Andre_Db66 Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 Is there anyone on this forum who can provide some serious background on this model or perhaps this line of speakers? Yes they are quite the contrary to AR philosophy with a 15 inch bass reflex loaded design. They are however remarkable speakers that can easily be matched with a low power tube amp and sound amazing. The bass is very deep and the mid/highs are restrained according to earlier models. Only info/rumours i can find is that they were produced for the US army which i find far fetched....? Compared to any vintage speaker standard they are butt ugly and my wife compares them to a paper shredder machine. She is very tolerant, none of that WAF crap or divorce attitude and i must add that with all my speaker adventures the only models she claims are beautiful are my recent LST and also Beovox K series from the late 60s. The rest of my grand collection and past ventures she doesnt care for... Any experiences anyone? Any data anyone? Any comments anyone? Cheers Andre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genek Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 Studio Recording Transducer, aka Sears Roebuck Throwaway. A budget product originally produced for Sears and later sold through military exchanges. Have never seen any AR-published marketing brochures for them. I suspect they were too embarrassed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre_Db66 Posted February 16 Author Report Share Posted February 16 3 hours ago, genek said: Studio Recording Transducer, aka Sears Roebuck Throwaway. A budget product originally produced for Sears and later sold through military exchanges. Have never seen any AR-published marketing brochures for them. I suspect they were too embarrassed. Wow! They did put effort and R&D in these because they sound good. How on earth did they get so despised when still a nice product to the ears. Yes, true they are undoubtedly not studio material, but neither is Tannoy for that matter... and other speakers produced by AR are hyped and yet i would compare that also to commercial lines of Tannoy like P series for example. It doesnt make these bad speakers either necessarily. Just because they are not dual concentric. Not trying to compare apples and pears here, but embarresment i think is an overkill statement when they produce excellent companions with lets say a Quad 2 set of 15 watt mono amps. Or even something with only 4.5watts output i built myself using the 832a tube. Andre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 As a tube amp owner I would think a bass reflex design (ported) with a tube amp which typically have very low damping factor would sound very wooly and flabby with little 'tight' bass sound. For a while I ran AR91 with a solid state amp that had very high damping factor and 10Pi with my tube amp. VERY different bass sound. Those speakers are not listed on the Aphenos list. To each his own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre_Db66 Posted February 16 Author Report Share Posted February 16 Yes generally speaking a tube amp has next to no damping factor. My appraisal of the low watts tube amp was to emphasize the sensitivity which is a contrary to the power hungry speakers AR tends to have produced, making them an oddball in another way. These speakers do clean up a lot soundwise when connected to lets say a yamaha or bryston amp. Then again there are a lot of people who dont like the general woollyness of tubes anyhow...(subjective) Talking of power, which not many people have at their disposal when it comes to tubes, that same woollyness comes back to any earlier model even when 100 pch is available. That is just how it is and becomes less when feedback is turned on... Still, very subjectively speaking, even when using my Bryston SS i enjoy the sound of the srt very much and cannot fathom why there is so little background to be found on them. Then again, if it werent for this forum, the same would be for any given model of AR i believe. It is by now a niche market thing. Still, why the silence within this group of enthusiasts? A search on srt delivers 0 results here... hence my post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genek Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 It's probably the bass reflex. Other AR-branded speakers by subsequent owners of the brand that are not acoustic suspension get the same low regard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre_Db66 Posted February 16 Author Report Share Posted February 16 2 minutes ago, genek said: It's probably the bass reflex. Other AR-branded speakers by subsequent owners of the brand that are not acoustic suspension get the same low regard. Fair enough... general subjective prejudice. The reason mentioned does not rhyme(to me)with the holographic series. There is documents on that and appraisal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre_Db66 Posted February 16 Author Report Share Posted February 16 We have a saying in holland, what the farmer doesnt know, he will not eat... What is unkown cannot be appreciated. What is treated with silence cannot be bespoken. I am emphasizing that these speakers sound very good despite all the prejudice i have encountered. Also on craigslist comments... They give though, the same laid back general experience to music listening as the other AR models i own and do not invoke tiresome listening. Rather than starting an endless debate i just want to defend these speakers, for stepping out of line wasnt a bad choice in this case. Being produced for Sears perhaps sounds cheap skate but giving the general public a wood vineer box with these sonical qualities is not a bad thing. Advent did a similar thing no? Causing part of the demise, and quality choices like vinyl vineer etc. I do not exactly find AR an example of continuity of quality in general. All the different xo's and approaches to building the cases and drivers... you actually never know what you are in for. I steered clear of the brand for years because of this general appearance. Always seemed some nephew or the likes had repaired the speakers.... until i heard my first pair of 3a and closed my eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genek Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 AR's legendary history stems from Edgar Villchur's invention of acoustic suspension. So in the eyes of AR enthusiasts, anything that lacks that feature is probably always going to be a poor cousin. As you get further and further from the Villchur years and the early Teledyne years in which the team originally put in place by him continued to design AR speakers, the less attractive the brand becomes. You'll find the same thing happening to KLH and Advent products produced after Henry Kloss departed those companies, as well as Allison speakers after Roy Allison. Especially if they happen to have ports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre_Db66 Posted February 17 Author Report Share Posted February 17 I understand very well what you are saying and agree to all of it, but my initial question was if and why there is any available info or documentation on this product line rather than vague rumours. Supposedly produced for Sears is to me another one. It must have been advertised somewhere, sometime in the past. Like i said, here on the site i can find stuff on the holographic series and they are also questionable. Being a forum on AR products i believe it should be unbiased and more informative possibly than google. This is actually what i am trying to achieve. I have these speakers, and because i speak for one person only, it should be considered subjective and biased. However, in an objective way these speakers are reasonably build quality, and above standard sonic quality. Yet specs i cannot find and when i google them i am not reassured. Admittedly, specs on the vintage models are also scarce (GOOGLE), because when looking at them, one had to contact AR to find out about power capabilities. Shrouded in mistery is what they will remain i am afraid, and i am a little dissapointed with that. Perhaps they do not deserve a place next to the legendary models, yet to be mentioned unashamed would suit them to say the least. They have an AR label after all... that is what this forum is about, i hope. I mentioned Tannoy before, they are now produced in China. There are still people buying them and yes that is disputable, i agree. Today, branding and appearance is all that matters. What you actually said is that this phenomena started with AR a long long time ago. Meaning the 303 is also not worth mentioning or writing about. Yet is has followers and believers that because it has acoustic suspension it must be considered good. The exact same thing with Tannoy... being DC doesnt necessarily make it a good speaker or live up to the enthusiast standard. I rest my case... I hope someone, somewhere, magically can make a document/brochure appear to enlighten us. Cheers Andre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 How about a picture of the “butt ugly” speakers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aadams Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 1 hour ago, JKent said: How about a picture of the “butt ugly” speakers? Kent, when you posted I was gathering info with the objective of asking for a photo of the AR label on the back of the cabinets. I checked Stereo Review buyers guide for all years from 1989 to 1996, finding no listing for an AR STR xxx. Andre, Beginning in the 1980s AR speakers had a label on the back of the cabinet that looked something like these below. Perhaps you could show us the label on your SRT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genek Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 The SRTs were probably produced in a sort of semi-OEM arrangement, in which the buyer got a reduced price in return for taking on responsibility for things like distribution, marketing and service. Sears would've gotten a little sales boost from having the label say AR rather than some home label brand name, but no other AR support. AR would've drop shipped a a year's worth of stock to one delivery point, Sears would've shipped to stores using their distribution chain, the only marketing info would've been in Sears catalogs, and customers with warranty issues would've carted their speakers to their local Sears store rather than contacting AR for free return cartons. And I wonder whether those military exchanges got them from AR, or from Sears along with Craftsman tools and Kenmore appliances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre_Db66 Posted February 17 Author Report Share Posted February 17 Here you go, not so butt ugly, good sounding speaker including label at the back... Liquid cooled strontium.... how about it. I have totally overlooked that label at the back i must be honest. Perhaps it makes sense to anyone and how this correlates to Sears? Or the US army? Fables going round the net? Never sold in the USA? Was a dutch person closely involved in the development of the 3a improved version? Another myth being strewn around here in Holland unsubstantiated... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aadams Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 28 minutes ago, Andre_Db66 said: Perhaps it makes sense to anyone and how this correlates to Sears? Or the US army? The Army part makes sense. I know that UK AR product was sold in European Base "Audio Clubs" in the 1980s. In my experience, component audio products were never sold in US base exchanges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre_Db66 Posted February 17 Author Report Share Posted February 17 They are rare speakers... UK https://www.ebay.nl/itm/256154214833?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=1346-53482-19255-0&campid=5338421020&toolid=10001&customid=9af8c478-cdd5-11ee-a8f5-653931366338 USA https://reverb.com/item/77226114-acoustic-research-ar-srt-170-studio-recording-bookshelf-speakers?utm_source=aw&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hifishark.com&sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=536903&awc=67144_1708202565_7df20d8f14859be25684c3b8791bc42f There are only a few on hifishark. Suprised to see another label on the latter... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aadams Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 Label from the back of an SRT 170 on ebY From a UK brochure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre_Db66 Posted February 17 Author Report Share Posted February 17 NICE! Now were talking... This is what i sought after. Which hat did this come from? 😁 Perhaps a different angle on the brochure would be greatly appreciated... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genek Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 The dual address suggests that at least some of these were manufactured overseas under license from AR. The existence of a UK AR brochure when there doesn't seem to be a US brochure reinforces that suggestion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre_Db66 Posted February 17 Author Report Share Posted February 17 1 minute ago, genek said: The dual address suggests that at least some of these were manufactured overseas under license from AR. The existence of a UK AR brochure when there doesn't seem to be a US brochure reinforces that suggestion. Indeed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aadams Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 It is an ebay listing for the brochure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 I wonder which AR brand owner made these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre_Db66 Posted February 17 Author Report Share Posted February 17 Does this glimpse into the specs possibly suggest reasonable to fairly good performance, objectively speaking? I mentioned they have beautiful low bass notes coming from them. The specs also suggest this. Debateable if SS or tubes is the preferred boost here, but i was very much surprised. Generally speaking i am not a fan of bass reflex one note bass cabinets but i can compare directly to acoustic suspension, transmissionline, motion feedback, open baffle, electrostatic. These all have their own qualities and also flaws... Is there an active link to this fleebay listing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 https://www.ebay.com/itm/256117804176?itmmeta=01HPWJNR0ZXM6V43P71XKKT0B8&hash=item3ba1cf8c90:g:absAAOSwGEJcernC&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4IgVb0Wjkh1GiflYwJMvUtuXT0s2NYubX36Tw0ePsK%2BB5uFOYV1CRrffdBPcZ4qBwFrbhMz5KM99Leu1af8mccJApB6imP4bGBfGtbicdL4%2BzfpUX9LUFRGrYzr%2FKXjOzzl0Qedg26mYTPenU42NV4WZFyh7l%2FrRYiAFjN%2BqGtmghv4G7Hvkt4ROGEMJxRjrgcYMdVo3y3k76N5VIegWLZUy7%2FNxqX1SYHiuzvhJmK0jRx1%2FyvBnpWdzN5jDaPc%2BQCoRCB5VuzRWx%2B0XymWEKHPBcOCTFaAFHYnOHuigHDhx|tkp%3ABFBMxoDXkrdj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 They’re Teledyne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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