The flattest frequency response

[thiptoman]

I've come to the conclusion that the classic speakers by AR are very accurate indeed ! Much more neutral sounding than the vast majority of speakers produced these days. I have a question for long time AR fans of technical knowledge. What bookshelf speakers manufactured by AR would qualify as having the flattest or most neutral frequency response? I need an affordable book shelf speaker for use as a nearfield studio monitor.

[Steve F]

>I've come to the conclusion that the classic speakers by AR

>are very accurate indeed ! Much more neutral sounding than

>the vast majority of speakers produced these days. I have a

>question for long time AR fans of technical knowledge. What

>bookshelf speakers manufactured by AR would qualify as

>having the flattest or most neutral frequency response? I

>need an affordable book shelf speaker for use as a nearfield

>studio monitor.

Certainly, the AR-6 and AR-7 were very accurate compact bookshelf speakers. High Fidelity magazine said the 6 "responds almost like an amplifier" through the critical upper bass/midrange region. Julian Hirsch in Stereo Review found the AR-7's response to be within a plus or minus 2 dB window over the majority of the audio range, past 15kHz. These are astonishingly good results, by any standards, past or present.

Where I would exercise caution, however, is regarding these speakers' power handling, especially if you plan to use them in high power, high volume monitoring applications. The tweeter in the AR-6 and AR-7, a 1 1/4" wide-dispersion cone, did not have a ferro-fluid cooled voice coil, so it will not handle as much power as later AR tweeters could.

Either of these models will reproduce normal music in an average-sized room at good healthy volumes, without a problem. Neither was designed for professional monitoring use, however.

Steve F.

[ninohernes]

I have a pair of AR-2's in my recording studio for monitors. I have a pair of AR-3s in my listining room to proof my recordings. AR-2's are hard to find, so for you I would try to find a classic pair of AR-3's for your studio. I might switch and put the 3's in my studio and the 2's in my listining room.

Joe

[kkantor]

Near-field flat and far-field flat are very different things. If you really want to work close to the speakers, I would consider AR-18's. Not the "18s", just the 18. Purists may scoff, but thousands and thousands were sold into studios.