1 reply to this topic

[Gaston]

Hi everyone, I am new to the forum.
I’ve been reading those pages previously a lot, but now, since I obtained a lovely sounding AR-6’s, I will need some help from you guys.

So, I would like to restore my AR-6's and make them not only perfectly functional, but also would like to restore the cabinets and grilles.
The cabinets will be sanded, repainted and oiled, maybe even lacquered but for that to be nicely done I will have to remove the LF and HF drivers.

 

- Is it a good idea to have the cabinets veneered with natural veneer or it would be best to leave them as they are?

- While restoring the cabinets, perhaps it would be a good idea to replace the capacitor(s) and the foam surrounds too? The capacitors have never been replaced.

The surrounds look like new but the job was not done with love obviously. They sound great, but the foams are twisted at some places and not nicely glued and I would like this to be done by a professional.

- Will I also need to replace/change the "cabinet sealer" material that I see it protrudes from both drivers?
 

Mine are with 3 position switch on the back (normal/decrease/increase), those are referred as European model and the previous owner told me they have the ceramic LF driver.

I also have some other questions:

I am driving them with NAD 3020. Is this amp enough for them? Will they benefit from extra power?

And there's one thing that concerns me... while listening several songs that are bass heavy (on high volume but far from distortion level) I've heard a reaping/braking sound... I was afraid that I have damaged the LF drivers for good, cause it sounded just like the paper cones were teared. Very unpleasant sound. Nothing was damaged luckily. Now I never cross that volume threshold but I do feel like they are not close to their maximum potential. After all, NAD 3020 is 25W per channel and they should handle up to 100 wpc. 

Can this be due to the sealing material not doing his job properly?

Thank you for reading this long post, I know I am asking too much but I am new in the vintage world and this is an unknown territory for me.

 

[ra.ra]

Hi Gaston, and welcome to CSP.

 

Congrats on your new speakers - - I am a huge fan of the smaller AR two-way speakers, so I am always pleased to find others with similar enthusiasm. All of your initial thoughts are valid concerns, and several voices will weigh in to give solid advice and opinions on all of your questions.

 

The best thing you can do is to upload several good photos of your speakers, and then we can all assess your cabinets, crossovers, grilles and speaker drivers. With a few good pics, the advice you get will be much more specific and helpful to your efforts. If you cannot figure out how to upload pics, just ask, and you will get assistance. Typically, if you keep the images under 100 KB, the image quality should be more than sufficient.

 

Looking forward to your follow-up post.