AR-2A restoration started-a couple pics.

GD70

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These are the AR's I bought from the gentleman I met with the amazing audio collection.
The cabs are in great shape, the grills were replaced with black fabric, which I'll change back to AR cloth, or try to find some original grills for this model. When I tested them, only sound from the woofers. The pots did nothing.
I started on the first speaker, pulled the woofer, and oops!, someone has been here already. They did a lousy re-cap job, and the caps aren't even close! Man, I hate sloppy work like this. They put in 2-4.7uf's and a 2.2uf. It should have one 4uf, one 6uf. You guys think these caps could have done any damage to the mids, or tweeter? I assume the other speaker is the same. I plan on ordering caps anyway for these and a pair of KLH Twenty Threes. I have my shopping cart ready with PE to order.

The woofer measured 5.9 ohms on the meter.

The woofer surround needs re-sealing. When I held it to a light, I could see it's porous.

I'm also worried about the tweeter. The dome has lifted some. I have to get some Aileens Tacky glue and see if I can get this glued back down.

I'll pull the pots and see what kind of shape these are in.

Anyone have pics of an unmolested interior, as well as one recapped.

Here's a few pics of what I found.
Glenn



The tweeter.
 
Wow, that "recap" job sure is lousy. You were correct sir! I like that original sealed boxy thingy with both capacitors in it, pretty darned cool. Unfortunately, I don't have any idea what the goofy collection of capacitors will do to the drivers.

Take care and have fun!

Biggles
 
Wow, that "recap" job sure is lousy. You were correct sir! I like that original sealed boxy thingy with both capacitors in it, pretty darned cool. Unfortunately, I don't have any idea what the goofy collection of capacitors will do to the drivers.

Take care and have fun!

Biggles

Those block caps were standard fare for AR's of this vintage.

It's fun, just a shame when crappy work like this was done and you need to undo it.

Glenn
 
Glenn, nice pic of the tweeter. Will that push back to original depth? I need me some of this Aileen's tacky glue I keep hearing about. Actually, I just said that to Diane and she stood up, walked into her "craft" room and came back with a bottle.
Is this the same glue to use if the woofer ring has separated?
 
Hey Glenn, good luck on those 2A's. If anyone can bring them back, I know you can. I've seen your work. :thmbsp: And you were a major help in restoring my 3's, so I have no doubt in my mind these will be singing in no time! :yes:
 
Glenn, nice pic of the tweeter. Will that push back to original depth? I need me some of this Aileen's tacky glue I keep hearing about. Actually, I just said that to Diane and she stood up, walked into her "craft" room and came back with a bottle.
Is this the same glue to use if the woofer ring has separated?

Yes, it pushes back down. The trick will be to weight it down while the glue dries, and not damage the dome.

Glenn
 
Hey Glenn, good luck on those 2A's. If anyone can bring them back, I know you can. I've seen your work. :thmbsp: And you were a major help in restoring my 3's, so I have no doubt in my mind these will be singing in no time! :yes:

Thanks dobyman!

Thankfully, these will be a lot less involved to bring them back.

Glenn
 
Here's the caps and how they are connected. Does this look correctly connected?
I placed an order with PE anyway for Dayton caps.

I'll pull the pots and see what shape they are in.


 
The 4.7 in place of the 4, and the 4.7 and 2.2 in parallel (6.9) should not be a problem, and I doubt you would even hear a difference.
 
The 4.7 in place of the 4, and the 4.7 and 2.2 in parallel (6.9) should not be a problem, and I doubt you would even hear a difference.

That's what it appears it is. Thanks Benz!

I'm still going to replace these caps anyway.

Pulled the pots and there is green corrosion, one cleaned up pretty well. I'll add some dielectric grease reassemble and do a sweep with the meter and see if it's smooth.
 
With those values, definitely go with poly caps, rather than the bipolar electrolytics that are in there now. They sound better and last longer. Parts Express and Madisound sell decent ones at good prices, although you can spend silly money on boutique ones if you really want to.
 
With those values, definitely go with poly caps, rather than the bipolar electrolytics that are in there now. They sound better and last longer. Parts Express and Madisound sell decent ones at good prices, although you can spend silly money on boutique ones if you really want to.

I ordered the replacement caps from PE. Should have them mid week I hope.

Meantime cleaning up the pots.

Thanks!
 
The set that I restored had many problems, including quite a bit of decay of the edges of the midrange drivers. If you have that problem, an excellent product to "rebuild" those edges is Aleens Stretchable Flexible Glue. Fortunately, my tweeters are in decent working condition (albeit with the near-unavoidable loss of output that seems to come with age/stiffening of the diaphragm).

I have a set of 2ax mids, and thought about setting the 2a's up so that I could easily swap out the original dual-mid assembly with the 2ax mids (similar to the upgrade kit that AR offered when the 2ax came out). That way, I could easily transition between listening to 2a's and 2ax's. Still haven't got around to building the drop-in panel, and will also need to rewire the mid circuits with "quick connect" capability. My goal is to get them set up so that the swap would take no more than 30 minutes

Anyway, good luck with yours. I like mine quite a bit...as much as my AR5s (altho the 5's are definitely a "better" speaker, there is something about the 2a's slightly more primitive sound that I just really enjoy). I pair them with KLH Sixes sometimes....good combination.
 
Thanks kc! The mids look to be in physical shape albeit the wavy paper cones, which I've seen in lots of pics on line.

I finished cleaning up the two pots. They look good.
I'm waiting for the new caps before I test them out.

I'll start on the other speaker tomorrow evening.

I'm really curious how these sound, especially compared to the rest of my AR & KLH herd.
 
Thanks kc! The mids look to be in physical shape albeit the wavy paper cones, which I've seen in lots of pics on line.

I finished cleaning up the two pots. They look good.
I'm waiting for the new caps before I test them out.

I'll start on the other speaker tomorrow evening.

I'm really curious how these sound, especially compared to the rest of my AR & KLH herd.

Yes, I've never seen a set of those "tabletop radio" mids with perfectly smooth cones. The paper is quite thin, and getting increasingly fragile. Per the experts I've talked to, the "waviness" makes no significant difference in performance. I have given some thought to using a milk-thin mixture of white glue on them to strengthen them...I don't think you could find a modern replacement for them.
 
I repaired it......I touch of super glue and carefully pushing back down in place. Worked out very well. They sound very nice
 
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