Guest Posted May 16, 2001 Report Share Posted May 16, 2001 Mark, and everyone...I just wanted to say I am excited to find this forum, and to see such enthusiasm and loyalty towards the old AR (and Allison) equipment.My dad is Abe Hoffman, who was with AR from its early days, first as VP, then President, then Chairman (after the sale to Teledyne). He then joined Roy Allison in the creation of Allison Acoustics.Recently, I was able to buy on Ebay, some old AR literature accompanied by an original letter to a customer, signed by my Dad on AR Letterhead. This is going to be is father's day present.I appreciate all you folks are doing to keep these legends alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 16, 2001 Report Share Posted May 16, 2001 aehoffman-Any chance of getting your father to join in on the forum? It would be really neat if your father and his ex- AR cohorts were able to "relive the past" with us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 19, 2001 Report Share Posted May 19, 2001 I am going home to visit my folks, and will ask my dad... don't count on it tho, as he is a total technophobe. He was the business brains behind the companies.. I always had to hook up the speakers, run the camera, and change the lightbulbs! He did come into the 20th century.. he does use a calculator when he is working with numbers.. although for the most part, at 85, he can still add a column of numbers faster than most of us could type them in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 15, 2002 Report Share Posted May 15, 2002 Amazing indeed! At age 19 I was an audio salesperson at Arrow Electronics which once stood in the center of what is now Ground Zero. One day a man in a blazer with leather patches on his sleeves came in carrying a small wooden box and asked us to hook it up. The man was Ed Villchur and the speaker was an AR1W paired with a Jantzen electrostatic unit. We were unimpressed. it didn't sound like Klipsh horns or Altec Lansings and it had no bass -- that is until there was some in the program material (an old Cook recording of the organ in Symphony Hall boston) and then, WOW! It sounded like a pipe organ instead of a folded horn. These were not popular with the speaker buying public at the time, but I sold quite a few nevertheless. When a customer identified him/herself as a musician I insisted that they buy nothing else. When the 3a's came along, many of my AR1,2, and 2a customers came back to trade up. I saved up my pennies and bought myself a pair at wholesale (I believe $144.00). A few years later I bought another pair for a four channel setup, and returned my original pair to the factory to be tested and upgraded. Several of the drivers were replaced and some other minor improvements had been made. When I received the invoice it was marked "no charge" and was accompanied by a very nice note from your dad. I still use the four 3a's in my home theater system with a center channel that I built, and I am still using AR9s in my music system. In the summer of 1995, I ran into Ed Villchur at an Emerson String Quartet recital in Woodstock, and he politely pretended to remember me but had no particular wisdom about what to do about burnt out AR3 tweeters other than to order repacements from the company in California. I doubt that your father will have any recollection of his kindness to me, but I'm glad for this contact and opportunity to say thanks again and send him warm regards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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