AR4

[Golfer24210]

Greetings all. I have a pair of original, boxes never opened AR4. I inherited them from my cousin. He bought them new sometime around 1963 or so. I do not intend to restore them myself and instead want to sell them. The are in need of a restoration as they do not sound like much now but they sure did fifty years ago. I have tried to find AR4 for sale but only find 4x on the market and so I'm thinking these are probably extremely rare and worth something to a serious collector. Do you have any suggestions to sell them so as to get a fair price? My first instinct is to merely post them on ebay. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Golfer

[JKent]

Welcome Golfer

They are not extremely rare but they are nice speakers. Value is probably about the same as the 4x, although I can't believe some of the 4x prices I've seen lately! Our member ra.ra is probably the best guy to consult and I imagine he will chime in here.

Before going the ebay route you may want to post these (for free) in out For Sale section. Tell us where you are and maybe someone will want to pick them up.

If you are interested in more info on the AR-4, use these Google searches:

site:classicspeakerpages.net "AR-4"

site:classicspeakerpages.net "AR4"

site:audiokarma.org "AR-4"

site:audiokarma.org "AR4"

Kent

[Golfer24210]

Hi Jeff. Thanks for the advice. I will post them on the for sale section. The speakers are located in Abingdon Virginia (extreme southwest part of the state near Bristol TN) I think I will ask $200 for the pair plus whatever shipping would cost. Is that reasonable?

[JeffS]

Hello Golfer,

Your pictures show that you have a nice set of AR-4's, and it appears that they were well taken care of. The grills look as good as it gets.

As to rarity, this model, which was AR's first 8" 2-way speaker, was made for just over one year. AR made about 15 times as many 4x's as they did 4's, and it's not unusual to see AR-4's sell for twice the price of an equivalent pair of AR-4x's in the same cabinet finish.

Personally, I would test them by playing music through them to see if all of the drivers are operating. If you don't hear sound from the tweeters, rotate, or rotate and push, the controls on the rear until you hear sound (this sometimes takes a few minutes, or more).

Good luck with your sale.

 

[lARrybody]

Those are some nice AR4's. Two years ago I was lucky enough to acquire a set to add to my AR4x's and AR4xa's. Compared to 4x's these are relatively rare. Someone here on this form would probably be delighted to have them. Here are some pictures of mine. What are your serial numbers?  The grills are held on with quite a few staples that have to be carefully removed to not damage the cloth.  

[ra.ra]

On 9/27/2019 at 8:00 AM, Golfer24210 said:

I inherited them from my cousin. He bought them new sometime around 1963 or so.

This sounds about right - - I think 1964 is the one and only year that is usually attributed to the AR-4's date of manufacturing. That really is a nice-looking pair of speakers.......and wow, only one owner! I would agree with some of the others that these speakers are somewhat rare. Except for a few oddball 4x's (dual cap version) that used this woofer, it was only used in the AR-4. The mesh-covered tweeter, of course, was also used in the AR-1x, 2x, and 2ax speaker models.

For me, it is interesting to note these serial numbers - - 06442 and 07156 - - because they fall right in line with a pair of AR-4's that I currently own with s/n 07162 and 07241. It seems quite likely that two of our speakers were assembled on the very same day. I have no idea where the sales numbers for the AR-4 topped out, but I see that Larry's AR-4's hover around the 11,000 mark. 

I was just listening to these wonderful speakers last night during my favorite Friday night FM radio jazz program. The AR-4's, and a pair of AR-6's, are currently wired to a vintage Sony receiver (45w per RMS), and I often flip back and forth to compare the speakers with different musical pieces. Even with this jazz, the AR-6's are more extended in both low end (string bass) and treble (cymbals), but with this type of music I always prefer the AR-4's for the fuller midrange they present which is where I find a great deal of this musical enjoyment.  

Regarding sales options, it's good to see you start with a post on the site - - your asking price is very fair. These speakers are sought after, so be patient. The audience here is larger and far more attuned to this product than you would find with your local Craigslist, but not nearly as large as you would find on ebay. If you don't get any nibbles here, perhaps another online site will get you more results. Just be patient - - if these have been in your family for 55 years, you'd like to leave them in the hands of someone who will care for them as your cousin did.