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AR-3a woofer surrounds


Guest Pointwhere

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Guest Pointwhere

Does anybody know which year, or better yet, which serial number, marked the change from cloth to foam surrounds on Ar-3a woofers? Please post if you know. Thanks. I have SN 04681 and it is a cloth surround, but this is my only data point so far.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The first production AR-3as used the AR-3 cast-aluminum, Alnico-magnet woofer with the treated-cloth surround. The public introduction of the AR-3a was at the October, 1967 New York High Fidelity Music Show, and insofar as AR ramped-up production of the AR-3a to a few thousand/month, I believe a serial number in the 4,000 range would indicate production in very late 1967 or early 1968. Late that year Acoustic Research had introduced the AR-5, which pioneered the use of foam surround. The following year, 1969, AR brought this technology to the AR-3a with the ceramic-ferrite magnet, stamped-steel frame, new vacuum-formed cone and the treated urethane-foam surround. The serial numbers by this time were well into five digits.

--Tom Tyson

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>Tom,

>

>You touched on production rates. Out of curiosity, how many

>3a's would have been produced in an average year ? How would

>that stack up to AR-5, 2ax and 4x production rates ?

>

>My next question is; how much did sales/production of the

>"classic line" increase in the 1970's over the 1960's ??

Brad, I am not sure of any exact numbers, but I know the approximate numbers after going back and studying reports that AR used to establish warranty periods for specific loudspeakers. These reports would show the earliest serial number of a speaker that was within the 5-year warranty period for the date of the document. In 1971, for example, there were approximately 10,000 AR-3as made. Similarly, there were approximately 33,300 AR-2axs, 8,200 AR-5s, 41,400 AR-4xs, approximately a rate of 840 LSTs (but this speaker was not in full production until March, 1971). The AR-4x was the big seller, naturally, with its affordable price.

Sales of the classic-period AR speakers began to decline in the early 1970s (after the very big surge in sales in the mid-1960s), and dropped off dramatically by the mid 1970s. The AR-10Pi, AR-11 and other ADD speakers soon replaced the AR-3as, AR-2axs, etc.

Sorry that I don't have more specific information. Alex Barsotti of AB Tech services likely still has the exact production numbers. He worked in the AR Customer Services Department for many years, and had access to all that information.

--Tom Tyson

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Interesting, in a way AR had reached it's zenith in craftmenship and sonic quality by the early 70's by making speakers that would meet anything a consumer could want in a speaker. Seems like the whole industry started the "bells and whistles" era by the mid to late 70s, putting lots of money ino what a speaker looked like on the outside, remember how everyone switched to a grill cloth which covered the whole face of the cabinet, changing nothing inside! I remember while in high School back then, going to a old timers hi-fi shop, the owners words...." go find a a used pair of Acoustic Research speakers, that's all anyone needs". I was surprised he would say this when he had new speakers to sell, maybe his years had made him wise! Today I'm a fan of the earlier AR models, cloth surrounds. That guy was right, thats all I need !

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"AR had reached it's zenith in craftmenship and sonic quality by the early 70's "

IMO, Teledyne AR9 kicked AR's performance up more than a notch. The butyl rubber surrounds on mine show no signs of deterioration after more than 20 years and there are no noisy potentiometers to worry about. I don't know if the late 70s and early 80s were a period of declining sales but insofar as technological innovation and committment to quality design and quality control, the people who were there in that era have nothing to apologize for or reason to have wished for the good old days. They were as good or better than their predecessors.

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>"AR had reached it's zenith in craftmenship and sonic quality

>by the early 70's "

>

>IMO, Teledyne AR9 kicked AR's performance up more than a

>notch. The butyl rubber surrounds on mine show no signs of

>deterioration after more than 20 years and there are no noisy

>potentiometers to worry about. I don't know if the late 70s

>and early 80s were a period of declining sales but insofar as

>technological innovation and committment to quality design and

>quality control, the people who were there in that era have

>nothing to apologize for or reason to have wished for the good

>old days. They were as good or better than their

>predecessors.

Soundminded, the AR-9 definitely kicked up the performance level of ARs by improving the already stellar deep-bass response, and by adding another dimension to midrange clarity and power-handling capability. AR's sales spiked somewhat in 1979 after a steady decline in revenues and several changes in CEOs. The all-time top year for AR was in 1966, at which point AR's sales accounted for 32.2% of all commercial loudspeaker sales that year, according to the IHFM trade statistics. By 1978, AR's sales were actually higher, but their market share had dropped to 4.2% in 1979. In 1977, the year before the introduction of the Vertical Series, market share for AR was 1.3%, so the AR-9 accounted for a big swing in sales and market share in the first years of production.

--Tom Tyson

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