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A Pair of AR-4x - Lucky Out-of-Town Goodwill Find

Robie

Robie

Live it or live with it.
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Last Friday, on my way to visit my son at Grinnell College for a big college cross country meet, my wife and I stopped in Iowa City, IA to have lunch with the in-laws who happened to be there for a doctor appointment. After lunch we headed to the nearby motor home campground to visit some more with the in-laws. On my way to the campground, I noticed a Goodwill Store and suggested to my wife that we stop there, after our campground visit.

I walked into the Goodwill store and immediately headed to the electronics section. I couldn't believe it but there on the floor were a pair of AR-4xs (SNs: FX321619 and 321396) sitting amongst the typical larger but crappier Sanyo and Radio Shack speakers. I almost passed on them as the price on each speaker was $8.38 and figured my wife would kill me if I spent $17 on yet another pair of speakers without even knowing if they worked. However, after I fondly remembered hearing my first decent stereo (Snade's brother's AR-4xs and AR integrated and AR-XA), I decided I had to buy them even though money's pretty tight right now.

I couldn't believe it when my wife informed me that they were priced $8.38 for the set of two as we loaded them into a cart.

After driving them to Grinnell and then back to Chicago, I got 'em home and pried the covers off today. They are in fair to good shape but the tweeters weren't working. Lots of L-pad exercising later I got the tweeters to work but so far, only in a couple of crossover settings. I worked on the finish a bit with Howard's Restor-a-Finish and washed the grilles in Woolite. The grilles cleaned up nicely even though some stains are still slightly visible.

They now look and sound pretty darn good. Boy do they have bass even just sitting on my garage work bench (Absolute Sound "Hearts of Space" test CD). Actually a bit too much bass even with my massive 5W/ch Super-T Amp so I tightened the speaker nuts and they are much better now. I suppose I'll need to redope the surrounds but that'll wait for another day.

These AR-4xs are pretty nice and I'm feeling pretty lucky with my speaker finds of late.

Pics later today.
 
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a little deoxit, a recap which is cheap, some permatex form a gasket on surrounds and your in business. bought mine at sally ann's for 4.26 and did what i dsecribed. pretty darn nice set of speaks for less than 20$...
 
Great find! My dad and I have 3 or 4 pairs of the 4x's, and yes, the pots are very touchy and you have to clean them VERY thoroughly in order to get them working smoothly again. DeoxIT is your friend.
 
Hey buddy, you can recap, clean the pots and patch the surrounds and then I'll come over and you can do the same to mine. ;)

Nice find. Snade
 
Pics

Pics in my messy garage while the Restor-a-Finish finishes off-gassing and before the Feed and Wax.

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OLDisGOLD said:
DAMN !!! ......... those are pretty ............. I love the classic AR white/cream colored grill cloth on those & their other models. Nice restore on the cabs too.
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Wish I could say the refinish was the result of lots of hard work and skill but the Howard's and a little 0000 steel wool makes refinishing really easy and fast.

The grille cloth cleaned up very nicely with a bath in some Woolite and a dry session in the sun. I did spray some Spray and Wash on some of the stains before my final rinse and that really helped fade the stains even more.

Also, thanks, Cactus Bob.
 
They are nice, aren't they (I'm with Snade on the replacement work too :D I have my parents' original AR-4xes).
 
Robie said:
Wish I could say the refinish was the result of lots of hard work and skill but the Howard's and a little 0000 steel wool makes refinishing really easy and fast.

The grille cloth cleaned up very nicely with a bath in some Woolite and a dry session in the sun. I did spray some Spray and Wash on some of the stains before my final rinse and that really helped fade the stains even more.

Also, thanks, Cactus Bob.
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I haven't tried any Howard's yet, but I've used Murphy's oil soap for cleaning & Scott's liquid gold for doing a pretty decent job of hiding small scratches & restoring moisture to dried cabs. I'm not one for a perfect finish anyways. If the woods got a few small battle scars & nicks it's OK. I like the antique look anyways.
 
Thanks, Wajobu. I can't wait to do a shootout between the 4xs, my A25s and my DIY Indignias. They all really have their strengths.

BTW, I forgot to mention that both speakers have their back panel instructions and 1/2 warranty cards intact but one is a bit dog-eared.
 
Awww Jeez why can't I find a pair like that?

good for you!

that is my holy grail! One day I will get some even if I have to pay big bucks for them!
 
Very nice catch! They're looking good already, even before the Feed-N-Wax, and for less than ten bucks, well, they are worth that even in tight times. :music: :thmbsp:

Mine are the less common (but originally cheaper) unfinished (never veneered) kind. One was damaged when I got it; it looked as if someone had kicked it or hit it with a hammer, tearing the grill and woofer cone. I used the woofer and grill from a battered orphan to bring it back to its original state. No Restore-a-Finish needed on the bare wood, but the Feed-N-Wax worked well on making it look good again. Now I have one working pair and a spare tweeter, crossover, etc... I still have the extra cabinet, because I don't want to throw it in the trash, but it will have to go out soon, somehow.

The bass on these is a bit boomy, IMO; that is, the bass you hear includes some cabinet resonance. You can experiment with dampening it and using bracing if you wish, but it will affect the sound --probably deliberate voicing(?)-- of the speaker.

I'll probably eventually sell mine as part of my downsizing efforts, but they've been a fun speaker to own and so far I haven't brought myself to the point of parting with them. It's nice to know that they could make speakers of that size sound so good, long before the formulas had been worked out and computers were around to help designers zero things in.

One last comment: you may need to open up those pots and clean them manually -- even hit them with a dremel wire-wheel!-- to get them really clean and shiny again, with good signal transmission and no drop-outs. The corrosion inside those old AR controls can be BAD! In some cases, a complete replacement (or taking them out entirely and substituting an equivalent resistor) is needed. Check the old threads on restoration of the various models (2ax in particular, IIRC) for pics and details, if you aren't familiar with this subject. It has been discussed and shown very thoroughly in the past around here. [Sorry if I'm telling you what you know already: you've been a member long enough to remember those, but I don't know if you caught them at the time, and perhaps some other, newer owner will benefit from it being mentioned.]

Again, congratulations on the thrift-shop 4x "score" and the cleanup - those speakers look GOOD! :thmbsp:
 
you may need to open up those pots and clean them manually -- even hit them with a dremel wire-wheel!-- to get them really clean and shiny again, with good signal transmission and no drop-outs.
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This is what I do every time I clean AR pots. Coat the coil and the little turning metal piece (sorry I don't know what it's called, but it's detachable) in DeoxIT and go over them evenly with a Dremmel soft wire wheel until they shine like the sun. Then I hook the speakers back up, turn on some jazz, and work the pots until their operation is nice and smooth.
 
Thanks all for the encouragement and information. Flammaster, I'm convinced that checking out of town thrifts, particularly in college towns, might prove fruitful.

I've recapped several speakers but not attempted a pot rehab. I had one speaker open but stopped when it looked as if the ceramic pot body was sealed with no openings for DeOxit insertion. My feeble attempts to spray around the shaft proved only marginally successful. My guess is that the pot can be opened via the pot body surface that surrounds the adjustment shaft.

Arkay, I seem to recall the AR-2a rehab but will search for it again.

If I had to guess, these guys have never been opened as the fabric that separated the fiberglass from the drivers looked much better when I first opened them than they did when I tried to rearrange it and put it back together. The fabric is mighty flimsy some 40 or so years later.
 
Very nice find & speaks you have there indeed, Robie!
The cabs are really nice looking.

Rome
 
I found a pair in original boxes at GW too. They look like new old stock with the grills in perfect shape and no stains. I used Howards Feed-n-Wax and wow! Super nice. The only thing I did to mine was a shot of deoxit into the scratchy pots. I use them with a Marantz 2220b and a Teac R2R deck. Lots of bass. Congrats on the nice find.
 
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