AR-1

[johnieo]

eBay item number 3085946718 consists of two AR-1 speakers that are stated as having Altec 755A drivers. In the accompanying photo, one of the drivers is clearly labeled as an Altec and in fact looks like the classic 755A. However, the second driver looks much like the driver used later in the AR-3. Does anyone know if AR used more than one driver in the AR-1? Might, perhaps, the second driver be a replacement? A small photo is attached to save hunting for the eBay item. Thanks for your help.

[soundminded]

It seems hard to reconcile the Altec 755A with AR1. However, looking at Tom Tyson's photo 100-0020_MG on

C:My Download FilesTom_Tyson_AR-1_Pics.zip

It just might be.

Ah from such a humble beginning.

Here's a link to an Altec/JBL website.

http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/altec/...onents/755a.htm

This speaker if it is the 755A had an 8 inch diameter, had a range of 70 hz to 13 Khz, and a capacity of 8 watts. It was intended apparantly as a high reliability PA speaker.

Didn't AR use Western Electric tweeters in their earlies model? I also remember early AR 12 inch woofers paired with JanZen electrostatic tweeters such as the one in Tom's photo. This unit apparantly predated all of them.

At that time, JBL and Altec had already had some history supplying speakers for the film industry.

This site; http://www.audioheritage.org/search.htm for anyone not familiar with it is filled with fascinating facts and stories about the people and products of the early days of JBL and Altec Lansing. This is the other end of the East Coast/West Coast story of the rise of the American loudspeaker industry.

[johnieo]

It is becoming clear.

Thanks for helping me understand what is what in these AR-1s. I now see the error of my eyeballs. The 755a was the 8-in-driver, not the 12-in as I incorrectly assumed. Somehow, I thought the photo depicted two 12-in units from each system, rather than the *pair* from one system. Arghhh...

Were the 12-in drivers made by Western Electric? Would these woofers have had steel or aluminum frames?

Thanks for some sound-minded assistance, truly appreciated!

[tysontom]

>eBay item number 3085946718 consists of two AR-1 speakers

>that are stated as having Altec 755A drivers. In the

>accompanying photo, one of the drivers is clearly labeled as

>an Altec and in fact looks like the classic 755A. However,

>the second driver looks much like the driver used later in the

>AR-3. Does anyone know if AR used more than one driver in the

>AR-1? Might, perhaps, the second driver be a replacement? A

>small photo is attached to save hunting for the eBay item.

>Thanks for your help.

John,

I think that by now you have received answers to your questions. It is true that the Altec-Lansing 755A was used in all of the 2-way AR-1 loudspeakers. The 755A was originally a Western Electric design, but later manufactured under license by Altec. WE got out of the theatre-loudspeaker business about the time that Altec and JBL were getting into the professional market in a big way, if memory serves me correctly. The 755A is a moderately good "full-range" speaker, and has now become a cult speaker of sorts. It is not as good as some people seem to think it is, but at the time in 1954, the 755A was well suited for use as a midrange and tweeter in the AR-1. Primarily, it exhibited smooth, uniform frequency response out to about 13 kHz, and rolled off quickly after that. It had the usual off-axis anomolies for a driver of its size, but this issue -- particularly acoustic-power response -- was addressed fully with the landmark AR-3 with its dome tweeters.

The larger speaker is indeed the Alnico-magnet, cast-aluminum-frame AR 12-inch acoustic-suspension woofer. This is the original-style woofer used in the AR-1, AR-3 and the early production AR-3a.

--Tom Tyson

[soundminded]

Somewhere on the Altec/JBL web site, possibly in a discussions of one of their products (I think it was a JBL product) they said that it wasn't necessary for them to build reproducers which extended beyond 8 khz until about 56 or ? because there was no program material available which extended beyond that frequency. Listining to music recorded in the forties to mid fifties, I appreciate both the greatness of the musical performances and the artistry of the virtuosos of the day and the limitations of the technology they had available to record it with. I sometimes wonder if in the future, people will look back on our times and feel exactly the same way.