deek

Three questions about the verticals series:

1) at what point did AR stop putting the acoustic mats on the Verticals? (What would be the approximate number of systems out there without acoustic blankets)

2) when restorers do their thing, are the mats replaced? Removed?

3) (Totally fishing here...) What would a complete set of acoustic mat parts be worth to you? (I'm talking about the thick felt mat, the two smaller foam pieces and possibly even the adhesive foam rings around the woofers)

-Deek

AR rebooted it's 8" bookshelf speakers a dozen times starting with the AR4 in '65.

My personal favorite is the AR17; the last veneered model with a paper cone. I have two pair and I feel they are the best compact system that would truly fit on a bookshelf. (I find it humorous to think a 12" system would comfortably fit on any bookshelf.)

So what's your favorite?

-deek

I don't know how I missed it, but beware if you're buying a refoam kit from Simplyspeakers, it does NOT come with replacement dustcaps.

Whether you use the cap on or cap off (and shim) method, there's a pretty high likelihood your dustcaps are toast. I know mine are and it was my mistake, but it's disappointing nonetheless.

The Parts Express kit does.

The MSound kit does.

So I ordered new ones from Parts Express today; cheap but that's another shipping charge I could have avoided.

-deek

Greetings!

I have several pair of vintage AR loudspeakers, my favorites are the AR9's I just re-purposed in my living room as the main speakers in my 7.1 surround system. I wasn't surprised to find the foam rotted and completely destroyed on the 12" bass drivers as I replaced the surround on the 8" midbass drivers shortly after I acquired them.

For the purposes of my surround system, I intended to simply use the top binding posts and use the upper-end along with a subwoofer for the time being.

I was surprised, however, to find that the level switches are causing intermittent connections and drivers are dropping out occasionally. Selecting a different attenuation value will occasionally cause that driver to drop out completely. Wiggling the switch or otherwise disturbing it will usually return the driver to it's normal operation.

While I have the 12" drivers out to restore them I plan to repair the switches. I have searched this excelent site and found several references to AR9 restoration threads, but none detail how the switches are removed from their bezels.

Does anyone have some detail about how this is done? I can't see far enough into the enclosure to tell how the switches come out and I don't want to just yank on them and hope they come out... 30+ years is not kind to most plastic of course.

Thanks in advance for any help; I can't wait to get my surround replacement kits and get these things back to their former glory!

-deek