New Member / AR 8 question

[ssmith3046]

Very happy that found this great site. When I was student in the early seventies I couldn't afford the AR speakers I wanted. Fast forward 38 years and now I can start my collection. My first pair recently was a pair of beautiful refurbished AR-6's. I'm waiting on delivery of a pair of nice AR-4x speakers. Last night I ordered a pair of really nice AR-8's at very low price. I read on a posting here that the AR-8 wasn't a very successful speaker. Why was that? Thanks and it's great to be a member!

[JKent]

Very happy that found this great site. When I was student in the early seventies I couldn't afford the AR speakers I wanted. Fast forward 38 years and now I can start my collection. My first pair recently was a pair of beautiful refurbished AR-6's. I'm waiting on delivery of a pair of nice AR-4x speakers. Last night I ordered a pair of really nice AR-8's at very low price. I read on a posting here that the AR-8 wasn't a very successful speaker. Why was that? Thanks and it's great to be a member!

Welcome Smitty

Hope you get a lot of good info here. Sounds like you are making up for lost time!

Regarding your 8s, it depends which ones you have. I must admit I have not listened to any 8s, but from info here, "the original AR-8 from 1973-4 was a 10" 2-way. It was not a particularly successful product. The AR-8 B, Bx, Bxi, etc. series from the early-mid '80's was a 6.5" 2-way"

Brochure here, in case you missed it:

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/library.../ar-8_brochure/

So which do you have? The original may not have been successful but it seems like a nice classic-series speaker. AR tried to woo the "west coast" speaker buyer by putting a 10" woofer in the box and touting it as a rock n roll speaker. There was a lot of competition at that time so it may just have gotten lost in the crowd. From photos, looks like they had wood-grain vinyl covering, which I don't personally care for. Woofers have foam surrounds, which will need replacing. You will probably need to clean switches and replace caps, but once everything is working, if they sound good.....great!

It will be interesting to know your impressions of 4x vs 6 vs 8. My own collection includes 2ax in my vintage stereo setup and 4x fronts with 7 rears in my home theater. Love 'em all. Just wish my KLH Twelve beasts fit in the HT decor, but that's another story.

Have fun!

Kent

[ssmith3046]

Welcome Smitty

Hope you get a lot of good info here. Sounds like you are making up for lost time!

Regarding your 8s, it depends which ones you have. I must admit I have not listened to any 8s, but from info here, "the original AR-8 from 1973-4 was a 10" 2-way. It was not a particularly successful product. The AR-8 B, Bx, Bxi, etc. series from the early-mid '80's was a 6.5" 2-way"

Brochure here, in case you missed it:

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/library.../ar-8_brochure/

So which do you have? The original may not have been successful but it seems like a nice classic-series speaker. AR tried to woo the "west coast" speaker buyer by putting a 10" woofer in the box and touting it as a rock n roll speaker. There was a lot of competition at that time so it may just have gotten lost in the crowd. From photos, looks like they had wood-grain vinyl covering, which I don't personally care for. Woofers have foam surrounds, which will need replacing. You will probably need to clean switches and replace caps, but once everything is working, if they sound good.....great!

It will be interesting to know your impressions of 4x vs 6 vs 8. My own collection includes 2ax in my vintage stereo setup and 4x fronts with 7 rears in my home theater. Love 'em all. Just wish my KLH Twelve beasts fit in the HT decor, but that's another story.

Have fun!

Kent

The pair of 8's I have coming are the original models. I'm interested in seeing the cabinets because from the pictures they appear to be the wood grain vinyl as you point out. I like the real wood too. The main reason I bought these were that the speakers ( woofers and tweeters ) looked great. It looks like the woofers must have been refoamed in the recent past. They should show up this week so I'm looking forward to listening to them.

[Steve F]

Here is the historical context of the original AR-8, from a post of mine in May of 2003:

“The 10" 2-way AR-8 has always held a special, if dubious, place in the succession of AR speakers. It was arguably the very last of the original “classic” line. It followed the AR-7 by about a year, being introduced in the late ‘73/early ’74 timeframe. Roy Allison had, of course, departed AR in late 1972; I’m not sure who did the 8. It certainly wasn’t one of Roy’s designs!

The 8 marked the beginning of AR’s marketing “dark period” from 1973-1975. AR struggled horribly during this time, completely blindsided and unprepared for the college-age baby-boomer stereo buying spree that took place on campuses across the country from 1968-1977…

And poor AR missed the party even though it was held on their home turf of Boston-Cambridge. Stuck in their hopelessly outdated mode of advertising and marketing stogy old speakers to middle-aged engineers, AR watched helplessly as Advent and EPI zoomed past them with timely, modern products marketed and aimed at the younger audience—college kids, not 50 year-old GE engineers—and advertised those products with a hip, relaxed, with-it attitude. Were AR speakers good products? You bet. But did AR blow a once in a lifetime opportunity with misdirected marketing? You bet.

So there was the AR-8, the quintessential symbol of AR’s confusion and marketing ineptitude. It was introduced with the worst advertising tagline in the history of the high-fidelity industry: “The first accurate speaker for rock music.” In the body copy of the ad, AR went on to say, to virtually ADMIT, that their past speakers were lacking in highs, even though rock music lovers have “long appreciated the deep, strong bass of AR speakers.” They then proceeded to say that the “increase” position of the AR-8’s tweeter level control would produce the “more exaggerated, sharper, harder high frequencies” appropriate for rock music…What happened to AR’s legendary musical accuracy? What a confused message. It appealed to no one. The 8 didn’t sound particularly good, it looked just like a vinyl-wrapped 2ax, it was no match for the Large Advent, it wasn’t profitable for the dealer to sell—it was a forgettable failure. But the 8 is interesting in historical retrospect for precisely those reasons.”

Steve F.

[ssmith3046]

Here is the historical context of the original AR-8, from a post of mine in May of 2003:

“The 10" 2-way AR-8 has always held a special, if dubious, place in the succession of AR speakers. It was arguably the very last of the original “classic” line. It followed the AR-7 by about a year, being introduced in the late ‘73/early ’74 timeframe. Roy Allison had, of course, departed AR in late 1972; I’m not sure who did the 8. It certainly wasn’t one of Roy’s designs!

The 8 marked the beginning of AR’s marketing “dark period” from 1973-1975. AR struggled horribly during this time, completely blindsided and unprepared for the college-age baby-boomer stereo buying spree that took place on campuses across the country from 1968-1977…

And poor AR missed the party even though it was held on their home turf of Boston-Cambridge. Stuck in their hopelessly outdated mode of advertising and marketing stogy old speakers to middle-aged engineers, AR watched helplessly as Advent and EPI zoomed past them with timely, modern products marketed and aimed at the younger audience—college kids, not 50 year-old GE engineers—and advertised those products with a hip, relaxed, with-it attitude. Were AR speakers good products? You bet. But did AR blow a once in a lifetime opportunity with misdirected marketing? You bet.

So there was the AR-8, the quintessential symbol of AR’s confusion and marketing ineptitude. It was introduced with the worst advertising tagline in the history of the high-fidelity industry: “The first accurate speaker for rock music.” In the body copy of the ad, AR went on to say, to virtually ADMIT, that their past speakers were lacking in highs, even though rock music lovers have “long appreciated the deep, strong bass of AR speakers.” They then proceeded to say that the “increase” position of the AR-8’s tweeter level control would produce the “more exaggerated, sharper, harder high frequencies” appropriate for rock music…What happened to AR’s legendary musical accuracy? What a confused message. It appealed to no one. The 8 didn’t sound particularly good, it looked just like a vinyl-wrapped 2ax, it was no match for the Large Advent, it wasn’t profitable for the dealer to sell—it was a forgettable failure. But the 8 is interesting in historical retrospect for precisely those reasons.”

Steve F

Thank you for the info. Very interesting speaker. Sounds like they hold a dubious posistion in AR lore. I'm looking forward to listening to them.