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Acoustic Research AR-2A Rebuild

1ADSarge

1ADSarge

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I acquired a pair of these for free at a local pawn shop believe it or not. They are in desperate need of attention. The previous owner apparently did not like the wood finish and decided to let there kids paint them white (well, it looks like kids painted them). I am planning on refinishing these to a nice darker stained finish. There were no grills with them. All the speakers sounded great when I hooked them up. I didn't hear any crackling or bottoming out. In a few weeks, I am going to replace the dual 4in mids and the 10in woofer with an updated pair from this site: http://www.abtechservices.com/arspeakers.html
I am also thinking about replacing both potentiometers and capacitors since I have it taken apart anyway. I'll try to document my steps the best I can with pics so if anyone runs across a beat up pair of old AR2,3's, this will hopefully be of some help.
Here are the current pics of them now:
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I thought all AR speakers used dome tweeters and mid range drivers? Your sample has dual cone mid range speakers. Did they make them that way or were they modified? I owned a original pair of AR 2Ax speakers until the woofer surrounds gave out. Thanks.
 
I got quite a bit done on the first cabinet yesterday. I will post up the pics and step by step shown in the pics I will be posting tomorrow....well later on today I should say. It's a bit too late for me and the camera I took all the pictures on just dies a few minutes ago.
 
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By the way, thank you Chicks, I just noticed your link there. I read through your thread which will help quite a bit! I ended up breaking 2 of the little wires for the tweeter on the one cabinet. Your repair saved me a lot of grief on figuring out how to fix it. I saved your thread in my restoration bookmarks folder for future reference.
 
Here are the updates as promised:D

First I removed the screws from the woofer, the tweeter, and the plastic piece that housed the dual mids. I put the screws to each item in there own cup to make sure I didn't replace them in the wrong place.

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Removing each speaker was a bit of a chore simply because whoever opened this up last time used ALOT of calk to seal the speakers. After digging most of the calk up, I was able to get a long flat head screwdriver wedged under the woofer to pry it out. The tweeter was a bit of a pain also. I was not careful enough and broke 2 of the little wires that connected the tweeter to its terminals but thanks to Chicks, I have an easy solution to fix it.

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After pulling the woofer out, I found that the speaker wires are soldered to the speaker terminal. Thankfully, I had a solder iron on hand. :yes: After pulling the woofer, there is a thin piece of material between the speaker and the stuffing in the cab. I had to very carefully pull it out as to not tear it. Next I removed the stuffing from the cab and placed it in a brown paper bag.

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And here is the guts of the cab revealed

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After removing the speakers and stuffing, now cam time to get rid of this nasty white paint. I used a heavy duty paint remover, plastic scraper, rough sponge to remove excess paint, and an assortment of sanding paper. Here are the pics of progression.

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So, after I removed the paint, there was some wierd aqua colored paint on them. Almost done with this first one. I just need to do some touch up sanding with the dremel and then sand down the front of the cabinet.
I am still searching for a company that makes the factory replacement capacitors for these. More updates to come....:banana:
 
Finished getting the cabinet sanded and got the face painted. Now all that's left is staining the rest of the cabinet, replacing the capacitors and potentiometers. I cleaned up the woofers and tweeter pretty well. Also got the tweeter leads fixed. Can't wait to get them back in!

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You probably want to just clean up the pots, pretty easy to do (hard part is getting to them). The caps are more than likely OK as is. Lookin' good - lots'a choices on refinishing those. The ones with the raw plywood finish were meant to be painted.
 
Why do you want to replace those woofers?

They are the very-desirable ones with the cloth surrounds.
 
Lookin' great there buddy!
I agree with KGBMAN. I wouldn't want to replace those woofer. You want to keep the drivers original if possible.
 
That is true. I actually decided to keep them but the mids are quite weathered so I am considering finding a suitable replacement.
 
davidro said:
Mate I'd keep the mids as they are unless they're out of order.
Click to expand...

:yes: Mine look lumpy, but sound fine. BTW, I believe these were meant to be positioned horizontally, at ear level. The two inward-facing mids will then disperse the sound widely. You'll even find AR sales literature where these were veneered on three sides, with one of the wide sides left raw, for horizontal positioning. The dome mid on the later AR-2ax model allowed for wide dispersion in either orientation.
 
Ahh, okay, so the speakers are ment to be positioned on their sides? So would stands be required for optimum listening experience?
 
audiophile03 said:
Ahh, okay, so the speakers are ment to be positioned on their sides? So would stands be required for optimum listening experience?
Click to expand...

Yes. They were designed as 'bookshelf' speakers and should be near ear level and on their sides.

If your midranges are blown, send me a PM.
 
My father had a pair of those when I was a kid. I remember he bought a kit from Ar that had an adapter plate to convert to the AR 2ax midrange driver.
 
I was under the impression that AR's were supposed to look rough and haggard under the grills :D If it's not broke don't fix it.

I love how the cabs look with the paint stripped. Anybody tell you that you're doing a wonderful thing? Because you are.
 
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