DIY speakers using old cabinets

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#21
its a shame foam surrounds always seem to flake to bits over the years... i only use speakers with rubber, i have kef drivers with rubber from the 70's that look pristene. as far as i know foam aids in making the speaker slightly more efficent, however i recon its just cheeeeeper😀. you may be able to re "rubber" them instead of re "foam" them😀
 
#22
Surely rubber surrounds are more resistant & will change the performance of the driver & possible sound completly different? I have a pair of kef Concorde 4 with rubber surrounds which are still good. but I'd like to keep the AR's original & hope they are a step up from my kef's. 🙂
 
#23
Light foam surrounds have a much more benign characteristic with acoustic suspension designs where the mass of air provides the main restoring force. Their job is simply to hold up the cone along with the spider's efforts. No need for the sort of mechanical restoring force rubber surrounds provide. You would wreck AR designs with rubber surrounds. Modern foams are more long-lasting, but nothing lasts forever...🙂

Available in the UK from Speaker Repairs:
Speaker-Repairs
 
#25
mafia1976 said:
Thanks Steve how did you find out the mids are 6.5inch??? 🙂 various forum posts say 6 inch or 6.5 Inch & I'm sure your right but I can't seem to find much..
Click to expand...

It was in this thread post by Lenny:
Forum - Acoustic Research - AR-142, AR SPIRIT 142

You're really going to have to measure the actual cone diameter and other parameters. I think it is 4.75" for the two american suppliers I quoted. Hopefully Speaker Repairs in the UK have got everything right for you. Might be worth talking to them first though. You're going to need two 6.5" and four 8" (?) speaker foams.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Oh, this is interesting. Looks like the second bass unit in each box is a passive radiator. Doesn't affect the refoaming though. LOL
 
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#28
Well speakers finally arrived & look Great, although every driver needs to be refoamed they still all work fine! 🙂
Now it's time to strip them down & get cleaning the old foam off ready for new ones.
Any tips on removing the old glue which hold the rings in & cover screws would be appreciated as its extremely hard?????
 
#29
Your vague thread title will come back to haunt you here, my friend. It doesn't mention Acoustic Research, so you won't get the specialist help you need. 🙁

I've googled lots of restore threads with the old AR-4x for instance which has that interesting cone tweeter and attenuator. Seems like AR use some hefty tarry/glue stuff to get a good but not perfect airtight seal on those cabinets. People use chisels, xylene and acetone to remove stuff, but I'm short on detail.

I'd suggest you google a lot and spend some time here. There's a forum too:
About | The Classic Speaker Pages

But tell us how it goes. 🙂
 
#30
Good point I didn't think about using AR in the title 🙁 the chisel is working ok so far & only taken me about 7hrs to clean most of the glue off. The glue is like a araldite which holds the surround on that sits in the recess covering the screws on speakers! It's flipping tough stuff lol im getting there slowly & only need to clean foam off the cone on the 3 drivers of 1st speaker now 🙂 I've looked at classic speaker pages & no info as such regarding 162's but im learning slowly...
 
#31
There's loads of those refoam videos on Youtube of course. I think some of the refoam kits include the new cardboard for the surround and even new dustcaps.

But, really I can't help you too much here. Sometimes you gotta be a bit of a pioneer. 🙂
 
#32
Can any one shed any light? I am trying to work out the impedance of my speakers including individual drivers. Using my multimeter I have as follows.
Complete speaker = 3.6 ohms
8 inch = 4.8
6 inch = 5.1
Tweeter = 6.6
Does this make sense to anyone ? I measured speaker on rear terminals & individual drivers on connections with nothing else connected.
Are my speakers 4ohm???
 
#34
mafia1976 said:
Can any one shed any light? I am trying to work out the impedance of my speakers including individual drivers. Using my multimeter I have as follows.
Complete speaker = 3.6 ohms
8 inch = 4.8
6 inch = 5.1
Tweeter = 6.6
Does this make sense to anyone ? I measured speaker on rear terminals & individual drivers on connections with nothing else connected.
Are my speakers 4ohm???
Click to expand...
It's a wrong question, if you follow. You really can't have any idea of what you're measuring without knowing how the drivers are connected. You must analyse the crossover with all it's coils, capacitors and resistances to know what is going on with a simple DC resistance measurement.

While the drivers have a simple DC resistance at small signal, the net result through the crossover when you sum it all together depends how they are connected. You really need a good multimeter capable of measuring individual capacitors and inductors and resistances to make much progress.

I always enjoy analysing a crossover, especially since you can then see ways that better components might improve things. The real enthusiasts then order better stuff in the hope of a better sound, because any commercial product is built to a price rather than a specification. Though hopefully the engineer has balanced performance to a near optimal point. Rotel call it the Balanced Design Concept. It really means that there is little point in spending money on a particular aspect without working at other aspects simultaneously. In the case of the AR 162, it ought to be rather good. 🙂
 
#35
All 6 drivers refoamed & I'm now sat listening to them. Thank you to everyone who helped with links & advice etc it's really appreciated 🙂
I assume the foams will have to settle in like buying new speakers??? Although they sound far superior to my Concorde 4's already..
 
#37
I must admit I didn't rush them & although very time consuming (approx 3hrs per driver not including glue drying time) I am very pleased with myself & the results 😀
Who am I kidding I'm flippin ecstatic & have a huge smile!!! Haha
Yes will definitely put a few photos on when I figure out how. I'm just trying to locate 4 dust caps for the 8" as they were damaged then they will be as new.
They have worked out to be a True bargain
Thank you for your help Steve 🙂
 
#38
Photos can be posted via the usual imageshack type websites, or you use the paperclip symbol in the reply page to list and upload as appropriate. If you give them names like Acoustic_research_AR-162, google will find them and make you an internet AUTHORITY on this topic...😱

Flippin' Bargin at, what, £15? 😀
 
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