AR9's on eBay

[Guest Brian_D]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&category=14993

They're missing the acoustic blanket around the tweets and upper mids, but otherwise they're georgeous. Colorado area.

-Brian

[Guest Bret]

Brian,

I'm not criticising this pair of speakers, but I thought I'd share a couple of observations (BTW, I won't be bidding on these, so any comments either way aren't an attempt to influence their bids).

Your observation that these are missing the acoustic blanket foam inserts around the tweeters and midranges: Early production AR9s did not have the foam inserts although the speakers pictured obviously had them at some point; evidenced by the velcro dots on the cabinets.

Second, notice that one speaker shows finished veneer around the midrange and the other shows black paint. I don't know what that means, if anything. Mine are black paint.

Third, if you look at the owner's manual picture you'll see that the aesthetic of the tweeters is different. The small circled tweeter was later production than the large. It was standard on all the AR-90s I'm aware of, and may have been standard on all but the earliest AR-9. The part numbers are identical, either way.

The seller has posted three shots of the same two woofers. One clearly shows evidence of a new dustcap (resurround with vc shims) and the other does not. Before I paid big-bucks for these I'd want to know about the other two woofers and I'd want to know who surrounded that speaker with the old dustcap. I can't tell about the 8" drivers, but I would *guess* that they were resurrounded without being shimmed as those look to me to be original dustcaps.

The veneer does look to be in remarkable condition. This may be just a photo artifact, but in the one close-up shot of the tops, the speaker on the right MAY have a little rub-wear toward the front, just above the "AR9" badge. The only reason I would even notice such a thing is that one of mine has a tiny little spot where it rubbed back and forth in the carton during shipping (just a slightly light, shiny, area) like a cardboard corner was loose and allowed some wabble.

These photos look as though *maybe* the front grill cloth (replacement per the description) isn't matching the woofer cloth all that well. May be no big deal at all and may be a photo artifact.

Of course, none of that matters if you are looking at them strictly for the way they sound.

$210 EACH to NY +$95 for a residence? Isn't that high?

Bret