Finally, I've finished this project! Foams were quite difficult to find but, now it looks like Audioless Winnipeg Group has another foam supplier of high quality USA made foam, next to Rick Cobbs.
The AR48s are a 3-way speakers with 1" soft dome tweeter, 4" midrange driver and 10" woofer. Woofers foam still need a break-in period as they've only been played recently. Currently less than 2 hours on the foam.
They sound really nice, tweeter has nice dispersion and clarity. I enjoy 3-ways due to the additional midrange driver. The additional driver makes vocals a bit more prominent and full. Good bottom end from a 10" woofer. Overall, a clean and balanced sound, typical of the late AR speakers.
They are in excellent condition. Grills are "mint," badged are present and all drivers are original. Cabinets are also in excellent condition. However, they're vinyl wrapped rather than veneer. The only real flaw is that one midrange driver has a slight dent. While it will not affect the sound tonally, it's still a slight cosmetic flaw. We did not do this, it was done prior to our owner ship.
If you are wondering why one midrange driver has different surrounds, that is because the one on the right has rubber surrounds while the left one had foam. I found it a bit weird that AR would do such a thing. But, I'm not the only one who had such an odd experience of just re-foaming one midrange. Guess AR just put in any midrange driver that was available at the time. I did re-condition the rubber surround.
There will be no difference in sound between the 2 midrange drivers, for those who are wondering. These drivers have hardly any excursion when played, therefore all the surrounds are used for is to keep the cone centered and prevent rubbing of the voice coils.
Overall, they're a nice pair of speakers for anyone looking for a balanced sound signature. Ran them with my HK330c and they sound great. I will admit, the vinyl wrapped cabinet made it hard to take picture as it's quite shiny in comparison to veneer, so the pictures might seem a bit saturated. So, they do look at lot better in person than in the pictures. Maybe I'll try a cloudy day.
The AR48s are a 3-way speakers with 1" soft dome tweeter, 4" midrange driver and 10" woofer. Woofers foam still need a break-in period as they've only been played recently. Currently less than 2 hours on the foam.
They sound really nice, tweeter has nice dispersion and clarity. I enjoy 3-ways due to the additional midrange driver. The additional driver makes vocals a bit more prominent and full. Good bottom end from a 10" woofer. Overall, a clean and balanced sound, typical of the late AR speakers.
They are in excellent condition. Grills are "mint," badged are present and all drivers are original. Cabinets are also in excellent condition. However, they're vinyl wrapped rather than veneer. The only real flaw is that one midrange driver has a slight dent. While it will not affect the sound tonally, it's still a slight cosmetic flaw. We did not do this, it was done prior to our owner ship.
If you are wondering why one midrange driver has different surrounds, that is because the one on the right has rubber surrounds while the left one had foam. I found it a bit weird that AR would do such a thing. But, I'm not the only one who had such an odd experience of just re-foaming one midrange. Guess AR just put in any midrange driver that was available at the time. I did re-condition the rubber surround.
There will be no difference in sound between the 2 midrange drivers, for those who are wondering. These drivers have hardly any excursion when played, therefore all the surrounds are used for is to keep the cone centered and prevent rubbing of the voice coils.
Overall, they're a nice pair of speakers for anyone looking for a balanced sound signature. Ran them with my HK330c and they sound great. I will admit, the vinyl wrapped cabinet made it hard to take picture as it's quite shiny in comparison to veneer, so the pictures might seem a bit saturated. So, they do look at lot better in person than in the pictures. Maybe I'll try a cloudy day.
