, the vacuum start to get up to nominal after several hours, and secondly, the electron emission from the kathode

is going to be optimal after several hours of burning in, ..... be carefull with NOS , I use variac and gradually go from 2 to 6.3 volt in 24 hours, then I apply HT, only with old tubes,

maybe best to make it a habit of doing this also with newer oners....

greetings luc aka OldFart :unsure:

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