Thanks for the advice, offers and links, all.

I think I'll try DIY with that silver core stuff. You are pretty happy with yours Dingus? Could you tell a difference?

prior to the silver wire IC's i was using a combination of Kimber PBJ's and solid copper magwire. there was nothing wrong with the sound of these, the DIY project was more of an experiment. i am really pleased with the results in my system, much cleaner sound than the PBJ/magwire combo, but with only one exception the reports from others who tried them were that they didnt work well with digital sources. i think i just got lucky with the synergy in my system.

whats the latest John? did you find a buyer for the DX-9's or were you unable to let them go?

I've actually got a guy that wants to come see them this afternoon so we'll see. Like I said I have them priced maybe a little high for this market but that's just because they are not easy for me to let go of.

Meanwhile I'm considering trying that LSi mod but it appears the required resistors are going to be tricky to find locally (Seattle area?) and I haven't sourced them online so far. As far as I can tell from the information I've been able to find I need 1 x 1.5 Ohm @ 22 watts and 1 x 2.5 Ohm @ 22 watts per speaker. I've attached the two schematics in case anyone is curious and might see something I'm missing?

And here is the schematic for the AR9LSIs

Meanwhile, back at the Batcave (always wanted to say that), a recent music session included plugging my Adcom 5500 into my DQ-20i's and the bass was better than I remember. Maybe I'm starting to believe that amps really do make a big difference? The bass, cross referenced with my memories of running a different, lower powered Adcom, is better than my memory would seem to recall.

A buddy of mine from work thought it was the AR9LS's playing (Moment of Surrender from the new U2 album) and was impressed enough that he's now tentatively talked both him and myself into selling him my DQ's, his first pair of 'real' speakers! We'll see.

I still think the DQ have an upper hand over the AR9LSs with a cleaner, more separate mid, but maybe that LSI mod will change that a bit (if I can find the resistors).

well i couldnt read a schematic if my life depended on it, but the resisters you noted look like the only difference between the two. i did a cursory search for them but the 22w value seems to be an oddball, 1.5 and 2.5 ohm are plentiful in 10w. i wonder how critical these values are?

as to which way to go with your main speakers, you are in an enviable situation having to choose between excellence (though final judgment should wait until you do the Lsi mod).

I dunno. I'm no electrician either. Seeing how hard they are to find I wondered if maybe I had read the schematic wrong?

Anyway I emailed the vintage_ar guy on ebay about this, no response yet. Also posted at *ahem* that other forum too to see if someone might have some answers.

Enviable? I'm not to sure about that but thanks for the sentiment. What makes it even more difficult is that my wife still thinks the CVs sound best. She'll let me sell them (they are just collecting dust in the garage) but has sort of hinted that I might be making a mistake. Truth be told while the ARs certainly sound good to my ears I'd be lying if their relative rarity and exotic nature didn't hold at least part of my attraction to them. It makes me wonder if which one of us, me or my wife, are wearing the glasses with the most rose tint? ~shrug~

The DQs would also be very hard for me to part with. Really their only weakness is the low end of the frequency scale and as I said I have a subwoofer that can easily compensate... but a part of me WANTS them to sound good "by themselves"... or ANY speaker to be truly full ranged without a sub, as crazy as that sounds. No real logic here, as hard as I've tried to find it. I suppose I'd have the same problem stacking speakers to get that "ultimate" sound. Some part of me wants a pair of speakers that can sing all by themselves.

i've dealt with Larry (vintage_ar) before, he's a solid resource for AR speakers. you could also pose the question at The Classic Speaker Pages.

Quite a lot, because 22W are the measure of heating nominal dissipable power for that resistor. With a lower W value it can burn and open the circuit. Try one with the same Ohms but higher Wattage.

That's the advice I got from the Classic Speaker peeps too. One helpful soul found me a 55w resistor that might do the trick. So as long as I stay at or above 22w I should be ok?

Yes! Try Vishay metal film resistors the best ones imho.

Just a thought:
You could lower the resistor Ohm value . From my experience with the Rogers expect approximately +1dB for each half an Ohm you drop. Sometimes folks do this to better acommodate speaker responce according to room acoustics.

Also, bypassing the big caps with a faster one is generally a fine way to better the cap's performance for very low cost.
To my ears, the type of resistor ist not as critical as the caps are. A very good and neutral sounding cap is those ones manufactured by Cornell-Dubilier in the USA.

http://www.cde.com/

Have fun.

Many, many thanks again.

I really just want to try the resistors first as apparently that is all that is required to do this LSi upgrade. While doing so I also plan on giving the caps a thorough visual inspection but I suspect that they will still be in very good shape. For one I've read other owners (including a post by thedelihaus, I think) claim that the caps used in these are very high quality with excellent life spans. Secondly looking at the amount of money that the previous owner had obviously invested fairly recently (new surrounds, acoustic foam and grill cloths) I have a hunch that if caps were in need of replacement they probably would have gotten the treatment as well if not first.

But still, if the resistors don't tame them a bit I will certainly be back harassing you guys for advice on the caps too.

Very cool help there, Alvarro.

And Oktyabr, if you don't need to sell the DQs, don't.

The presentation of the music is different enough to separate them from the ARs. Two different approaches at getting the music to you. I myself plan on keeping one pair each of the designs- for me, that will be the DQ-10s (and maybe the Vandersteen 2Cs) and the Thiels or AR9LSis (though I'll miss the aDs L1230s)....