New picture in the AR section ..

[administrator]

Check out the new picture in the AR section from the AR 40th "Birthday Party" in NY. Thanks Ken!

Mark

[Guest dogmeninreno]

How do I get to this picture in the AR section? Dale

[administrator]

You need to return to the main pages .. currently you are in the discussion forums. Use the link above, "Return to the Classic Speaker Pages" and navigate to the Acoustic Research area. I believe I linked the picture off of the main AR section.

Mark

[Guest]

You brought up a book by Villchur. I had to do a little digging but found my copy of "High Fidelity System" by Roy Allison. It was part of the "AR Library". Vol.1 Copyright 1962/'65.

Just think of all the knowledge at that party!

[ToastedAlmond]

About two or three months prior to this gala affair, there was a tiny little blurb in Stereo Review announcing its occurence. The blurb further stated a LIMITED amount of FREE tickets would be made available to the general public. Call this 800 number. I almost fell over when I got tickets for me and my bud Ray from the neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Lots of cool stuff and people there. A gentlemen named Tom Tyson was (I believe) the owner of a lot of cool stuff on display. Original mint AR tables and amps. A cutaway model of the AR-3a. They were also giving away excellent copies of the old AR book, The Reproduction of Sound. I think Villchur wrote it. Anyhow, I was lucky enough to get both Kloss and Villchur to sign the cover of my copy. I was talking with Julian Hirsch about the old AR company. He mentioned that he thought the speakers were always excellent, but that the electronics hadn't kept up. I told him I had a perfect AR Integrated at home. I don't think he believed me. Ken Kantor was there, and I think I was speaking to David Hafler for awhile too.

I have to tell you, either the audio press, or the other "general public" folks (like Ray and me) were a bunch of real bad dressers, that aren't real hygienic. Some real buggy looking folks got in there.

Toasted Almond

[ToastedAlmond]

Mr. Kantor,

YOU sir, were nattily dressed in a RECENTLY WASHED suit and tie. The same could not be said for a great many other attendees.

There were some great lines during the affair. Mr. Kloss was approached by a gentlemen who was lamenting that it was HIS fault he had accumulated so many loudspeakers. Mr. Kloss' response? "AT LEAST I MADE THEM SMALL!"

Another gentlemen was obviously not aware that Mr. Villchur has had very little to do with consumer audio products since his association with AR. He asked Mr. Villchur, "How do you really think the new 303 stacks up to the 3a?" Mr. Villchur's response? He pointed at a uniformed security person stationed near one of the exits and said, "Go ask him, he's got a better idea than I do!"

The absolute thrill of a lifetime, I had on a CLEAN sport jacket and slacks.

Yes, there was certainly a lot of talent and history there, and for whatever part you played in pulling it together Mr. Kantor, thanks.

Toasted Almond

[kkantor]

Indeed!

Regrettably, Roy was quite ill during the time of the party and could not attend.

Ken Kantor

Intelligent Audio Systems, Inc.

PS- I am trying to come up with more photos from the party from the same source who sent me that one. (There is a nasty rumour that one well-dressed person came to the party, and we are checking out the surveillance footage to be sure this wasn't the case.)

[kkantor]

Many thanks. My Jensen bosses were standing right behind me. I HAD to rent clean clothes....

Your comments really make me very happy; I'm so glad you had a good time! While I can't begin to lay claim to any of the best and most important products to be found there, I can take credit for throwing the party. And for talking HK and EV into meeting again after years....

Ken Kantor

Intelligent Audio Systems, Inc.

[ToastedAlmond]

It was clear you had a hand, perhaps the biggest one, in throwing the party. You were never in one spot very long!!

It was a very appropriate idea to honor those men, and, as we now know, it's a good thing you picked the 40th anniversary. A 50th is impossible. Time waits for no man, and it's a good thing you didn't either. 10-20 yrs down the road, maybe circumstances will have someone doing the same for you. Indeed, it was the thrill of a lifetime. Thanks again and good luck.

Toasted Almond

[tysontom]

Yes, I (Tom Tyson) did bring in several AR devices for the "AR 40th Birthday Party," held in New York in October, 1994. I brought in an early AR-1, AR-TT turntable, AR Amplifier and AR Tuner, AR-3a "Cut-a-Way" (with amp and HP 200CD furnishing 5 Hz. pumping oscillations as in the original demos in the AR Music Room), an AR-11 "Visible" speaker, and many original AR posters that were used in the New York High Fidelity Music Show during the 50s and 60s and later. This was part of a rather large collection of vintage Acoustic Research stuff I have had for many years. I have been in conversation with Recoton, and they are planning to do a 50th Party -- and it's only a couple years away!

As for having Henry Kloss and Ed Villchur sign the copy of "Reproduction of Sound," I don't think I would have asked Kloss to sign it along with Villchur. The late Henry Kloss -- brilliant as he was in his own inimitable way -- had nothing whatsover to do with Villchur's book, much less with the design of any of the AR speakers other than the AR-1 cabinet shape and layout of the AR 12-inch woofer. He was a co-founder of AR, however.

Sadly, Julian Hirsch has not been well. I don't know how he is doing now, but he has been quite ill. Hirsch, from his days with the New York Audio League well into the Hirsch-Houck Lab days, always looked at AR speakers with reverence. Being an engineer, he appreciated Villchur's analytical approach to problem-solving. I talked to Julian shortly after the 40th party, and asked him the serial number of his early AR-1. It was a loaded question, since I have Ed Canby's original AR-1 Ser. No. 0074 (destined for museum service), the oldest "known" AR-1 in existence. He told me his was serial number 0220. It was the one he used in his Audio League Report article back in January, 1956, the first full report on the remarkable AR acoustic-suspension woofer. He was amazed that there was one older than his.

It is true that Villchur has had virtually no association with the high-fidelity industry after he sold AR to Teledyne in 1967. He went on to hearing-aid research, has written another book on acoustics for audiologists, but never "looked back." Villchur's contributions during the 1950s and 1960s were remarkable, but mostly because he was not emotionally involved in the business. He learned how to identify and understand the "problems" in loudspeakers, and then went about creating solutions for them. So successful were AR designs, that by 1966, AR commanded about 1/3 of the entire commercial loudspeaker market! I don't think any company before or since has had such presence. This success was largely due to the acoustic-suspension woofer and the dome tweeters, two Villchur contributions that revolutionized the industry. The Villchur designed AR Turntable also had much to do with it.

--Tom Tyson

[ToastedAlmond]

Thank you for providing the insight. Judging by Mr. Villchur's demeanor during the affair (he appeared jovial to me), I'm hoping he wasn't too offended by the faux pas on our part.

If you've got any input, kindly try and get the public invited again.

Toasted Almond

[tysontom]

"Judging by Mr. Villchur's demeanor during the affair (he appeared jovial to me), I'm hoping he wasn't too offended by the faux pas on our part."

Oh you are quite right -- he would never have been offended. I just wanted to emphasize that Kloss had no input in the writing of any of Villchur's books or his many articles. Villchur wouldn't care, of course, as that sort of thing would never offend him; besides, you were trying to capture a bit of history, and having both the "founders" of AR on hand, it seemed appropriate at the time to get both signatures.

And please don't get me wrong about the late Mr. Kloss. He was a imaginative, innovative inventor that contributed a great deal to the art and science of high-fidelity sound reproduction. He's actually much better known than Villchur, in that Villchur left AR and the hifi industry after selling AR to Teledyne in 1967. Kloss went on to pioneer many products -- I'm sure you know his contributions -- and he will go down in history as being one of the "greats" in audio/video.

Unfortunately, Kloss -- either accidentally or on purpose -- took credit for a few things for which he was not responsible. For many years after he left AR in 1957, for example, and until the present time, there was this notion that Kloss "founded" AR and invented the AR-1 loudspeaker. There was never any mention of Villchur in the KLH, Advent or Cambridge ad copy. Even on the internet, historical sketches of Kloss gave him credit for AR. Early this year the NY Times ran an obituary on Kloss, and repeated (but later retracted) this same theme, because the NYT author's sloppy research merely plagerized the internet's misinformation! As they say, "when you step in it, don't walk around."

Shall I go on?

--Tom Tyson

[ToastedAlmond]

Please do! School's open, and it's history class.

Toasted Almond

[administrator]

I bugged Ken about the identities of the people I did not recognize in the picture .. here goes:

"The guy in the background holding the speaker is Robert G. Shaw, who was CEO of International Jensen, Inc (who owned AR at the time.) Other guy is Marc Tannenberg, CFO of same."

Thanks Ken!

Mark