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HEIRLOOMS?


frankmarsi

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https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-Acoustic-Research-AR-3A-Speaker-Grilles-Cloth-Grilles-Brass-Logo-Badges/323776892532?hash=item4b629b4e74:g:mZcAAOSw68ZcslZ-

More than ten years ago, I purchased 2 pairs of fabric covered grills and appropriate badges from Larry in upstate New York to finish two of three pairs of AR3a’s that are on seemingly ‘work-in-progress’ status for way too long and packed off to the side. Luckily, I've purchased all required drivers that are in the ready.

I understand someone needing or wanting an original masonite grill who will probably cover it with fabric but if one could get a newly made set why not?

More to the point with-in these last several years the rising costs or all things for vintage AR-

speakers has largely increased.

That brings us to the future ownership and enthusiasm for these vintage speakers.

Taking a general note of the younger generations with their button and screen pressing energies used for things so distant from what many here consider the ultimate way to enjoy oneself with music, what will the future bring?

I’m growing increasingly doubtful my system and speakers will be appreciated in similar ways that they are to me now. I sometimes come to the fearful realization of knowing that all the dedication, time, effort and expense that I spent to make my system the best that it could be will all fall to the wrong hands of an individual who has no concept of what good sound actually is. I hope I’m proved wrong.

So, the only possible way I see it all going will hinge on the acceptance and popularity of music appreciation. Though when in 2007 I asked a energetic late 20 something what would she recommend as good current music I was answered with “I don’t know, there isn’t much good music around these days”. This was my thought exactly but, I felt I’d ask. While it confirmed my thoughts what did it say about the future of music?

Regardless of what the rest of the world does, I’ll continue to enjoy and improve my listening system. Being this has been a life-long dream since I first heard an AR-4X in 1966 or so and then purchased my first set of AR-3a’s five years later in 1971. I've refused to use another brand of speaker after all these years.

 

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you're seeing the phenomenon you're describing in the classic car marketplace.....the tin lizzy through 40's cars are stagnating/depreciating as large numbers of enthusiasts from these eras age out/die off, and there's softness in the 50's/60's cars as the boomers start to do the same, and there's some strength in some of the rarer cars of the 70's-90's as gen X'ers like me start pursuing the dream cars of their youth now that they have some disposable income (i.e. buick GNX, etc)

same thing with the motorcycle market....why is Harley struggling? because their clientele is aging out of the market.....

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm afraid that the widespread appreciation for music has in fact been diminishing. Fewer are interested in music with "musicality", with respect for form and rules, with a sense of purpose. We involuntarily bear witness to a prevailing preference for profit and/or fame over the music and its substance and meaning. And I fear that this phenomenon, which we have been witness to over the past few decades, extends to much more than just music. There is simply too much commercialization and not enough interest in the art form and its significance to our very existence.

This has led to the parallel diminishing appreciation for the ways, or methods, if you prefer, in which music is reproduced. Therefore the lack of interest in "vintage" stereo equipment from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, which many as well as myself consider the "golden age" of music and of its reproduction.

I do not condemn the current younger generation for its lack of appreciation of this most noble of art forms and its proper reproduction. They have been raised to place an inordinate value on technology in every form, rather than to strive for the use of technology to truly improve all aspects of our lives. Regrettably,  I believe our current society has strayed from those boundaries which provide for the sense of balance which we as humans need so very much in order to excel and be content.

Although this saddens  me as well, especially considering the wealth and technological accomplishments of our current society, I retain the faith and conviction that this, too, is but a cycle, however long in duration, which will pass. It has always been so during the course of our civilized existence. As in the past, there will always be the minority which appreciates and preserves these accomplishments of our civilization out of appreciation and devotion, and this minority in fact becomes the caretaker for the future generations which will inevitably follow us and seek to rediscover what we have been so fortunate to have experienced. And hopefully create even more beauty through music and through its reproduction.

Personally, I accept this reality. Furthermore, I feel deep satisfaction and a sense of comfort that we exist. That we are more in numbers than we realize. And that ours is both a pleasurable and noble endeavor. I would not have it any other way.

Live every day nurturing your souls with music, played the right way, my fellow travelers.....

Greetings from Athens.

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An excellent reply and well spoken. I could go on however, what you and I have spoken about rests with the younger generation as we both know they are the makers of the future.

The fate of our pleasures and necessary responsibilities we have learned rests with them.

   And as I have stated, I will go on and continue to enjoy myself as I've learned to appreciate the grand efforts of others before me that have led me to what I realize today. My willingness to enjoy music and all of its meaning that has meant so much to man through-out the ages will not become lost on my watch. I can only hope for a future where others retain the pleasure of music and other gifts that have brought us to the present and mean so much as one of the better aspects of mankind. Knowing history will always be a key factor in our continuance as a species.

FM

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I think one advantage that we had was that music reproduction in our youth was awful.  (For reference, I was born in 1952).  I recall the Magnavox mono record player that belonged to my parents, and just finished restoring an RCA 45 player for a friend to refresh my memory.  We were lucky enough to hear things like AR speakers against that background, and the difference was stunning.  That sealed my interest in stereo, and having good equipment made it possible to appreciate better music. By contrast, relatively inexpensive headphones and on-line sources sound pretty good.  Maybe "good enough" is the enemy of great.  Whatever the reason, I'm not worried; other people's loss doesn't really affect me.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've been  seeing the "Hipster" generation, my kids, showing an interest in vintage hi-fi, vinyl in particular, necessating the need for a TT. Most new gear doesn't have TT connections requiring a separate TT pre. Some years back, I gave my daughter a JVC RS-33 receiver, a Technics TT and some small Desigh Acoustics speakers for her NYC apt. She loves that system! A couple years later I gave her a set of restored KLH Seventeens. "I'm keeping these for ever!" My son has a total appreciation for vintage HiFi and recently moved to Vegas and has been thinking about setting up a nice surround system. He's been asking questions about various speakers, receivers etc...I doubt he'll ever want a TT but you never know.

I also have a couple mid 20's coworkers that I often discuss vintage audio with. One bought a set of KLH Six's I restored, another bought a set of ADS L980's based on my recommendations, as well as a NOS JVC AX-Z1010TN, and he tells me almost daily how great it sounds, and how his friends are blown away by it. He also has a TT hooked up to it,  so there's still hope.

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That's good to hear and what I was referring to. I also hope things continue with the vinyl craze that has taken a strong and record (no pun) hold for so many folks out there for young and those that are experienced.

Speaking for myself, I never really left or since starting, well I jumped slightly in CD in 1990 as a side-show but, by 1998 I was getting into vinyl like I never had before, started buying in 1962 and steadily grew into the vinyl world while constantly upgrading my vinyl set-up to the present day.

And as I've stated in other posts, I've gone hog-wild these last few years with major expenditures for top-shelve MC cartridges to top vintage tonearms and ultra-sonic cleaning practices. That coupled to expanding my vinyl collection from approximately 350 disks in 1998 to my present number of over 7000. If I've mentioned isn't any indication that I'm devoted to the medium, I don't what is.

My system never in my decades of being a devotee to 'hi-fi' has ever sounded so good. Clean, realistically vibrant, and with very high level resolution and dynamics that'll make any non-vinyl person wonder why they haven't gotten into it sooner.

What you say here Glenn is very good news.

FM

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Hope does spring eternal. Styles are said to return eventually as do listening habits. You can't strap bookshelf speaks to your head so beats and a player or app are the mobility norm, but that is not to say that good music is no longer appreciated. I see above this reply that some reversal of techs grip on the youngers is happening. This is a clue that maybe some are realizing that having a computer and an app that will make sounds does not "record" a  sound and is not a recording of humans interaction with an environment, This might make it thru to our brains as somehow flawed. It's a STYX's MR Roboto thing and is too much perfection packaged as music.  It has none of the atmosphere around it that true organically rendered sounds CAN have. And, the playback is an integral element in the experience. This isn't dissing digital in general but more the trend of artificial music production, the trend that will put musicians out of a job and us with a purely canned product. RANT done

 The whole world is bombarded with so many distractions these days that it is perhaps the one reason that the younger gens inclination is to take the speediest route to music appreciation throught tech. This is so that they can answer emails, do tweets, texts, adjust their blue tooths, do a couple of kindle books before lunch, and oh' watch some movies on their iphones before going home from work.  Oh well, I'm gonna go put some batteries in my hearing aids. Hrbay

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