Ar-1x speakers, any good?

tyella

tyella

Super Member
I just picked up a set of Acoustic Research AR-1x speakers and I can't find any real info on them. I thought I was getting AR-1s, but it seems these are a newer incarnation. I will post pics when I get home, as I'm out of town for work now.

Anybody have any experience with these or know anything about them?

Clumsily mashed out by my thumbs on a cell phone.
 
tyella said:
I just picked up a set of Acoustic Research AR-1x speakers and I can't find any real info on them. I thought I was getting AR-1s, but it seems these are a newer incarnation. I will post pics when I get home, as I'm out of town for work now.

Anybody have any experience with these or know anything about them?

Clumsily mashed out by my thumbs on a cell phone.
Click to expand...

It is a rare AR model. It has the early AR 12 inch woofer used in the AR1/3/early 3a, but with an AR-4x tweeter instead of the much coveted Altec 755.
More info here:
http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=8125

Roy
 
Bummer about not having the 755 tweeter, but looks like cool, rare speakers nonetheless. Now to think of an excuse for the wife to explain another set of speakers.

The cabinets are a little rough, but can probably be spiffied up with a little work. Pics tomorrow night, I promise.

Clumsily mashed out by my thumbs on a cell phone.
 
tyella said:
Bummer about not having the 755 tweeter, but looks like cool, rare speakers nonetheless. Now to think of an excuse for the wife to explain another set of speakers.

The cabinets are a little rough, but can probably be spiffied up with a little work. Pics tomorrow night, I promise.

Clumsily mashed out by my thumbs on a cell phone.
Click to expand...

No excuses needed! Tell her they are extremely rare and will go to the kids some day.

Very cool find and looking forward to seeing your pics.

Glenn
 
Any vintage AR is a good find. Look forward to your pictures and listening impressions.
 
Here they are!
The grill was already partly off, so I just took it the rest of the way off. I won't try the other unless I have to re-dope the surrounds.

AR1x-1_zpsb450584a.jpg


AR1x-2_zpsf1e58a4a.jpg


AR1x-3_zps58eb2337.jpg


AR1x-4_zps7f351973.jpg
 
As rare as these are, I'd hate to mod them in any way.

FWIW, these are rated at 4 ohms. Will they play all right on a Realistic STA 2080?

Clumsily mashed out by my thumbs on a cell phone.
 
Question time. I really want to try these things out.

I'm currently driving 2 pairs of 8-ohm speakers with the 2080. Does it sound reasonable that I'd be able to run a single set of 4-ohm speakers?

Should I try to re-dope the surrounds first?

And finally, there is a foam-like black ring on the woofer that feels rather fragile. Does that need to be addressed before playing? You can see the cracks in the ring in the first pic above.

Perhaps I should have started a new thread....
Thanks,
Tony
 
as long as you don't get crazy with the volume any decent amp should be fine playing those. I would not try driving two pair off speakers though unless you wire them in series.
 
tyella said:
Question time. I really want to try these things out.

I'm currently driving 2 pairs of 8-ohm speakers with the 2080. Does it sound reasonable that I'd be able to run a single set of 4-ohm speakers?

Should I try to re-dope the surrounds first?

And finally, there is a foam-like black ring on the woofer that feels rather fragile. Does that need to be addressed before playing? You can see the cracks in the ring in the first pic above.

Perhaps I should have started a new thread....
Thanks,
Tony
Click to expand...

Tony,

Good decision not to change them. Besides, they would need much more than tweeters to turn them into the AR-3 or any other AR model, with the possible exception of the AR-1W (woofer only).

You can use them with the receiver you have. It is very possible you will get no sound from the tweeters. If that turns out to be the case, it will most likely be caused by corroded level controls.

It is common for this woofer to have degraded foam damping rings on the cone. As long as they are not crumbling and falling off leave them be.

The cloth surround of the AR 12 inch woofer seldom needs to be re-treated. Even if it does, it won't need much. Give them a try! :yes:

Roy
 
Groovy! Thanks for the votes of confidence, Roy and 68custom. I will proceed tomorrow. If I can coax a sound from them, I'll rig up an inline fuse, clean the pots and check for capacitors. Then I will tackle the wood.

Clumsily mashed out by my thumbs on a cell phone.
 
It took me a while to get to these; it's been busy.
The wipers need cleaning. I couldn't get one tweeter to sound at all, and the other only with significant fiddling. They sound a little muddy, so probably need new caps (assuming they have capacitors), and they don't have dedicated tweeters as in the AR-3. The 2.5 inch tweeter handles mids and tops. The bass is certainly there!

There is some water damage to the top of one, with wrinkled veneer and seam swelling underneath. I'm not sure what to do with that, but dealing with that's a long way off.

In a couple of weeks I hope I'll have time to pull them apart, identify capacitors and check the pot wipers.

2014-04-06120636_zps6051eb4b.jpg
 
tyella said:
It took me a while to get to these; it's been busy.
The wipers need cleaning. I couldn't get one tweeter to sound at all, and the other only with significant fiddling. They sound a little muddy, so probably need new caps (assuming they have capacitors), and they don't have dedicated tweeters as in the AR-3. The 2.5 inch tweeter handles mids and tops. The bass is certainly there!

There is some water damage to the top of one, with wrinkled veneer and seam swelling underneath. I'm not sure what to do with that, but dealing with that's a long way off.

In a couple of weeks I hope I'll have time to pull them apart, identify capacitors and check the pot wipers.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y209/tyella/2014-04-
06120636_zps6051eb4b.jpg
Click to expand...

These may have the big can caps like my 3's. They may be fine, and a corroded pot may be why your tweeter has no sound. With my 3's, ended up I had a dead tweeter after I replaced all the pots. Your tweeters seem to show up on fleabay frequently.

Regarding the cab water damage, you may need to strip off the veneer, epoxy or JB Wood Weld the swelled joints, sand down to the original level and re veneer. When you have the drivers pulled, see how the joints look inside. Probably can't hurt to run a bead of epoxy along the seams even if they look ok. Being that these are a rare bird, to me it's well worth restoring these.

Glenn
 
Here's what the inside looks like. Probably not much different than any other AR speaker of the era. Since these are reportedly rare, I thought a pic for posterity's sake would be good.

I bought some Restore-A-Finish and used it on some practice speakers. Holy cow! what a transformation for only 20 minutes of work! I can't wait to tackle the AR1x, but it'll have to wait a while.

I still need to pull the pots, but the retaining screw on the knob is so corroded I can't get it off. The screw hole is full of Liquid Wrench right now, we'll see tomorrow.

AR1xinside_zps85c45fba.jpg
 
One cap is easy enough to replace. The pot is a different story. Once you get it out see how bad it is inside. If the contact disk is badly pitted, and there may even be some material missing, then it's pretty much gone and will need to be replaced. Some guys have fixed the disk by flowing solder on the surface and filing it smooth. Also the pot wiper contact tip could be worn through to where there's a hole. You can also fill it with solder and file down a bit for good contact.

I ended up replacing three in my 3's that were in pretty bad shape.
They work great now.

Before you add anything to refinish the cabs, give them a good block sanding with 220 grit sand paper. The better prepped the better the final finish.

Glenn
 
Great rare find! If the pots aren't completely corroded out you can use my guide to clean and restore them - the link is down there in my signature.

Keep us updated; I've always wanted to own a pair of these, if only for comparison's sake. :)
 
I couldn't get the pot off, but I did open it up. It looks amazingly good inside. I bent the contact plate a bit to ensure it touches on both sides, and I hit the contact points gently with 220 grit sandpaper, but still no tweeter sound. I'll pull the driver and test it next.

Unfortunately, damn real life keeps getting in the way. It may be a month before I can get to this, but I promise to post pics when I get to it.
 
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