Remaking old AR speakers in limited edition

[Guest]

Recently I found the site for old AR fan originated from Korea.

I sent them one topic introducing my AR collection ( I have AR-3a, AR-4x, AR-2ax, and AR-303a in mint to beautiful condition ).

Surprisingly, some people sent me e-mail personally asking me to sell those mint-conditioned speakers ( some guy was almost begging me ), and I found there are so many people who are searching for old AR speakers in good shape. I heard that used but new or mint conditioned AR-3a's are sold up to almost 1500 U.S dollars in used market!!! I realize in Far East, especially in Japan and Korea, there are huge demands for old AR.

I wish I could ask AR company to re-make AR-3a's in a way they were used to be ( same cabinet, same drivers, same grilles,,,,,as same as original AR-3a ). I know AR-303 was made as an updated version for AR-3a. However, based on my experience, the sound of AR-303 are different from AR-3a, and it does not have magical sweet mellow tone of AR-3a, even if it was improved sonically and technically.

I know McIntosh remade it's famous MC275 and C-22 and so did Marantz ledgendry model 9 , 8, and 7c. They were sold very well causing a sensation in Far East. So why not for AR-3a ( and/or AR-2ax ) as a limited edition for old AR fan???!!!

[galleria]

Yep......that's very good idea!

However, I would ask to rebuilt an LST!

Will

[Guest Barrydor]

I think the AR11 would be an ideal candidate. It is essentially an updated AR3 with modern driver technology, better sound according to many and higher power handling capability.

Barry

[charger3834]

This topic brings up a few issues that have been well exhausted within this forum. Nevertheless, here is my too cents.

Subtle driver updates would be ok, however, I think it should look like the 3a and be badged as one. The AR-11 was not the best looking thing, and the AR-303 was not retro looking enough. No offense Ken, the 303 is a very classy design too, and it was the right look for a contemporary market.

[ninohernes]

I agree, the cabinent should look like the original 3a. I love the way the 3a looks, I think its the best looking AR speaker ever. It looks like a piece of furniture that I would want in my home.

[soundminded]

While AR3 and AR3A were hardly ugly looking speakers, there were so many more that really were beautiful to look at and made these two foot boxes seem plain Jane by comparison. Of all of them, one of the best looking IMO was Empire Grenedier 9000M which looked like a cylindrical walnut pedistal with a marble top and gold plated escutcheon which housed the tweeter and midrange. Not a state of the art performer but a nice looking piece of furnature. With lamps or statues on them they were really something to see.

[kkantor]

No offense taken at all! The 303 was a product unto itself.

Frankly, doing a strict reissue is almost never realistic. I've been involved in a few programs at AR as well as two or three unrelated "classic audio" clients. From cars to guitars, it's a fun fantasy. But, for many reasons, you just can't go back again....

[tysontom]

>

>Frankly, doing a strict reissue is almost never realistic.

>I've been involved in a few programs at AR as well as two or

>three unrelated "classic audio" clients. From cars to

>guitars, it's a fun fantasy. But, for many reasons, you just

>can't go back again....

I agree with this entirely. Several attempts at this sort of thing have been made in the past; most notably, the JBL Hartsfield corner-horn loudspeaker comes to mind. A small vintage-equipment re-seller up in Chicago or somewhere ("Audio Classics," or "Classic Audio" or something) did a re-issue of this most complex, yet beautiful piece of loudspeaker-furniture-art. The fact that many collectors drool over the thought of finding an original Hartsfield, the vintage-equipment folks did a redux of the thing, but few were sold, and I don't think they are still doing it. It was terribly expensive, and there is a limited market for it, etc. True collectors wanted the real thing anyway. Exceptions to this might be the McIntosh MC275, which has probably sold well because there were probably not enough of the original ones to go around. Yet the reduxed MC275 was heavily modified to make it concurrent with today's standards.

Imagine building a brand-new AR-3a. In today's dollars, an exact replica would cost many-times the original's $250.00 list price, and heaven knows what the cost would be to tool up for such a product. You could probably never recoup that cost, or you would have to add even more to the cost of the already-expensive speaker. There are even more compelling reasons than cost alone that would prohibit reasonable people from doing that sort of thing. You really can't go back, and for this reason I feel it is very important that we preserve what we already have.

--Tom Tyson

[Guest lmrosenthal]

Hi Tom,

Great response.

You said:

>Imagine building a brand-new AR-3a. In today's dollars, an

>exact replica would cost many-times the original's $250.00

>list price, and heaven knows what the cost would be to tool up

>for such a product. You could probably never recoup that

>cost, or you would have to add even more to the cost of the

>already-expensive speaker. There are even more compelling

>reasons than cost alone that would prohibit reasonable people

>from doing that sort of thing. You really can't go back, and

>for this reason I feel it is very important that we preserve

>what we already have.

Check out this site:

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

Enter the $ amount of purchase, initial year (year purchased), and final year (2001 is the last year available), and it will calculate the current cost (in 2001 $'s) and do a reverse cost.

I entered $250 (cost for a pair of AR3a's), initial year (1970) final year (2001), and it came back w/the following:

$250 in 1970 dollars would cost $1161.33 in 2001 dollars.

$250 in 2001 dollars would have cost $53.82 in 1970 dollars.

As you said above, this doesn't capture start-up, tooling, marketing and manufacturing costs.

Your're right, we can't go back so we need to protect what we have. I say this as a proud owner of a pair of 3a's purchased new in 1970. I refoamed the woofers in 1996, and rebuild the xovers in Sept and Dec of 2002. The speakers sound great, and I use them daily.

Regards, Larry