tysontom

Frank, what an impressive setup! I've never heard triple-stacked LSTs, but I can just imagine the power of that setup in that large room. Very nice! I had stacked LSTs at one point, used an Allison ESW to get response flat to 20 Hz, and I was extremely happy with the sound. I actually drove the stacked pair (in parallel) with a McIntosh MC2500 right down into the 1.5-ohm load, and everything worked just fine. Those were fun days! Tom

You bet! Glad you liked it.

This is an impressive setup! High fidelity and electric trains, all rolled into one den! Post some more pictures of this setup if you can. Looks like an HO layout, but can't tell for sure. I've never had an environment that came close to this room; very nice! —Tom

Here is the article again.... Revisiting-the-Acoustic-Research-AR9_Tom Tyson.pdf

Thanks! That is impressive that you've had those AR9s for all those years! Gerald Landau, an early Marketing Director at AR, used to tell hi-fi dealers that AR speakers, once sold, tended to "stay sold."

Well, what you said regarding the midrange clarity had a lot of merit. You were insistent, but you had good reason for it. I don't know that everyone would realize the differences, but in the AR9, the Lower Mid Range driver essentially was dedicated to much of that spectrum and contributed greatly to clarity and detail.

Thanks, Giorgio!

John, thanks so much for your comments! I wish I had worked at AR during that time, and I was handicapped by not being on the inside. However, I have many documents about the speaker development, and I was able to talk to many of the people who were there at the time. These helped quite a lot. I love that tripod picture, too. It was a good way to elevate the speaker well into "God's anechoic chamber," as Villchur used to say about measuring speaker response outdoors.

Thanks very much, Pete!

Victor worked at AR on two different occasions, once in the early 1960s and once again in the 1970s, and he knew Roy (and Ed Villchur) well. He also worked for a period ot time at KLH and other companies in the high-fidelity business. He never worked for Roy Allison at Allison Acoustics to my knowledge. Tom

No need for any apology! I recall that you had good points, and these discussions have always been a good thing for this forum. If anyone should apologize, it should probably be me for not being more tolerant of other opinions! Tom

Giorgio, thank you for your comments. I actually took down the article for now because it is likely to be publshed next month (not for sure, though). You are right about one thing: it is complicated and burdensome with my usual excessive detail. Hope you have a great 2022 as well! Tom

Thanks. Victor did mention the powered version of the AR9 to me in a conversation once, many years after the fact. I later heard that it was Bob Berkovitz who had conceived of and promoted the powered design internally. Perhaps Victor had suggested the original idea initially and convinced Berkovitz? In any event, the design never made it into production though a prototype was made. Tom

Thanks. I appreciate your comments. At one point, you had mentioned the comparison of clarity when comparing the 3-way AR-3a to the 4-way AR9. There is a lot in what you said, and the design of the AR9 LMR driver added clarity to this important part of the spectrum. Tom

Thanks! Tom

Thanks! Tom

This is an article I wrote last year about the development of the AR9 loudspeaker, a powerful and no-compromise loudspeaker that was clearly ahead of its time when it was introduced in 1978. This article is somewhat about the philosophy behind the development and engineering of this speaker, and it speaks to the huge amount of work that was done to create this fine loudspeaker. Thanks to former AR employees Ken Kantor, James Kates, Lucette Nicoll and others at AR for their help on some matters regarding this fine loudspeaker. I had hoped to track down many others that were involved in the creation of this speaker, but many are gone now or have moved on to other ventures in life. I would be interested in any reaction to this article -- pro or con! Thanks for reading it. Tom Tyson

Very slow progress due to several personal issues. Sorry it's not going any faster! I'll try to update a bit later on. Tom

"I find lacquer to be a beautiful finish on the right piece. Not ARs, though." Peter, if you have seen a Steinway piano in lacquered walnut, black-lacquer or mahogany, the finish is smooth with a satin luster and no pores showing -- reflecting the proper technique for sealing before applying numerous coats of lacquer spray. AR's supplying cabinet shops applied those finishes prior to delivering the cabinets to the AR factory for completion. Lacquered AR cabinets are really beautiful, but lacquered finishes are extremely high maintenance and prone to scratching. You can almost look at one and a scratch will appear. AR cabinets had lacquer finishes applied the same way as Steinway & Sons pianos, but probably not with as much manual attention and hand-polishing, etc. The technique was the same, however. Ironically, an AR-3 in lacquered mahogany was somewhat less expensive than the same speaker in walnut when, if fact, it was much more expensive to finish with a lacquer coat than boiled linseed oil. It's just that African mahogany was more common and a less-expensive wood than American black walnut back at that time. The problem is that today, 50 to 60 years down the road, these cabinets have dulled, turned opaque, become scratched and generally left to deteriorate, and this is true of many old Steinway pianos, too. But if you could see how beautiful these AR cabinets were when new, you would think very differently. Tom

That does resemble mahogany -- and it could be -- but I think it is walnut-stained birch. In any event, the cabinets look great! Tom

Yes. Villchur had a pair of oiled-walnut AR-3as that he used for many years in his den/living room in Woodstock, New York. With them, he had an AR Turntable, AR Amplifier, Marantz 10B FM tuner and a Tandberg tape recorder. The speakers were recessed part-way into the wall on both sides of the fireplace. At some point in the mid-to-late 1970s, quite some time after Roy Allison left AR to start his new company, Allison Acoustics, Villchur contacted him to see if any parts were available to repair the AR-3as, as one had a problem. In the conversation, from what I understand, Roy said that he no longer had access to AR parts, but that he would be glad to retrofit the AR-3a speakers with Allison: Three midrange and tweeter, plus the crossover parts to make the change—which subsequently occurred at Allison Acoustics. The new crossover for the woofer would therefore be 375 Hz rather than 550 Hz, etc. I suspect that RA went to get the speakers and returned with the new versions for Edgar Villchur. I would surmise that Villchur’s son Mark or friends of his daughter Miriam now have those speakers, but I don’t know. —Tom

You know, I rattled on about refinishing these cabinets, but you mentioned that you might just enjoy them like they are now for awhile. There are several things you can do, but first and foremost is to get a scratch-covering solution such as the all-time favorite -- and still among the best -- Old English Scratch Cover. Get the dark wood or mahogany version, and you will be amazed at how much better it will make the cabinets look! Sorry I didn't mention this at the beginning. https://www.amazon.com/Old-English-Furniture-Polish-Scratch/dp/B01J05XFSO?ref_=fspcr_pl_dp_5_15524341011 -Tom Tyson

Bingo! I think we actually discussed this a few years ago. AR (Roy Allison) found that many AR-2-series speakers were being returned to the factory for warranty service with the woofer cones displaced out of the pole piece, and at first the thought was that customers were wildly overpowering the speakers and damaging the woofers. These were nevertheless fixed under warranty, but RA found that the boxes were nearly air-tight when sealed, and when a box was handled roughly or dropped, sometimes the pressure change could force the woofer in or out, particularly the very compliant 10-inch (actually 11-inch) Alnico woofer. Allison decided to put a cardboard piece in front of the grill to suppress the sudden pressure change, and it worked. The other AR speakers were not as adversely affected, but all received the cardboard panel in front of the grill. —Tom

Here's something for Acoustic Research audiophiles: do you know why AR said that the flat piece (above) had to be placed in front of the grill on the AR-2/AR-2a/2ax? This will be the real test for AR historians. —Tom Tyson

Those would likely be international versions made in Europe. I don't believe that mahogany was used for the few wood versions that were made in Cambridge, Mass. Can you send some pictures? Thanks.