Is Acoustic Research (AR) really dead? I'm not so sure

Some of you may know that AR, at least the speaker manufacturing portion of the company, was sold to Audiovox (parent company to Klipsch and now known as VOXX International). Subsequently, the AR brand has been used to market things from USB charging station to wireless speakers. Certainly disappointing given the brand's history and the innovative speakers/turntables associated with the brand.

So there I was, checking out online coverage of the 2014 Hong Kong Hi-End Audio Visual Show, when I came upon an article on new Acoustic Research product....the AR UA1 combination DAC/headphone amp.



Now only if it is offered here in the US....

 

I just wrote AR customer service to see if and when available. I have always thought their cables a good buy. I still have my trusty AR-58's and AR-15 speakers.

 

They made a nice pair of powered computer speakers 20 years ago.

 

Return of AR speakers....the AR 80-B bookshelf speakers. The below photos are from the Hong Kong website Post76.com, in an article regarding the AR-M2 dedicated audio player. You can see all the photos in the below link:

http://www.post76.com/wordpress/?p=79656

The only English language mention of the AR 80-B bookshelf speakers is on the UK Amazon website:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acoustic-Research-Theatre-Bookshelf-Speaker/dp/B00NYVH4PG

 

The AR of my days and that I remember is dead.

 

And they did not make biwire speakers.

 

How marvelous if a revitalised AR could appear, producing a faithful reissue of those classic speakers ...

 

That would be pretty nice is they made a comeback. No ported designs. That is not the AR Legacy.

 

The photo says it all. Sealed-box ("acoustic suspension") speakers were one of the main innovations of AR's principals. A ported AR speaker says the trademark is a name only, with no meaningful connection to the original product. AR speakers were neutral in the midrange and slowly rolled off at the frequency extremes. Also, the ones I remember all had tweeter level controls, so you could adapt them to different rooms. They were lovely on orchestral music and voice, and because of the sealed box, less boomy in the bass than most small ported speakers. This speaker may say "AR," but it's not an AR speaker in the classic sense.

 

is that a QUAD II in the background?

 

If they came back with a revist of my 3-way 12" AR 58's, a 10" version of a 2 way like the AR-2a, and added a 2-way 8" they would sell quite a few. they only need 3 models to make a go of it, not the breadth of line that Klipsch has now. Keep it simple and sell many.

 

That's the bit.

 

It disturbs me to see the classic AR logo on these. I was very surprised to see a 'modern' set of "AR-9s" in an audio store in around 1998/1999. The clerk cranked them up for me. Just gawd awful shrieking highs and non-resonant block of concrete-sounding bass. No ARs there.

A Japanese company (don't know which) did a series of AR-3 repros in the 1980s that still trade for some pretty good money in Japan. Japanese are sticklers for original stuff, but these apparently went a long way toward re-creating the original sound of the classic AR-3s. I saw a pair some years back and they were out of my price range at the time. If I saw another pair I'd be tempted to get them.

 

I had always own some AR speakers forever, so when I had a chance to buy my AR-58s, the last version of the famed AR 3a, a 3-way with a 12" woofer in a cabinet slightly larger than 2 cu feet, I could not pass them up and glad that I did not. Over 30 years later they still play strong to 30 hz and still sound great. I have saved a bunch on money over the years hanging on to those and my Large Advents. Some designs stand the test of time.

 

My first "real" speakers were AR-100's.

 

I have a set of the late 90s AR11(x)'s. Similar to those 9's. I really like them and yes, they are ported with an in-built biwired sub. I've considered replacing them at times, but for the money, I'd have to invest a fair amount to best them in my setup. There's very little information out there on the 'HiRes' series:
CNET
Speaker Asylum
Audio Review (I know, I know...)
Stereophile

 

Perhaps it's because I might be a bit young but I don't generally get the appeal of constantly looking back to things that IMO have been soundly THUMPED by modern day gear. Yes ports may have sucked in the 1960s but it's just not the case. Speakers like the LS-3/5a have been destroyed by countless of today's speakers - and for less money than you can buy original Rogers or the various remakes. I have had one of the best remakes in for review and have had the LS-50 which is a modern version if there ever was one as well as the AN AX Two which was designed by LS-3/5a guru Andy Whittle for AN - and it utterly kills ANY version of the LS-3/5a including the Harbeth and it costs less than "half" the price. But yeah it has a port.

Now I can't say the new AR will sound better or worse - who knows until we hear them - but let's not discount the thing because it has or does not have a port. And I like sealed - the AN K is a sealed acoustic suspension speaker that has in room bass to below 40hz and is 90dB sensitive - pretty damn awesome for a sealed cabinet. Perhaps the pictured AR will be on in a line-up of speakers and a sealed box might also be an option.

 

I've had a set of 78-LS's for about 8 years. Bought them for 175.00 after they were refoamed.
The are my main speakers on the HT system and sound great.

 

---------------------------
The problem is that the sound of today is not that much better than my AR-58's ( I have had speakers here that were $10K and $15K a pair. So I know) I agree that sealed can be great, as I have those ARs and my Large Advents in full operation. But, AudioNotes are not cheap by any means. I have often recommended Renaissance Audio speakers as I find them a great buy and do most, if not all of the things great speakers are suppose to do, right. Their MLP 403.5 would be right up my alley if I wanted to replace my AR's. http://www.renaudio.com/homeaudio/bookshelfspeakers.htm
There are just too many speakers out there now that are just overprice, but I think that is more to do with low sales volume and not their quality per se. The smaller the production runs, the more things cost. I does shock me at some of the speakers out there for sale for $2K to $3k that surprise me for what is in the box. I do understand that R&D has a cost. Then on the other side one has to admit that Dayton Audio does some very affordable good things like their B-652's.

 

I got spoiled by hearing the original AR-9s a friend had, the late 70s AR-11s a friend's father had, and the AR-14s I had in my system from 1977 through 1989. The late 90s set I heard simply did not compare IMO. YMMV.

 

That may be, I'd never say these are 'classic' AR's. But they are well-engineered and run with the other big (mid-fi, for lack of a better term) boys as far as modern speakers go.

I've never had/heard old AR's, but I have Dynacos, Rectilinears, Grafyx, and Advents, so I'm familiar with the 'classic' sound.

 

I had those AR14's in college and they sounded way better than you would expect. I kept them a very long time because I couldn't justify the expense for incremental improvement in sound.

I finally traded them for a pair of ADS 880's that I kept an equally long spell. Good stuff has a long shelf life.

I do think AR should stick with acoustic suspension designs, they invented it and it still works best in my opinion.

 

The AR brand hasn't been what it was for decades, but if the engineering is good, so what? I'd rather they brand them 'AR' than 'Audiovox'. At least that way they are giving the brand some cahcet. Of course, I'm assuming that these new speakers are decent.

 

They never died for me....still in daily use....

 

Jim

I have to agree with you on the prices of pretty much every high end brand - they're outrageous and even Art Dudley of Stereophile has had more than a few words to say on it (but then buys very expensive Shindo which is very expensive when looking at the quality of parts being used).

As you note small makers have to recoup their costs and they can't do it with volume sales. I suspect that back in the day there were a lot LESS companies selling hi-fi gear and those companies were generally a lot bigger. I almost never recommend $400-$600 integrated amps today against a receiver from a big player like Marantz. The big companies can buy in huge quantities for a pittance and can very like build a $500 receiver that will trounce what a small company could do with an integrated in terms of parts quality. AND you get a bazillion features on top with the likes of Denon and Marantz. Indeed a few days back I picked up a Marantz NR1504 slim 5.1 surround receiver basically for TV viewing so as to not waste tube life for this and playing the odd game and watching movies. But the sound doesn't suck I have to admit - A little fat bloom but all in all not thin and bright is pretty good for a do it all box under $400 street. And it's easy to use. A small company could never compete with this - just to get the license from Dolby or whatever would probably kill small makers because they'd never sell enough of them to make it worthwhile.

Strangely though with loudspeakers - the big dedicated speaker makers often disappoint where in theory a B&W or JBL(or other Harman speaker) should trounce the little guys for half the price. And sure Sony puts out a very good speaker but it too is well over $20,000 and Focal Utopia line is just eye popping.

But time marches on - I don't know what the original K-Horn went for but Klipsch is still selling the almost identical original speaker (with a few minor changes) today for $9,000 per pair. Were they the equivalent in 60 year old dollars to $9,000 - something tells me no.