At the end of summer I picked up some (FREE!) AR-90, cabinets are 5-6/10 but can be brought back to life, drivers don’t appear to be blown but need surrounds on subs and mid-woofers. The surround kit just arrived so time to get cookin They obviously need crossover work so do I...
1.) restore them to originalish or
2.) install 4 sets of binding posts and 2 passive networks (1 for mid/tweet 1 for woofer/subs) along with a bypass switch so they can be bi-amped passively or quad amped with active dsp to each driver? Or?
1.) restore them to originalish or
2.) install 4 sets of binding posts and 2 passive networks (1 for mid/tweet 1 for woofer/subs) along with a bypass switch so they can be bi-amped passively or quad amped with active dsp to each driver? Or?
First, I'd check for the selling price of a pair in good (but original) condition. If it's a good price and I wasn't too bothered about keeping them, restoration & sell would be the way to go.
If I was going to keep them, I'd restore the drivers, do some measurements and design a crossover.
If I was bi-amping, 3-way + sub would be the way to go. The lower the crossover frequency, the bigger (more expensive!) the components, so best to bypass those.
My own preference would be to install an 8-pole SpeakOn on the back, and run external DSP & quad-amp them. However, such a system can be tricky to make user-friendly: these days I use a commercial amp with DSP and a pair of passive speakers, and it gets used much much more than the previous tri-amped DSP setup ever did.
Chris
If I was going to keep them, I'd restore the drivers, do some measurements and design a crossover.
If I was bi-amping, 3-way + sub would be the way to go. The lower the crossover frequency, the bigger (more expensive!) the components, so best to bypass those.
My own preference would be to install an 8-pole SpeakOn on the back, and run external DSP & quad-amp them. However, such a system can be tricky to make user-friendly: these days I use a commercial amp with DSP and a pair of passive speakers, and it gets used much much more than the previous tri-amped DSP setup ever did.
Chris