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I own AR 1's and AR 3's and the AR 4C Center The Stereophile reviewer recommended the AR 1 for a Class B Rating. They are an excellent choice for someone who wants both a killer movie system, and an audiophile speaker, all in one. Be warned, a pair of HiRes AR 1's can easily overload most rooms with bass. That big 15 inch woofer, powered by a Sunfire 500 watts RMS Amp is almost too much, even in my 20 by 24 ft room.

I bought the amp I use from a Guitar Center for 150, with a 30 day money back warranty. It will do 425 rms into 4 all day long https://www.ccisolutions.com/StoreFront/jsp/pdf/MAC-M1400I.PDF

I discovered Pro Sound Amplifiers years ago, and never looked back. There are some real deals to be had on the old school boat anchor type of Pro Sound amps, because many of the Pro Sound Guys have went to smaller and lighter Class D amps.

Stock, and do not remove the acoustic blanket, and if you already did, be thinking about how to make a new one.

Great ! What is happening is the 2 side walls are providing the loading the woofers need. Glad it is working out for you. My pair were in a large room, well away from the side walls. The reason they need to be played loud is, they were designed for flat low bass response. Many designers intentionally build a "bass bump" into their speakers, to give the Illusion of bass.

Amen! I currently own 5 pairs of high end speakers, and a pair of Magnepan 1.6's are one of them. My room is 20 by 24, with 4 large bass traps, in the corners. Powered by the awesome sounding Mackie 1401 "Pro Sound" amplifier with over 500 watts RMS into 4 ohms, they can be stunning. But then, I have taken great care, to be sure my first lateral reflection points are the same, in my room. I also have a pair of DBX Soundfield 1A Speakers. These speakers have 4 - 10 inch woofers, 4 - 5 Inch midranges, and 8 Tweeters, and are designed to have a more or less Omnidirectional radiation pattern. Pulled out a 1/3 or more into room, they too are stunning, as far as imaging. No loss of bass even 1/2 way into the room with these, because they are equalized by their controller, and you can simply adjust both the boost and bass level. My other speakers are HiRes AR 1's and HiRes AR 9's, and huge Kindel Audio PLS A's. The Kindel PLS A's are big line array speakers, with a total of 22 drivers per side! Each speaker has 16 1 inch dome tweeters, and 6 - 6.5 inch woofers. I am in the process of refreshing their crossovers. My last pair of speakers are Fostex powered monitors, hooked to my computer. LOL, needless to say, I am Single !!!!!!!!!!

Well ........ I have heard it happen in both the near and far field, because most of the rooms in the houses I have lived in, I was in the near field. Talk about spooky imaging. I own a pair of DBX Soundfield 1a Speakers, that are more or less omnidirectional. Out 1/3 of the way into the room, you can't tell where the sound is coming from. I have also owned OHM Speakers that are also omnidirectional, and they do the same thing.

Yes! Carl Marschiotto of Dahlquist is their designer, and indeed they sound good! They are imaging champs as well.

Wow, I have never met Arnie or Jim Thiel. I have met Richard Vandersteen, and Albert Vonschweikert, and Bob Carver. Actually, I have been over Bob's house several times, and heard the transistor amp he took to Stereophile that he made sound exactly like a Conrad Johnson Tube Amp. It really did! The problem is, he could only do it on one set of speakers and wires.

Bongo is dead too Yes, I was too inexperienced as an audiophile, back when I had the widerange ribbons, and even lacked an amp to properly drive them. I WISH I had them now !

Absolutely ! I met Brian way back in 1982, when I flew down from Seattle, to go to his shop in the Frisco Bay area. I owned the VMPS Widerange Ribbons back then, and returned them to Brian. He gave me my money back, and a pair of VMPS Supertowers. He just asked me to fly down and hear the Widerange Ribbons properly set up and powered. LOL, I was in my 20's, back in the 80's, and the big VMPS Supertowers were great for me back then. Big, forgiving speakers with stunning bass the VMPS Supertowers were. Just the thing for the Hard Rock I listened to back then.

I see so many people make the big mistake of replacing high ESR NPE Caps, with very low ESR Poly Caps, then wonder why their speakers sound like crap.

Yes, Brian and I have had our disagreements, but many agreements too I miss Brian, really I do.

Cool ! I was just reading a thread by Carlspeak, where he tested some new ERSE Mylar Caps, and found fairly high ESR. On a recent order from ERSE, I needed to meet the minimum order requirement, so I ordered some ERSE Mylars I really did not need. I just got an ESR Meter, so just for the hell of it, I measured the ESR of the new ERSE Mylar Caps. I was surprised how high it was, especially since they were right on the money as far as measured value goes. As Carlspeak mentioned, this high ESR makes them an excellent choice for NPE replacement !

Both, as long as the speakers "disappear". Actually, few speakers can "get out of their own way".

I have done that too, tore apart great sounding systems, when I should have left well enough alone.

Cool, and a great find ! I have never owned those, but have heard them, way back when. Do you plan to update their crossovers ?

Very true! I found that they needed to be toed in, and they did need to be out from the back wall, before I got image depth. However, they lost too much Bass to leave them that way. I wound up with them toed in, but the corner of the speakers right against the back wall. I still lost a little bass, compared to them being all against the wall, but the improvement in imaging was worth it, to me. Still, I never gould get that "spooky" imaging out of them. I have been a "speaker junkie" since the 80's. I always seem to have between 3 and 5 pairs hanging around. I seem to remember that back when I had the old AR's, I also had B&W Matrix 801's and Vandersteen 2C Speakers, maybe I still had my old Celestion SL 6's ? All 3 of the speakers I just listed are capable of "Spooky Imaging". IOW, the speakers "Disappear" in the room. I was never able to get the AR's to image like that, in my room. YMMV However, I remember the AR 9 and the AR 90 as big, pleasant sounding speakers, with room rattling bass.

Actually, I think ALL versions of the Paradigm Studio 100 had dual woofers, and so did the Studio 60. Regardless, they are not a pair of 12's like in the AR 9's or AR 90's. Few speakers can match the bass of properly powered AR 9 or AR 90's.

That is correct. It has been quite awhile since I have had either AR 9's or AR 90's, and I forgot about the lower midrange cone, that plays from 200 to 1200 hz.

Yes, a pair of either the AR 9's, or the AR 90's , with enough power, will literally rattle the room ! But you need a powerful amp, and one that will not crap out, into 4 ohms. The Paradigm's are designed for uniform off axis dispersion. The AR 90's not so much. Their dome midrange driver plays down to 200 hz, and clear up to 7000 hz, before the big dome hands off to the small tweeter. This wreaks havoc with the off axis dispersion. The guy I sold my old AR 90's to re designed his crossovers, to cut that big dome off sooner by dropping the crossover point from 7000 hz down to 3000 hz. This greatly improved the off axis dispersion, and the tweeter had no problem going down to 3000 hz either. Perhaps stay with the Paradigm's, and satisfy your craving for Bass with a good Subwoofer ? SVS, Hsu, Velodyne, and Outlaw all make fine affordable subwoofers, to name a few.

No it isn't fair to the AR 90, but the original poster asked for an opinion, in the first post in this thread. So, having owned both the AR 9 and the AR 90, as well as both the Paradigm models he asked about, I thought I would give him my opinion.

Early models of the big Paradigm Studio 100 tended to be a bit bright. Not hard and bright, but with a little too much top end energy, to my ears. However, this brightness was tamed in the models after the second version. The later model Paradigm 60 and 100 will destroy the AR 90's, in nearly every important to me way, except bass impact. The Paradigm Studio 100 is a single woofer speaker, and the AR 90 has a pair of woofers. Plus, the AR 90 is designed to go right against the back wall, for even more bass loading. However, in my experience with the AR 90's, this close to the back wall placement compromises Imaging Depth, even with the acoustic blanket. The Paradigm Studio 60 and Studio 100's are voiced to be out several feet into the room, away from the back wall. They walk away from the AR 90's, as far as imaging depth goes. Plus, the Paradigm's are higher in efficiency , and use better drivers. They are also better designed speakers, paying attention to all the research done by the Canadian National Research Council, that was unknown back in the days of the AR 90. I have owned both the AR 90 and the AR 9. To me, the AR 90 is a wanna be AR 9. My God, it is almost 40 lbs lighter. The AR 9 is a real room rattler, going way down to 18 hz. The AR 90 will not do that.

I ordered some ERSE Mylar Caps, simply because I needed to spend some more money with them, to meet their minimum order requirements on a recent order. Just for the hell of it, I measure both value and ESR of 2 of their yellow Mylar Caps. Honestly, I was a bit surprised how High the ESR was ! The Values were right on the money, but ESR was high. In fact, I have measured some NPE that were lower than the ERSE Mylar. I have some speakers I am re doing, and they use a mix of both Poly and NPE's. I plan to order and use ERSE Mylars to replace the 30 year old NPE's, figuring the high ESR of the ERSE Mylars will not change the voicing, when I replace the old stock NPE with them. Plus, I will get the 250 volt rating of the ERSE Mylars !!!!! The ERSE Mylars will fit, right on Top of the old NPE's. I will leave the old NPE Caps on the board, cut the wires as close to the old caps as possible, and solder the new ERSE Mylar caps right to them.

I have owned original AR 1's and AR LST's, as well as the huge AR 9's towers, with the 2 woofers on the sides, and the acoustic blanket. To MY ears none of the old classic AR Speakers hold a candle to the Hi Res AR 1 and AR 3. The AR 9's IMHO are a failed design speaker because their dual woofers require they be right up against a wall. That kills image depth, though they did have a nice midrange. My old LST's were fun, I must admit. They had a big sound, and were very musical, for their day. In general, the old AR Speakers were very inefficient, and rolled off sounding. The Hi Res AR 1 is an an incredible speaker, and is also 96 db efficient. It has a 15 inch subwoofer, powered by a 500 watt Sunfire amp.