AR 302s

[Guest]

Hello, this is my first post. I am considering purchasing a set of 302s from accessories4less, or through audio.net, at closeout, however the sets that are available are either two lefts in cherry or two rights in black. I've been assured by both sellers that it is extremely difficult to notice that these are not L-R proper sets. How true is this? Also, can I get some feedback from people here who have owned or have auditioned 302s? Are they fantastic? Here's my deal regarding recent speaker history so you can get a sense of where I'm coming from, where my tastes lie: I had a set of AR 48s which I did not like, in the mid eighties. I found them very boxy sounding, they lacked presence and musicality, although they were natural sounding. I ran them through Hafler 220/110. These were my main living room speakers. I gave them to a friend for his bedroom stereo and they sounded much better, in his smaller room. Next I picked up a set of Rectilinear IIIs at Stereo Exchange in NYC around 1986. I thought that these were great, although the speakers were not in pristine condition - they needed work, and the low end was sort of very muddy and lacked focus. However these were very high quality speakers. I eventually passed them along and picked up a set of DCM Time Frame 350s at a moving sale which are not bad - these are decent speakers (still running through the Hafler setup). The downside to the DCMs is that the low end is definitely wanting, although the speakers are clear, musical sounding, have lots of presence. That's my current configuration. So I'm thinking of either replacing the DCMs with 302s, or, as an alternative, replacing the SEAS tweaters and rubber surrounds to a set of Dynaco 25s I have, to use, if this would turn out to be an upgrade. So, if you have any thoughts or advice from reading this, I would appreciate hearing from you. Thanks, Jeff

[administrator]

Jeff:

I was very impressed with the 302's .. I have had AR 338's, 302's, and 303a's.

Some of what I listen to includes Peter Gabriel, Tool, System of a Down, and Dido. I was very happy with female vocals on these speakers (as were people who came over to check them out) and properly postioned the bass is tight and powerful. Peter Gabriel fans will know what I'm talking about.

If you look around on these forums, Ken Kantor may have mentioned that the 302's were actually his favorite (acoustically) of the series.

As for breaking up the mirror image, someone more audio geek than I will have to answer that.

And on a side note .. I blew up a friends pair of AR38's (he also had AR48's) in college and we almost burned his house down. The fire started in the voicecoil and burnt the cone, then the drapes next to them. Imagine six drunk college kids belting the speakers, drapes, and audio equipment with water. That's how I got into repairing AR's.

Mark