AR58LS quandry

[bitbandit]

Hi,

I have a pair of much loved AR58-LS speakers that I have owned since new in 1984. They are the floor standing ones with the 11" woofer. mid and tweeter. I re-coned the woofers about 2 years ago and they sound as good as they did when I bought them. :-)

They have been used with a Technics New Class A amp (SU-V4X) that I bought at the same time. Unfortunately the amp has died and the parts are no longer available to repair it. This is where the dilemma comes in!

Does anyone have any experience of running modern amps with 1980's AR speakers? I was really into the hifi scene in the 70's and 80's but the arrival of children (happily!) etc meant that I have been very much out of the loop for the last 20 years, and now I have come to select a replacement amp the hifi landscape has changed dramatically as I am sure you already know. It seems to be that if "it will play an overcompressed mp3 without too much distortion and plenty of bass resonance" it will do. Nightmare!!

I am having trouble to find anywhere to audition amps (NW) other than Richer sounds but they don't stock some of the brands I want to hear. I don't want to have to take my speakers if I can avoid it (they are big and heavy). I realise all speakers sound different, but are there any modern ones with a "similar" profile to mine that I could use to listen in combination with various amps to find one I like the sound of? I know it will then sound different with my speakers but I'll take that chance. The alternative is buying blind on recommendation only...

I'd particularly like to hear from anyone who used to have a Technics new class A amp with AR speakers (and liked the sound!) and subsequently upgraded the amp - what did you upgrade to - how did it compare?

Many thanks

[bitbandit]

I have just auditioned the Arcam A70 with my speakers and it sounds dire. The top is squeaky, shrill and grating - the bass is muddy and ill defined, and most surprising of all, a couple of octaves of upper bass disappears altogether. The old technics still sounds great (when it is not cutting out due it's un repairable fault).

Arrrgghhhh!!!!

[ar_pro]

Yes, many current amplifiers are underwhelming when used with vintage acoustic suspension speakers - they can sound sound anemic & shrill, when compared to the powerhouse amps of the '70s & '80s. And most of them lack tone controls, so you're stuck with whatever deficiencies are present in the recording, or in your listening room.

From firsthand experience, I know McIntosh, Crown, and Adcom to be excellent matches for AR speakers, with the latter two brands available at very reasonable prices on eBay. I believe all Adcom preamps offer tone controls, and the GFA-545II and GFA-555II series of Adcom amplifiers are very robust, while Crown power amps are famous for their reliability. McIntosh is a great match, but their vintage equipment is collectable & pricey, and their new amplifiers are $$$.

You could put a pretty good system together for much less than the retail price of the Arcam, if you don't mind used equipment.

[bitbandit]

Yes, many current amplifiers are underwhelming when used with vintage acoustic suspension speakers - they can sound sound anemic & shrill, when compared to the powerhouse amps of the '70s & '80s. And most of them lack tone controls, so you're stuck with whatever deficiencies are present in the recording, or in your listening room.

From firsthand experience, I know McIntosh, Crown, and Adcom to be excellent matches for AR speakers, with the latter two brands available at very reasonable prices on eBay. I believe all Adcom preamps offer tone controls, and the GFA-545II and GFA-555II series of Adcom amplifiers are very robust, while Crown power amps are famous for their reliability. McIntosh is a great match, but their vintage equipment is collectable & pricey, and their new amplifiers are $$$.

You could put a pretty good system together for much less than the retail price of the Arcam, if you don't mind used equipment.

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated. I'm only glad I didn't actually buy the Arcam (I nearly did) before listening to it. Obviously you *should* always listen before buying but it was becoming impossible up until I found a small local dealer who let me take the Arcam home to try it with my speakers. All the speakers he had were expensive but used 6" drivers for the bass and I'm afraid they sounded cheap and boxy to me, lots of upper bass/lower mid range in-box resonances. He has a Roksan Kandy so I'll try that at the weekend and if that is not a good match (and I suspect ot won't be) I'll be trawling ebay for decent technics stuff or some of amps you mention above. I'm grateful for the advice, there seems to be so little experience of decent kit in the new world of "hifi". To be honest, if I could repair the Technics I'd keep it but the power amp chips have been unavailable for a number of years now. You'd be surprised at how many dealers have listened to what I want then tried to flog me a midi system for £200. Unbelievable. :-)

[Guest senior coconut]

I had the exact same dilemma. Had a JVC Class A amp driving my AR58LS since 1983 and it sounded superb. The amp blew up about 5 years ago. Auditioned a whole bunch of Arcam, Cyrus etc - all dire. What you need is Musical Fidelity - I got an A3 dual mono integrated and it ROCKS! Possibly just a bit too powerful (? opinions please) as it puts out 180 watts into 4 ohms. No tone controls either, but who needs them? The AR's woofers finally gave up recently and I'm awaiting a pair of B&W CDM 9NT's so we'll see how they compare...