Acoustic Research AR-9 speakers -- comments...?

I have a pair of AR-90's the smaller brother to the 9's they are very nice but POWER HUNGRY. Mine are in need of restoration such as foam surrounds. There is a person on e-bay called vintage AR that sells parts for AR speakers that I understand is a very good person.

Chuck

I am planning on restoring my AR 3As. I would guess that most of the existing AR Speakers out there are due for restoration or repair. (if not done in the past)

I remember these (from my days of Advent and AR...). I think that one of the keys to really liking these speakers is your proximity to local power generation. They were truly a black hole for many amps - electrons went in but not much came out. But when they were driven with a real amp - legitimate old-style triple-digit power, the kind that didn't expect to get help from a powered subwoofer - they could be very impressive speakers with a commanding big sound (sorry, but I don't know too many flowery phrases for this stuff). I think they eventually got kind of a bad rap for being so power hungry but from what I remember (and this is obviously from way, way back when) they could sound darned good (run by an amp I could never afford then...).

It was the widespread popularity of the AR3a combined with its 84dB (in)efficiency that inspired Bob Carver to create the Phase Linear 700 power amp (IIRC from one of his interviews).

I have 5 sets of AR-9's. From my original bought-new in 1982 pair to a set rebuilt by an electrical engineer (best sounding of the 5). Rebuilt set is on my secondary stereo system. 3 sets are on my HT setup.

IMHO they are some of the best sounding speakers I have heard (that I can tell... to really tell, need to do A/B comparison in same room with same equipment). I A/B'ed with rebuilt Dahlquist DQ-10's I bought, and the rebuilt AR-9's were better in every way.

I used to drive them with big Yamaha amps, but have been driving with 24 watt Canary tube amps... and they sound wonderful.

Note: I don't hear above 14k hz. My main system now has Quintessence Acoustics Summit speakers built/bought in 2010. Though the bass is better/tighter in the Summits, the rest seems the same as the rebuilt AR-9's... which is great.

Most AR-9s are going for $1200 a pair and my need new surrounds on the speakers. Spending several hundred more and having rebuilt/new wire/bypass switches/etc gives you one great bargain, especially at the prices of speakers today.

I'd like a pair of AR9. A very nice pair just sold last week in Portland ME. for a few hundred dollars. The fellow was moving and apparently they were his dad's, or grand dad's, and just wanted to get rid of them. If I had only been an hour or so quicker in finding the fellow's post on Craigslist.

I wanted to updated my 07-08-2012 comment above on the Quintessence Acoustics Summit speakers (for anyone searching).  I added a second run (double cable run) of SR Telsa Apex speaker cables from my Canary M500 amps, and these speakers came alive.  Seems everything better in spades.  Much better than double run on rebuilt AR-9.