I'm excited and need to share!

I couldn't take it anymore. I pulled a pair of tweeters out of some Minimus 7s and stuffed them best I could in the 9s. This is not an optimal set up. I fired them up with my Sansui QR 4500 quad that I use for home theater, and... they sounded like E36 M3. Dear God, what have I done? The Minimus 7s I took the tweeters from are better than this. I can't even hear vocals because the bass is so nasty, flabby, boomy and out of control. Yuck!!

Okay. I calmed down a bit and thought. I know these need a decent amp and the Sansui is not one. Maybe they just need some more damping from a powerful amp that can keep them in line. With low expectations but lots of hope I drug my old Realistic STA 2290 downstairs.

Now, in general, receivers aren't great amps. And I wouldn't call the 2290 a great amp, but it is a good amp. I also brought a Sony linear tracking TT along for the ride. Also not a great unit, but actually, not at all bad. I fired it all up.

Hum. Uhh. Hemm. Mayb.... Yeahhh..... Ohhh! Why yes! Wowzers!

I've never heard a pair of speakers sound THAT different with different amplification. Everything they say is no joke. Now, this is a nightmare set up - the missing tweeters make holes in an acoustic suspension speaker. That's bad. And the Minimus 7s tweeters are 8 ohms and, well, not great. Frankenstein in the worst way.

All the same, this sounds- good. Not great, but good. New caps and tweeters are on the way. Should get here Tuesday. These are trying to do very good things, and pulling it off as often as not. I think they'll be fantastic when I get them sorted.

I'm pleased.

Couple of pictures. Bear in mind the basement is being remodled. Almost done, but not quite. Since it was handy, a pic of my Thorens TD124 as well. It will become well acquainted with the 9s at some point.

They're not that big. Okay. Yes they are.

They make your tv look too small and hung a little high. Tell your wife that from a decorating standpoint, you need a bigger flatscreen.

Margie

Marjorie Suddard wrote: They make your tv look too small and hung a little high. Tell your wife that from a decorating standpoint, you need a bigger flatscreen. Margie

Seconded!

1988RedT2 wrote:

Marjorie Suddard wrote: They make your tv look too small and hung a little high. Tell your wife that from a decorating standpoint, you need a bigger flatscreen. Margie

Seconded!

Turd!

You sound excited as me when I get a new ham radio.

The TV is a little small for the room. We'll get a bigger one down the road, but this will do fine for now. Just dumped a load of cash down there. And besides, with the huge sound, the picture seems bigger!

You mentioned the woofers needing new foam surrounds soon. Is that a DIY? What's that process like, and where to you get the surrounds?

My dad has some newer AR speakers he bought...oh, 10-15 years ago. Big suckers like these, side firing woofers and such. Slightly rounder cabinet. Any idea what model they might be?

Just occurred to me that I have to tell him he's not allowed to do anything with them without first consulting me...

EDIT: Poking around on the Googles looks like they're probably 312HOs.

16vCorey wrote: You mentioned the woofers needing new foam surrounds soon. Is that a DIY? What's that process like, and where to you get the surrounds?

New surrounds are absolutely a DIY job. You can get new foam any number of places. Ebay is easiest for a one off. Some of the ARs, like the 12" woofers on my 9s have foam that's unique, so you have to get the right stuff. When I was neck deep in this stuff, I kept an assortment on hand. Got them from MAT Electronics. "Generic foams" we called them. Most speakers can use generics, but for good stuff, get the good stuff.

Deteriorating foam surrounds are the cheap-skate speaker lovers best friend and worst enemy. It's great when you pick up a speaker for nothing just because they need a few hours of work and almost no money. It sucks when you find a "holy grail" you've searched years for only to find someone replaced the awesome original woofers with replacements from Radio Shack because the foam was shot.

I'll start an AR9 build thread here in a bit and I'll get the re-foam in there. Loads of info on the internet, though. It's not hard, but takes a bit to get the hang of it.

I got my new tweeters today and have had a great time tonight finally hearing these things sing in full voice. Probably the first time they've done so in many years. Loads to do, but I have to say, they already sound amazing. They're going to be giant killers when I get done.

Stay tuned...

alex wrote: My dad has some newer AR speakers he bought...oh, 10-15 years ago. Big suckers like these, side firing woofers and such. Slightly rounder cabinet. Any idea what model they might be? Just occurred to me that I have to tell him he's not allowed to do anything with them without first consulting me... EDIT: Poking around on the Googles looks like they're probably 312HOs.

I'm not familiar with newer AR stuff. They, unfortunately, got sold several times. They even had a newer speaker called AR9, which was kind of the last straw for some of us faithful followers. I've heard they're actually pretty decent for what they are. Not what the old stuff was, but pretty good.

Those 312 HOs look a lot like the newer 9s. I bet they're fine sounding speakers.

Wikipedia has a pretty good write up on the history of AR. It's kind of neat. Ed Villchur invented the acoustic suspension speaker in the 50s. It's a technology that persists to this day with, really, no changes. Remarkable. It's a great story to read through. Some amazing thought went into some of these designs. In the "high end" market, you see things being designed like this, but they cost tens of thousands of dollars. In the 70s and 80s, that kind of thinking was mass produced and resulted in some outstanding products that could be had at realistic prices. Though, if you adjust for inflation, they were pretty expensive even then.