Problem w/ one of my speakers

leftwinger57

I was running through my sets this morning and all were sound and true and what they should sound like. I come to my ADC 303ax and the right side is pumping as this wonderful 2 way should and getting either nothing or barely audible on the left side that maybe a dog could here. Test 1. reinserted and locked them down to my speaker selector.
test 2. removed wire from both the beat speaker and the selector and put a continuity tester on it and it's the correct wire.
test 3. I then switched them to an open spot on my selector and nothing still from that side.
Any ideas, polarity is doubled checked and I still like these speakers. I was told to recap would be a nightmare because there is tar goop on the x-over which are a nightmare to get to. They are from the early '70s and I call them the poor man's AR2a.

TNHNDYMAN

Nice speakers, I had a pair a few years ago. If I remember right they had a solid wood back with a cut out insert for the speaker wire to be connected by two plain screws. Double check connection to speaker on back and then maybe remove woofer from front and look inside with a flashlight and see if anything has come loose. Best of luck.

heiney9

Swap speakers

leftwinger57

TNHDYMAn, your absolutely right on all counts w/ slide switches instead of twist pots for mid range and tweeters. My original tweeter blew and I had a pair of KLH #331 I think that foam rotted and I pulled the tweeters and showed them to Mhardy and he said Lew those are Peerless and are keepers. Well I put them in th 303s and sounded better than the originals. About opening the woofer these speakers had the very old yellow fiberglass insulation that itches even when you look at it. I can move this beat speaker and go direct into my amp to see what's what. Thanks guys...

leftwinger57

So I got restless and decided to do some further testing on the beat 303ax. After all fore mentioned tests, I also swapped it to the good side and the problem still exits.To be absolutely sure I put bananas on the amp end and ran a temp wire to the speaker , plugged the nanas into my Adcom and still the faintest of sound. This speaker is beat. More than likely the same thing happened to P-Man when he got a pair of Bostons where 1 speaker was way weaker than the other. He changed the x-overs and still from what I gathered he was not that impressed. These are way to old and to hard to work on and not worthy of repair but they do have I assume 2 good working cloth surround 10" drivers and the 2 peerless tweeters. But before I part them or toss them to the curb this leaves an empty spot on the expander. I really don't think I'll be buying any more speakers but if a set drops by I'll take it. Right now they are stands for my EPI 100V. I will not put back my JBL 2060S they just sounded plain bad compared to all my other sets.

TNHNDYMAN

LEW- give me a day or two to sort some things out at home. Just got my dad out of hospital for thyroid removal due to cancer yesterday. Like I said previously I had a pair which translated for me is ( I still do ha ha). It was an orphan pair though. One was good and one someone had hacked the cabinet to pieces to replace a tweeter. I may be interested in purchasing the lone good one for you or may be willing to try and dig crossover out of the bad cabinet for you and just charge you shipping cost. To much going on today to really find them and make an assessment.

leftwinger57

Tman, forget about it. You've got way to much on your plate and I already spoke to Dave and he said they were point to point x-overs and he couldn't do a thing w/ them. I also had my tweeters pulled and were replaced and just this morning I pulled out the beat side one and got no reading what so ever. Right now the woofer is working and it just might be time to quote Jerry Garcia 'WE Bid You Goodnight'. The x-over all the way in the back looked like it was stapled in and a real pain to deal with and there was enough fiberglass in there to insulate a house. I think it's time for me to look sfor something like Klipsch 4kg


or Fortes or Ohm/Walsh 2xo.

westmassguy

Woofers and the good tweeter may fetch some cash on fleabay Lew.

leftwinger57

If I understood you correctly you still have a pair and one is good and one is beat up. If you want my good one and live anywhere near Jersey you can have it. The walnut veneer is still real good maybe a little tung oil and it will look real purty. One thing though I also had to change out tweeters so in the good now has a peerless but I do have a good original tweeter. These are not grill off speakers anyway. I did do research and me calling them the poor man's AR2a was damn near close.They were direct competition w/ AR and so the 303ax was born. Post or P/M me and we'll see what happens. Both of mine do have grills and both have what appears to be some candle wax on them, not from me.

TNHNDYMAN

I'd still be interested in your working one. Not sure where you are located, and I am in TN so shipping would be a pain, but doable. If you want to unload it, let me know a price via pm and we might work it out. I know they are not world beaters, but they DO sound nice in a vintage NE speaker design kind of way. I've got an Orphan AR-5 as well and hope to find it a mate one day for the heck of it.