Any difference in Europe or US assembled speakers?

[Guest Randy O]

Was curious if there are any differences other than the grill cloth with AR-5 and AR-3a speakers assembled in Europe and the US factories? I'm refering to the dark brown cloth used in Europe compared to the beige linen used in the US.

I assume both plants used the same driver and crossover sources. A friend thought maybe the 3a used a rounded or routered edge something like the Improved version. Mine have the same cabinet as the US version with the flat beveled edge. Also curious if anyone has any idea how many of these models were turned out with the brown grills?

Thanks Randy

[tysontom]

>Was curious if there are any differences other than the grill

>cloth with AR-5 and AR-3a speakers assembled in Europe and the

>US factories? I'm refering to the dark brown cloth used in

>Europe compared to the beige linen used in the US.

>I assume both plants used the same driver and crossover

>sources. A friend thought maybe the 3a used a rounded or

>routered edge something like the Improved version. Mine have

>the same cabinet as the US version with the flat beveled edge.

>Also curious if anyone has any idea how many of these models

>were turned out with the brown grills?

Randy,

There were quite a few variations of the AR-3a after Acoustic Research moved from Cambridge to Norwood and also after the British and Holland facilities were opened. I believe the first AR-3as exported to Europe were the standard American version, but eventually this changed because European customers were unhappy with the wide-lip molding of the original US-version AR-3a, and the cabinets were modified to a thinner molding and then ultimately the the very thin molding (see Fig.1) that is often seen for the cabinets for the AR-2ax, AR-5, AR-3a and AR-3a Improved. The grill cloth was originally beige linen (Fig.2), but later changed to the dark tweed as shown in Fig. 1. The drivers were the same and were at first shipped over from the US, but the crossover was changed by eventually eliminating the level controls and substituting a switch. There were several variations of this, as well. Incidentally, AR did not "source" any of the early AR-3a drivers: they manufactured them in-house from scratch. The original AR-3a cabinet was based on the original AR-1 and AR-3 designs, but with changes to the grill-panel attachment.

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/851.jpg

Fig.1 AR-3a Improved with European-style cabinet.

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/852.jpg

Fig.2 AR-3a Improved with beige-linen grill material (after eBay image)

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/853.jpg

Fig.3 Original AR-3a from 1967 with wide molding and beige-linen grill material

--Tom Tyson