AR-7's #5847209578 Ebay

[dynaco_dan]

I just saw a pair of AR-7's on ebay @ 12:20 PM PST today and they still have 7 days left on that auction. There are 5 bidders with 17 bids thus far. They have driven the price up to $390.00 US so far. I guess it's time I dusted of a pair I picked up locally for $5.00 CDN plus tax and sell them on ebay. I wonder sometimes what the bidders think they are buying. I do know that shill bidding is not allowed. Any thoughts?

[cotascope]

hi vern i noticed that too on the ar 7s, i bought a good used pair of 7's off ebay a few weeks back for 149.00 and i thought that was high,i did not know they used a vinyl covering and i liked the sound of the ar4x's better. took the woofer out to look at the crossover on the 7s and notice they don,t have a coil ,just a cap,so the woofer's frec. must drop off sudden. i did notice this is the same ebayer that sold 2 new pair of 7's last month i think. john

[Guest daveshel]

Unbelievable. No way are they worth that much. I have a pair that I bought when I was a teenager that I would like to rehabilitate because they sounded pretty good, but for that money you could buy large Advents all day long, and I remember whan I got my large Advents in 1979 and how much better thay sounded than my AR-7s.

[dynaco_dan]

>Unbelievable. No way are they worth that much. I have a pair

>that I bought when I was a teenager that I would like to

>rehabilitate because they sounded pretty good, but for that

>money you could buy large Advents all day long, and I remember

>whan I got my large Advents in 1979 and how much better thay

>sounded than my AR-7s.

Hi there;

Something I would like to say about the AR-7's.

If we were just buying a first stereo system on a limited budget, we probably would get a lot of enjoyment from them.

Because we have advanced to a higher listening level they don't seem to be such an interesting speaker now.

This is almost always the case.

Those AR-7's must be judged on their own merits only.

They are small, limiting bass output, but probably had more than a lot of more expensive other brands.

They probably are good for rear channel speakers as well.

[tysontom]

>Unbelievable. No way are they worth that much. I have a pair

>that I bought when I was a teenager that I would like to

>rehabilitate because they sounded pretty good, but for that

>money you could buy large Advents all day long, and I remember

>whan I got my large Advents in 1979 and how much better thay

>sounded than my AR-7s.

Don't underestimate the AR-7. The Advents sound "better" because they produced much deeper, more palpable bass response, and this always wins in a speaker contest. However, the tweeter in the AR-7 was in many ways better (smoother and with better dispersion) than the Advent tweeter, at least the original version; and except for the last two octaves in bass, the AR-7 gave up little to the Advent. The AR-7 was a very musical and accurate loudspeaker for a very modest cost, and probably represented a much better value-per-dollar for the budget hi-fi system than anything like the Advent.

The real proof of the lasting value of old AR speakers is the rather phenomenal value on eBay in recent years. Most other speakers of the era, such as Advents, EPIs and KLHs, don't command as much on eBay as the older AR speakers probably because they did not at the time receive the critical acclaim of AR speakers.

--Tom Tyson

[tysontom]

>hi vern i noticed that too on the ar 7s, i bought a good used

>pair of 7's off ebay a few weeks back for 149.00 and i thought

>that was high,i did not know they used a vinyl covering and i

>liked the sound of the ar4x's better. took the woofer out to

>look at the crossover on the 7s and notice they don,t have a

>coil ,just a cap,so the woofer's frec. must drop off sudden. i

>did notice this is the same ebayer that sold 2 new pair of

>7's last month i think. john

The AR-7 had a rather high crossover frequency of 2000 Hz, and its crossover used a single 6 mfd capacitor and switchable 3-ohm attenuating resistor for the "Norm" position. The tweeter (Original AR Part No. 10707-1) was identical to the AR-6 and was an outstanding performer both on- and off-axis. The woofer was rolled off naturally at its upper end. There are some minor off-axis losses with the 8-inch woofer being crossed-over so high, but this woofer (original AR Part No. 10708-1) was at least flat on-axis up beyond that frequency, and was special to the AR-7. This woofer had unusually fine bass performance for such a small enclosure, with very low harmonic distortion. Reviews for the AR-7 were glowing in all the audio magazines, especially *Stereo Review,* *High Fidelity Magazine* and *Audio.* CBS Laboratories stated that the AR-7 could handle pulses of up to 504 watts to produce an output of 111 dB, but with some distortion (not surprising at that power), so the little AR-7 could also handle a lot of power.

Incidentally, the early AR-7s had a geniune-birch-veneer wood cabinet, finished in "Walnut" stain. Later AR-7s had the vinyl-clad cabinets.

--Tom Tyson

[cotascope]

thanks tom for the info, i think i'll look for the earler version with the birch wood and give it a 2nd chance. regards john

[Guest daveshel]

Don't get me wrong - I'm not disparaging the AR-7. It was a great little speaker for the money, and worked great as rear channels. But $400 and who knows what they will end up selling for?

Tom, what would you say would be the best way to get ahold of new woofers? I don't thing they are the same 8" that was used in the AR-4x, for example. One of mine only needs to have the surround replaced, but the other seems to have voice coil damage.

[tysontom]

>Don't get me wrong - I'm not disparaging the AR-7. It was a

>great little speaker for the money, and worked great as rear

>channels. But $400 and who knows what they will end up selling

>for?

>

>Tom, what would you say would be the best way to get ahold of

>new woofers? I don't thing they are the same 8" that was used

>in the AR-4x, for example. One of mine only needs to have the

>surround replaced, but the other seems to have voice coil

>damage.

Dave,

You are right that the original woofers were different. Locating original AR-7 woofers (original AR Part 10708-1) would not be easy unless you came across a pair of damaged AR-7s on eBay, cannibalized the woofers from that pair, and then got them re-foamed. The AR-7 woofer was special to that speaker (it even had a smaller-diameter half-round surround) when the speaker was introduced; AR later substituted a generic woofer (AR Part 1200001-1) which will work satisfactorily in the speaker, but not exactly as the original.

--Tom Tyson

[Guest daveshel]

I thought about trying something from Layne Audio but didn't trust their generic speaker to have the right characteristics for the AR-7.

Not long ago I picked up a pair of AR4xs on ebay. The seller said they had bad pots, but as it turns out, one of the tweeters is bad as well. I considered using the woofers from the 4xs in my 7s, but the 4 that works sounds much better than what I remember from the 7s. And they are different woofers as well - the older one has a covered square magnet and the newer one is a bit shallower and has an exposed square magnet. So back to the parts search.