AR 4x speakers

As I have mentioned before I found these speakers and did what I could to rehab them. I cleaned the pots, and the tweets came back to life...no problem with them. I also used some Aleens flexible fabric glue on the cloth surrounds that see could see through in places.

Upon originally testing them out (I used a car CD discman for space purposes on my work bench) they sounded GREAT.

Now I have put my system together, and find that they still sound great with CD. Unfortunately I get a slight muddy sound on certain bass notes when playing a record. When I use my tuner it gets really noticeable to the point of being irritating, almost like a blown/damaged woofer.

I have tried 3 different tuners. I have tried 2 different receivers (Akai AA 1125...25 watts...MCS 3226...26 watts) and the sound is the same. I know these are low powered BOTL and might be part of the problem.

I did not replace the capacitor during my rehab. Could this be the problem?
Any thoughts or suggestions would be great. My brother is going to give me a Sansui 7900Z receiver, so the power problem should not be an issue in the future. Thanks All.... Bryan

I'd say it's more common for these speakers to sound a little dull and muted on the top end. Bass is generally very pleasant, although not very deep. I don't think what you are hearing is normal for these speakers. I don't have any suggestions, hopefully others will.

http://murphyblaster.com/content.php?f=AR4x.html

AR4x revealed:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=123113

Perhaps you are just trying to play them too loud. Those low power receivers may be starting to clip, which is even more likely to happen if you are boosting the bass with the bass control and loudness switch. Try playing them with the tone controls set at flat (no boost or cut) and loudness switch "off". Most AR stuff sounds best that way. The AR4 x is not efficient and is probably soaking up most of what those receivers are capable of delivering.

When you doped the surrounds with Aleens, did you lay the woofers on a flat surface, with the cone facing straight up toward the ceiling? As they age, the surrounds will lose shape and the cones will sag. What you may be hearing in the low notes is the voice coil rubbing. I have some old Scott's that did this, I took the woofers out and laid them flat,cone up and doped the whole surround evenly, this worked great. You might also try rotating the woofer 180 degrees.

PatA said:

When you doped the surrounds with Aleens, did you lay the woofers on a flat surface, with the cone facing straight up toward the ceiling? As they age, the surrounds will lose shape and the cones will sag. What you may be hearing in the low notes is the voice coil rubbing. I have some old Scott's that did this, I took the woofers out and laid them flat,cone up and doped the whole surround evenly, this worked great. You might also try rotating the woofer 180 degrees.

Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for the responses....

Yes I had the cones facing up when I put the Alleens fabric glue on. I still hear the "muddy thump" even when the receiver volume knob is on 2 (5 being halfway)

I was wondering if they are not sealed enough. I reused the original "foam rings" that were under both drivers...they seemed intact.

I know the capacitors are the originals. IIRC one speaker had a large metal capacitor(?) in it and the other didn't. I am not sure how much of a roll capacitors play in the low end.

I will turn the woofer 180 degrees, and hope that helps. It seems strange that FM tuner performance is "muddy/thumpy" and there is only a hint of it with CDs.

Cap is the high frequency band pass for the tweeter. It prevents the tweeter from seeing the lower frequencies.

You might try the "push test" to see whether the acoustic suspension is working properly.


A closed cell foam gasket works well sealing the woofer to the box. If you are using the original gaskets, chances are you have leaks. Some people use rope caulk, but it makes a mess.

Hope this helps ...

Regards,
Jerry

Thanks Jerry... good info.

I tried that out and 1 speaker (the thumpier of the 2) returned much quicker than the other.

I will seal both of them better as well as rotating them 180 degrees.