Any other Sony SS-AR1 owners out there?

Congratulations, Dserota. I'm sure you're loving the crap out of your new shpeeks. But really Audiozen, if you think that SBA mid you mentioned is "built" in WI, you need to do more research. Trust me on that. And yes, Dserota deserves a little more respect.

I ran them through their paces at the SHOW in Newport. I brought three non-compressed master files, two live soundboards and one master file. They perfectly recreated both a Midnight Oil and Neil Young/Crazy Horse soundboard to where you thought both bands were in the room. I can also say that they had hundreds of thousands of electronics behind them, including very impressive and muscular sounding PASS amps. I am a big fan of ATC and have to say that these are amongst the best speakers I have ever heard, a triumph of engineering. Sony did an amazing job on this project and I think they smoke anything by Wilson and Magico. I think you will be very happy with your investment.

I ran across this high-level doc about the design process for the ar-1, pretty amazing lengths that these guys took in all aspects of the design, materials, and attention to detail. It doesn't seem possible that they will ever make their money back on this project.

https://dealersource.sel.sony.com/dsweb/p/ar1/assets/SS-AR1_WhitePaper_Final_LoRes.pdf

settle down people. You must learn to get along with others.

Hi dserota, congrats on your purchase. Certainly you are having a top notch speaker. Japs are know for their meticulous approach and quality conscious. I for one are a big fan of Japanese vintage high end stuff. Many Japs gears I own now will not be possible to be manufacture again today by some cottage manufacturer, they just do not have the resources to do it again. Look at the Sony TA ER1 preamp for example. Enjoy what you have purchase today. I am sure many years latar, a lot of people will be hunting down a pair of SS-AR1.