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In Reply to: RE: I've listened to the AR2ax speakers with old caps and now with new caps posted by Muzikmike on August 06, 2010 at 11:06:29
Mike, no mention of how much your ARs are elevated and what kind of stands. Could the "hooty or boxy sound" be caused by floor coupling? Is the 20" wall dimension to the back of the cabinet or the front baffle? I would look for at least 36" from the wall to the back of the cabinet. With the AR bass, you should not need room reinforcement.
Also, is it too obvious to ask if they are vertical rather than horizontal?
"Great googlie-mooglie . . . is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?"
Follow Ups:
Elevated, 10" steel stands. I'll pull them even further out than I was going to! 20" from the wall to the back of the speaker wasn't going to do it! I have them sitting on the stands vertically, the way I should not be when I begin examining which Bourbons are left in my liquor cabinet.
That 36" must be awfully close to optimum. I didn't want to pull them out that far into the room, pulled them out about 32" and it seems the boxiness is "almost" all gone. I'll pull them out the other 4"!
Some very interesting differences! Brushes on drums...very, very good. Listening to a piano/bass/drum trio , Adrian Aaies on piano; Pandora radio. Very good Jazz...I think I'll look for his CDs (this is exactly why I wanted cyberadio).
Drum sounds good as does the piano. I think I'll put something with full-range sound on and have a listen.
Thank you!
******************************
There was a time when all good men came to the aid of one another. Now there are too few good men and they are too busy to come to the aid of themselves.
Then you'll be thrilled with the bass but they need 100 watts or more.
For more than a decade my AR3a speakers were driven by a Marantz Model 18 receiver rated IIRC at 40 watts per channel. The Model 18 is a heavy monster so maybe it can deliver the needed current. In any case, that combination sounded fine. I still have the AR turntable with its Shure V-15 II cartridge, the Model 18, and the AR3a speakers. I haven't fired them up in several decades. I hope to find a place to set them up again, but all the units probably should be refurbished before I do that.
db
Back in the '60s, it was common to see dealers advertise "systems" that included AR-3s and Dyna Stereo 70s (35 wpc, at best). At that time I had AR-4s driven by a Stereo 70. From then to now I could not understand why anyone would recommend a 35 watt amp with those speakers.
Fast forward to current times; a friend found a nice pare of AR-3as and had them restored. To audition the restoration he connected them into his main system with Halo JC-1 monoblocs rated at 800 watts into 4 ohms. He stated he could not believe how well the speakers performed, unlike anything he'd ever heard from them in the past.
This is not to argue that your Marantz did not work. Only to suggest that you might be surprised with the hidden potential in your ARs when driven by more clean power.
"Great googlie-mooglie . . . is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?"
I had a Stereo 70 around for awhile, and I can assure you it wasn't the equal of either the Marantz 18 or the MC 60. Watt ratings obviously just aren't all the same. The watts from the 18 and MC 60 seemed much bigger. This was a time when horsepower was wildly exaggerated, and maybe watts were too. I remember comparing the specs of a Pioneer receiver to those of the Marantz 18. Whereas the 18 spec was RMS wideband, both channels driven simultaneously, with very low distortion, the Pioneer's watts were some sort of music watts defined much less stringently. IIRC the MC 60 required .5 v input for 60 watts, the Stereo 70 1.5 v. Obviously very different gains.
But I might try my ARa speakers with an amp I have that's rated at 250 watts into 4 ohms, although I really want to use them with the 18, the system from my post doc days.
db
Absolutley, I also think that about 100 wpc is the minimum needed for AR 3 and 3a's to reveal their true potential.
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