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Hello All, I am fairly new here and have been filling up on AR-9 info because I am about to start a re-fresh of a pair of those giants. I recently met a new audiophile friend who hooked me up with a very original pair of AR-1s. He knows I am a preservationist and I am in this hobby for the history and the sounds and he felt I would be a good custodian, I plan to not let him down. This pair have serial numbers of 9672 and 11000-ish. They have their original 755As and flesh colored woofer rolls. They both seem to be working well and the pots are still functional. These were well "loved" in their previous life including surviving at least one uncaring chuck into a trash bin... A few minor dings and some compromised finish on the birch? veneer. The speaker cloth is a bit loose on one but I am hesitant to mess with it until I learn more about them. I have a variety of tube and vintage SS amps to play them with and I hope to get a pair of Dynaco MKIIIs finished to run them with this winter. I see that some time these were run with additional external tweeters. I find that the vintage material I have been playing sound pretty decent as is but I am not against trying some external super-tweeters. Advice how these were traditionally hooked up will be put to good use. Any helpful preservation and maintenance tips are appreciated. Thanks in advance, Bill

For many years—perhaps from the very beginning—AR had a difficult time selling their products in typical audio salon showrooms. In fact, from 1954 until around 1974, AR made no attempt to cultivate good dealer relationships. Nevertheless, and despite the lack of dealer success, AR outsold nearly every other speaker manufacturer worldwide for many years without a strong, formal dealer network. How was this possible? AR products traditionally had the highest ratings and best reviews, but a prospective speaker buyer would never know it to visit the typical, small hi-fi showroom where one usually encountered a negative vibe in a showroom when an AR speaker was being demonstrated. Many times, dealers would "doctor" the speaker, reverse the polarity, turn-down the level controls or place the speaker inappropriately or disadvantageously for good A-B demos with competing products. Some dealers felt that customers would enter a store, make a decision to buy an AR product and simply go out and order it from the Allied Radio or Lafayette catalogs. Was it due to.... 1. Low dealer profit margins? 2. Lack of dealer salesman "spiffs" paid by AR? 3. Lack of dealer promotionals? 4. Lack of dealer co-op advertising? 5. AR's lack of "hand-holding" and blasé attitude towards dealers? 6. AR's traditional laissez-faire method of doing business? 7. Other reasons? Give examples of experiences you've had in dealer showrooms where AR speakers were intentionally maligned, "bad-mouthed" or "doctored" in order for a dealer to steer an unsuspecting customer to another product. —Tom Tyson

>I also recall having read the same detailed information from Stereophile, and I assume its correctness against what appears to be a sort of revisionist article containing conflated timelines, unattributed premises and boot-strapped conclusions. >I've been wishing & hoping for Tom Tyson's definitive AR history for years...would a GoFundMe effort be in vain? —ar_pro Book: The History of Acoustic Research Any and all suggestions and ideas here would be greatly appreciated! Any thoughts about what you would like to see would be great as well. To do a complete history would be difficult, but a history of the "Classic Period," from 1954-1974 (or 1980 perhaps) in one part and the Teledyne/International Jensen/Recoton/Voxx period in another part or in a revised edition. The most important part of AR history is the first 25 years or so. Anyway, please reply with your thoughts and ideas, for example: The best title for such a book? The period covered with this book; part of all? The amount of detail to be included in this book? The size of this book, a small book with 150 pp or so, or comprehensive with perhaps 300 pp? The other questions you might have. There are also many people here on this website with detailed knowledge of specific aspects of AR history and technology. Therefore, give me ideas about how you would like to see such a book. —Tom Tyson 06Jun2017

Hello Friend of Acoustic Research: A documentary filmmaker from New York -- living in the same town as and acquainted with Edgar Villchur -- is making a documentary film on the life of Edgar Villchur. This film producer is Cambiz Khosravi, a well-known documentary producer, and he is well on the way with his project, "Edgar Villchur: The American Inventor." I've helped him quite a bit, and I think the documentary production will be very nice and a great tribute to Edgar Villchur and Acoustic Research. Mr. Khosravi does need any help he can get to cover the cost of the "production stage" of the film, and PBS -- the likely presenter -- will cover the remaining costs. Therefore, Khosravi has set up a funding site: "https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcambiz.khosravi%2Fposts%2F10217946219041185&width=500" If you can help in any way, it would be fantastic! --Tom Tyson