Ahhh...large diameter woofer acoustic suspension... I know the AR's cost more to begin with, but the large two-way Advents sounded smoother, more dynamic and less polite to me than the 3a's did way back when. If you watch and wait I'll bet ya can find a working pair of the big Advents for about half the cost of your proposed redo. And better still you'll find somebody just itching for those AR cabinets. My 25+ year old big Advents are still in hard daily service with my ex-wife. They're on their second set of replacement woofers as the foams rot out too. Overall, if ya only listen to classical, yeah maybe the AR's are more refined. But if ya wanna rock, find the Advents. Enjoy!
Rehab of AR3a Speakers Worthwhile?
Due to an amp change-out, I've got a spare set of Quicksilver 90W tube mono amps sitting around. Instead of doing the rational thing and selling 'em on A'gon, I took a looksee around the house and decided I could put together a "study" stereo if I rehabbed a pair of old AR3a speakers salvaged from my parent's house. I know one tweeter is blown, one midrange is blown, both woofers are subject to foam rot, and both of the L pads are probably rotted to garbage. I poked around at looking for replacement parts on the web, and found a place that will sell me new woofers at $120 ea., and a Dynaudio tweeter/mid/crossover upgrade (for both) at $485. So, I could entirely rebuild 'em for $725. My recollection is that the AR3a's sounded pretty good, and I wonder if I could pick up anything today that would sound better for the price of the upgrade (I know, "old" is probably anathema to most audiophiles, but these cabinets are *solid* and the basic 3a design was good). Any opinions?