AR-6,Serial #019847 and #removed.

[Guest Everett Pearson]

Clasic Speakers.

Another thrift store saga. The AR6'S were piled on the electronics shelf with some junky computor monitors and a handsome pair Monkey Wards floor standing speakers. The price of the Wards speakers were $14.95 each. Much too pricey for me. The AR-6'S were $7.95 each. Knowing the crack staff"s vast knowledge vintage electronics I offered $10.00 for the pair, and got them. Now that they are safe at home I'm not sure what to do with em.

After reading the comment about the black electrical tape I've reconsidered pulling the grill cloth off and checking the drivers and their connections. I guess the next thing to do is to hook em up and see how they sound. Since they will be used in a large room (30'X 30'X 14'high) I need to know the safe load capacity of these AR-6'S. Does anyone have suggestions? Oh yes, the oiled walnut cabinets will be reoiled and should look as new. Too bad its use has fallen out of favor with most Mfg's. Plastic is hard to refinish.

Thanks,

Everett

[Guest Bret]

Everret,

On the main page to the website you'll find a link to "Classic Speakers." Once clicked-on you'll be given an opportunity to click on a line that says Acoustic Research, once there you can click on a line that includes the AR-6.

Once there you'll. . . oh, nevermind

The information you want MAY be available in the brochure found here:

www.classicspeakerpages.net/ar/classic/AR%20February%201971%20Brochure.zip

I don't know that a power suggestion is there, but it might be.

Once upon a time I was using a 300w/channel amplifier on AR-2ax's and never had a problem because I never lost my mind and tried to damage my hearing. The 6 probably won't stand that much juice. I can't imagine a situation where I'd say "Golly-gee-whiz and gosh-darn it. I have too much amplifier! I'll have to buy something smaller."

You didn't say what your options were for driving them or what your goal is. For background music, it hardly matters - maybe a 45w/channel receiver, maybe 35w. If you want to listen at high volumes, I think you've got too much "room" for that speaker to fill it without driving them to their ragged edges regardless of amplifier, but I'd start my thinking in the 100w/channel range.

That's just my opinion based on a guess. I don't claim any special knowledge or any experience with that speaker.

Hopefully someone who owns a pair of 6s will respond, I just didn't want you to feel ignored until they do.

[Guest rickcee]

I selected AR 6 spks for my families first 'real' stereo, way back . . . still have them. rest assured the foam bass surrounds will be rotted, and I think it's a hard to find , not really 8" size ( at least the kit I got - I've even considered getting - EPI bass units , rebuilt, to replace the AR 6 's. well, similar vintage, similar crossover, high qual.., thou EPI cabs were bigger.)

You can carefully lever off the grille.

Probably the tone controls are corroded, etc and will need a little work. If the cabinets are good, go fer it. Rick

PS - that room is very large for an 8" speaker, even modern. unless it's 'just' fairly low level you prefer.

[tysontom]

>Clasic Speakers.

>

>Another thrift store saga. The AR6'S were piled on the

>electronics shelf with some junky computor monitors and a

>handsome pair Monkey Wards floor standing speakers. The price

>of the Wards speakers were $14.95 each. Much too pricey for

>me. The AR-6'S were $7.95 each. Knowing the crack staff"s

>vast knowledge vintage electronics I offered $10.00 for the

>pair, and got them. Now that they are safe at home I'm not

>sure what to do with em.

>

>After reading the comment about the black electrical tape I've

>reconsidered pulling the grill cloth off and checking the

>drivers and their connections. I guess the next thing to do

>is to hook em up and see how they sound. Since they will be

>used in a large room (30'X 30'X 14'high) I need to know the

>safe load capacity of these AR-6'S. Does anyone have

>suggestions? Oh yes, the oiled walnut cabinets will be

>reoiled and should look as new. Too bad its use has fallen

>out of favor with most Mfg's. Plastic is hard to refinish.

>

>Thanks,

>Everett

Everett,

By "load" capacity one assumes you mean "safe power-handling" capability: for the AR-6 this would be a stereo amplifier with a *minimum* rating of 20 watts rms (20 - 20,000 Hz), or one rated at a maximum of 100 watts rms, with short-term peaks of 200 watts/channel or less. The maximum power is irrelevant so long as you use common sense; too little power is a *much* greater problem, as "clipping" is a likely hazard. The size of the room only means that you will have to drive them harder for a given SPL, but if you are trying to supply music amplification for a dance band or something, forget it. Playing standard reproduced music in such a large room can be done without problems, however, but an amplifier on the order of 100 watts/channel is probably needed. Incidentally, a room 30' x 30' x 14' is likely to have horrendous acoustics because of the nearly square dimentions. One of the best things you could do would be to put partitions of some sort to break the standing-wave nodes, and the music will sound more natural.

As someone else has mentioned, you will most likely have to re-foam the surrounds and go in and clean the level controls (unless the AR-6s are 1975 or later models with switch-controlled level outputs). It's all very worth it, however, because the AR-6 is a fine loudspeaker by any standard.

--Tom Tyson