Acoustic Research AR3a Floorstanding LoudSpeakers – made in the USA – Pair of 100% Repaired and Fully Operational Loudspeakers. Crossover totally rebuilt using Solen Metalized Polypropylene CAPS from France and other VERY high quality non-polar capacitors, spent over a hundred on caps alone to get the crossover properly rebuilt! Reostats have been rebuilt and restored or replaced with new high quality equivalents, these are actually better than originals – see last PIC. The original bass drivers are present with redone surrounds. Original type speaker grill material was attached to new frames; new AR badges also added to grills. Installed and thoroughly tested brand new tweeters and midrange drivers for both speakers! (same specs as originals – exact AR replacements obtained from AB Tech and Simply Speakers, spent several hundred to get the correct and best replacements-see receipts). AR drivers and crossover components do not last forever, test them carefully and you will see. Good but not perfect cosmetics (some small dings and scratches are present – There are several PICS of each speaker to show all sides). 1 A small clear plastic tab was fashioned and attached at the bottom of each speaker grill frame to make grill removal easy and quick! (usually a problem with this model) — simply grasp the clear tab and pull out and then gently downward to remove the speaker grills No. The new driver replacements have much improved output characteristics over the original driver design and therefore do not require any damping material like originals. But you can always listen with and without them in place and decide which sounds better! The difference in sound is very subtle. 3 With new replacement drivers I was able to eliminate all the ugly wiring/black tape dangling off the front face of the speaker — I’ve retained the terminal strip itself on the front but all wiring now feeds through the back into each driver — it is much cleaner in appearance! 4 Grey rope caulk is used beneath every driver mount to deaden resonances that would otherwise couple in a sympathetic manner with the plywood cabinet. The end result of this simple mod is critical and very audible as there is much less grunge in the audible spectrum from the resonant wooden cabinet. You must hear these speakers to believe the fidelity possible with a good-sized bookshelf speaker pair straight from the 1970’s. Bass is more than ample and incredibly tight. Stereo imagining is incredibly precise with a midrange that is almost spooky… Human voices float between the speakers with a convincing and real presence that is a tribute to the crossover designed by Teledyne Acoustics. With high quality Solens non-polar caps in the crossover they are superbly smooth and can most likely take on modern speakers at several times the cost! I really do not want to part with these… They sound that good. But I have too many other projects to get started so these have to be moved out. You probably won’t be disappointed. For more vintage audio speakers see my other listings. The item “Vintage AR3a Speakers Fully Restored /w New AR Tweeter & Midrange drivers” is in sale since Monday, October 21, 2019. This item is in the category “Consumer Electronics\Vintage Electronics\Vintage Audio & Video\Vintage Speakers”. The seller is “straylight” and is located in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. This item can’t be shipped, the buyer must pick up the item.
- Model: AR3a
- Brand: Acoustic Research