AR-1 1954
AR-2 1956
AR-2A 1957
AR-3 1958.
The AR-3 is shown in the Smithsonian Museum.
Note: Teledyne purchased the Acoustic Research company in 1967.
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Here is some history about AR. More to come. Cheers, Mark --- Eureka, Far Northern California
This history was provided by Howard Ferstler, author of:
High Fidelity Audio Video Systems
High Definition Compact Disc Recordings
The Home Theater Companion
The Digital Audio Music List
Many thanks to Howard for getting a much more detailed history online!
There are people out there who know a lot more about the history of AR than I do, but here is a stab at providing some fairly detailed tidbits.
The first AR speaker was the AR-1. It was a rather large bookshelf model and used a 12-inch, mostly enclosed-air-controlled (acoustic suspension) woofer. The tweeter/midrange was a modified 8-inch unit (from GE or General Radio or RCA, I cannot remember exactly). So, the system was a two-way model that was able to go into the deep bass range better than just about anything else out there. In addition to that superior bass performance, it was small and that mattered a lot in an era when stereo was just starting to appear. If it had any drawbacks, those involved its need for a lot of amplifier power in an era when a lot of amplifier power could cost real money.
The AR-2 came shortly later. It was in a smaller box, had a lighter 10-inch woofer and two 5-inch cone midrange/tweeters. The crossover point was at 2 kHz, whereas that of the AR-1 was at about 1 kHz, I think, although I could be wrong about that one. The AR-2's big advantage was that it cost quite a bit less than the AR-1 and it did not need quite as much amp power. Its disadvantage was that it could not go as low into the bass.
Both systems were given a shot in the sales arm by a review in Consumer Reports magazine in 1958 that showed them and some similarly configured KLH models to be superior to just about anything else available, particularly in the bass.
(See below for more on KLH.)
Obviously, the AR-1's 8-inch tweeter/midrange was a serious compromise, at least in the top octave, and even in the upper midrange. Edgar Villchur, the man in charge of the company, was aware of that. So, once they had the necessary capital he came up with the AR-3, which had the first dome tweeter and dome midrange along with the AR-1's 12-inch woofer.
A dome's big advantage, at least at that time, was not so much an inherently superior dispersion compared to a same-sized cone (a cone of the same size should disperse nearly as well), as it was power handling. A dome would ordinarily have a larger voice coil than a cone of similar diameter, and that made it more efficient. A bit later on, I believe the AR-3 was given a more modern, easy-to-build version of that original 12-inch woofer.
Backing up a bit, I should note that while the first AR-1 was initially designed (and patented by) by Ed Villchur, the guy who actually came up with the final-design-version of the woofer was Henry Kloss, who made it possible for the unit to be assembly line produced. Villchur held the patent, of course, and Kloss was more or less second in command when AR first got going.
Fairly early on, they split (Kloss was company presidential material, not vice-presidential material), with Henry starting KLH with two other gentlemen. Part of the separation deal was that KLH got rights to use the acoustic-suspension principle that Villchur had patented. KLH went on to make some very good loudspeaker systems, and the two of the best, the KLH-6 and KLH-4, were among those that Consumer Reports lionized in 1958, along with the AR-1 and AR-2.
The AR-3 was the company's top system for several years and a bit later the AR-2a joined the lineup. The AR-2a added the AR-3 tweeter to the existing AR-2 system. The tweeter allowed the cheaper system to deliver genuine high frequencies. So, then we had three systems in the company offerings: AR-3, AR-2a, and AR-2. At that time the company was also producing the AR Turntable, which Villchur designed.
Still later on, the AR-3 was replaced by the AR-3a (although the AR-3 remained in the line up for some time after the 3a appeared), which had the same woofer as the AR-3. However, the tweeter and midrange were changed, as were the crossover points, which were all lower than what the AR-3 had: 575 and 5000 Hz, rather than 1000 and 7500 Hz. The later AR-2ax also got the AR-3a tweeter, plus a new midrange driver that was different (much cheaper) from that of the AR-3 or 3a.
The AR-3a was designed mainly by a very competent man named Chuck McShane, under Roy Allison's direction. Roy had joined AR in 1959, after Kloss left, and became Villchur's plant manager. Prior to that he had been a contributing editor at High Fidelity magazine, along with none other than Gordon Holt.
So, after the AR-3a we had the AR-2x and AR-2ax, plus the AR-4, AR-4x, AR-5, AR-6, AR-7, and AR-LST (the latter being the only one of the group that was more potent and more expensive than the 3a), each of which was designed under the supervision of or else fully designed by Allison. Allison also was in charge of getting the AR Amp, AR Tuner, and AR Receiver into production. Much of the work on the latter was done by Robert Grodinsky.
By the time these later systems (including the electronics) started to show up, Villchur had sold AR to Teledyne, and Roy became vice president, with Abe Hoffman serving as president of the AR branch of the corporation. Under their command company profits and sales doubled. However, the company was still losing market share to outfits that were making cheaper speakers, and so a new man was brought in by Teledyne to replace Hoffman.
A number of years later, after his contract ran out, Allison left the company and those who were left behind produced the AR-8, AR-LST/2, AR-9, etc., none of which Roy had anything to do with.
Allison had been doing research on speaker/room interactions, and after he left AR his knowledge became the foundation for what eventually became Allison Acoustics. His research was partially the a result of what had happened when Consumer Reports gave the AR-3a a so-so review in the late 1960s, and partially because he was aware that much was to be learned about mid-bass boundary artifacts and the relationship between reverberant-field and direct-field sound in home-listening rooms.
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