AR 19 Connoisseur

[Guest king2b]

I have been surfing this site and don't see anyone who has AR 19's, 20's or 30's. I bought these Connoisseur 19's in 1985 and refoamed the woofers a few years ago thanks to New Foam of Rochester,NY. They still look and sound beautiful,,,real veneer finish on $300 speakers! I assume these were not big sellers back in the day.Anybody out there want to comment on these?

[Steve F]

#5014, "AR 19 Connoisseur"

I have been surfing this site and don't see anyone who has AR 19's, 20's or 30's. I bought these Connoisseur 19's in 1985 and refoamed the woofers a few years ago thanks to New Foam of Rochester,NY. They still look and sound beautiful,,,real veneer finish on $300 speakers! I assume these were not big sellers back in the day.Anybody out there want to comment on these?

Jim B

The Connoisseur Series was introduced in 1985 as AR’s attempt at participating in the ‘upper end’ of the market. These speakers were positioned somewhat higher than the LS and Bxi regular line products. The Connoiseurs were still around as AR intro’d the first Magic speaker in 1985 as well.

So in their typically confused, inept marketing fashion in 1985-86, AR managed to have the BXi series, the higher end LS series, the really higher end Connoisseur series, and the we’re-not-kidding-we-mean-it high end Magic Speaker. Got that? I didn’t think so, and unfortunately, no one else did either.

But considered strictly as speakers—misdirected marketing aside—the Connoisseurs were pretty darn good products. Thick heavily-braced cabinet walls, double inputs on the 2-ways or triple inputs on the 3-ways, expensive crossovers, high-quality drive units (early Connoisseurs had soft domes except for the 50T which had a 1" titanium tweeter; later Connoisseurs were all "T" models, with titanium units) and real walnut veneer. They were excellent sounding products—High Fidelity said the 20 outperformed every previous AR speaker they had ever tested [within its frequency limits], and they concluded their review of the 40 by saying "We are very impressed." The 35 was actually on Stereophile’s list of Recommended Components in 1986, a rarity indeed for AR, which has never been a favorite of the audio snob-press.

I lost my copy of the High Fidelity 20 review to some water in the basement a few years ago—I’d love to re-read that one again, since it was such an absolute statement.

I owned 50T’s from 1987-1989 and thought they were terrific speakers, although I gave them to my father when I acquired a pair of 11’s which I refurbed back to health. In the same time period, I also had LST-2’s that I enjoyed tremendously. I knew that the 50’s were probably "better" speakers than the others, probably more accurate, but I enjoyed the 11’s and LST-2’s more.

All in all, the Connoissuers were well-designed, high-quality speakers, but were handicapped in the market by AR’s muddled, inconsistent marketing and sales efforts.

Steve F.

[Guest king2b]

That's quite a tale. I would probably never had bought these back in '85 if the salesman at the audio store had not said to me ..."There is a speaker that I would like you to hear." He had the Connoisseur 19's and 20's and I ended up with the 19's. They were so clear especially on brass music and small ensembles. Even though I have other speakers in the house I still listen to these more on a daily basis than my other two sets of Paradigms. As the computer is in my music library and I spend a good amount of time in here I always have the speakers playing. I did have some foam rot a few years ago but I found that it was very easy to re-foam the 6" speakers. Thanks for that most enlighting history. I'll never get rid of these Connoisseur's!

Jim B