I was over to my friend's farm and the subject of speakers came up. He told me he had a pair of speakers in the other barn (non-heated, open to the weather). Lo and behold, a pair of AR-3 speakers! We brought them over to the heated barn and hooked them up. Of course, no sound from the mids and tweeters, but the woofers worked. The cabinets were awful. They were obviously sitting in water at various times, corner seams split, chip board expansion, driver faces had rusted. This happened 2 years ago where they sat until a couple of months ago when I called my friend up and asked if he would like to sell them. $200 became the agreed price.
The (approx.) 70 hour journey had begun. Drivers removed and tested. Darn mids and tweeters actually worked with the 1.5 volt AA battery test!!!! Got the cabinets down to bare bones. Removed the front facia walnut trim and took my Skill saw to the puffed up bottoms of the cabs. Found some Russian birch plywood at Menards and rebuilt the cabinets, even removing the walnut veneer (too badly damaged to save. I then started the rebuild process which included re-veneering the cab with walnut, re-capping the XO, rebuilding the pots, gluing, cleaning and so on until one day I was done.
Hooked them up to one of my systems with a graphic EQ and started to play some FM thru them. I used the EQ to increase the gain to the mids and tweeters. It actually woke them up from their long, long sleep, as I was told they were in the unheated barn for many, many years.
A few photos:
Now I have the AR-4x, AR-2ax and the AR-3 speakers. I enjoy them lots. The bass out of the 3's is incredable.
Wayner
