Short history on legacy speakers

The Grandaddy of them all ... the Acoustic Research 3

AR-3

In 1958, AR once again pioneered in loudspeaker technology with the introduction of the landmark model AR-3, which used the AR-1’s acoustic-suspension woofer in conjunction with the first commercially available hemispherical (“dome”) mid-frequency midranges and high-frequency tweeters.

For nearly ten years after its introduction, the AR-3 was widely regarded as the most accurate loudspeaker available at any cost, and was used in countless professional installations, recording studios, and concert halls. Many well-known professional musicians used AR-3 loudspeakers because of their excellent sound reproduction. In the early 1960s, AR conducted a series of over 75 live vs. recorded demonstrations throughout the U.S. in which the sound of a live string quartet (The Fine Arts Quartet) was alternated with echo-free recorded music played through a pair of AR-3s. In this “ultimate” subjective test of audio quality, the listeners were largely unable to detect the switchovers from live to recorded, a strong testament to Acoustic Research audio quality.

The company also established music demonstration rooms on the mezzanine of Grand Central Station in New York City and on Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the public could stop by and listen to its product, but no sales were made there. This low-key marketing innovation caused a major increase in the company's business.

The AR-3 was subsequently replaced by the AR-3a, with dome midrange and tweeter reduced in dimensions, for even better mid and high frequency dispersion. On September 13, 1993 an AR-3 was placed on permanent display in the Information Age Exhibit of The National Museum of American History at The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

The AR3a was subsequently replaced by the AR-10pi which had external woofer, midrange, and bass response adjustment switches allowing controls to allow for a variety of room placements. The 10pi had notably even brighter high-frequency response and dispersion than the AR3a.

AR went on to introduce many other notable designs, and by 1966 the company had grown to hold 32.2% of the U.S. domestic loudspeaker market, based on the IHFM and *High Fidelity* surveys statistics for that year. This was the largest product market-share ever held by a loudspeaker manufacturer since statistics have been kept in the industry.

Thanks for that! I used to hang out at the AR room in Grand Central when I was a kid. That got me started in all this.

Rar1: Thanks for the info, but you should have cited to Wikipedia's entry for "Acoustic Research" and used quotation marks -- you copied your entry word-for word from Wikipedia, but did not attribute authority.

Two other loudspeakers that had an impact on the industry are the Dahlquist DQ-10, co-designed by Saul Marantz and aerospace engineer Jon Dahlquist, and the Larger Advent speaker.

The DQ-10 set new standards in soundstage and imaging. The time-aligned drivers and minimal baffles for each driver created a coherency to the sound and made it possible to hear depth in the soundstage as well as width. It was also reached a new level of linear response at that price point.

The Advent Loudspeaker brought the neutrality and linearity of the AR3a sound to the masses at about 1/2 the price.

In 1948 or there abouts a man whose real name was italian but now called himself James Lansing worked tirelessly in a garage with little help to develope a speaker. In this case it is a driver. He wanted a driver that would make it from about 40Hz to 2600 Hz which he called the extended range. He came up with the idea of using an aluminum dust cover as a passive radiator and then wound squared off aluminum wire "edgewise " four inches in length for his voice coil. He endowed it with very large, heavy and powerful Alnico magnets to make it very sensitive. The name was the D130 it is 15" in diameter. It and smaller variants were used in almost everthing they offered as 2 way spekers. Fender approached the management of JBL ( Mr. Lansing was always in dispair over near and real bankruptcy and took his own life well before JBL became known nationally). Mr fender wanted an OEM of the D-130 just called it the F-130 for pro applications and his combo amps. They were accomodated and that speaker stayed in production for nearly 45 years. It was the speaker the Grateful Dead used to make the famous wall of sound. After they broke up Dave Mathews bought the rig and it is unclear what happened after that.
I proudly own 2X 1959 D-130s with the 075 aluminum bullet tweeter (that is it's own story) in the JBL C36 box and 2 X 1962 D- 131s which are 12 inch versions same voice coil and magnets with that 075 tweeter in the C38 box.