The old stereo days

[ldone]

Hi all,

I remember that during a period of time in the early-mid 70's, AR speakers were highly rated for quality sound reproduction.
The AR3a was a very popular 3 way speaker.
How would this speaker compare, sound quality wise, with todays speakers?
Is there anyone, who is not deaf, that remembers those days?

I am looking to build a modern AV setup and want not top of the line, but rather, good mainstream quality sound.

One of the X.1 systems will be my speaker system of choice.
I am looking for advice/suggestions in this area.

Thanks for your time

 

[MacManNM]

Hi all,

I remember that during a period of time in the early-mid 70's, AR speakers were highly rated for quality sound reproduction.
The AR3a was a very popular 3 way speaker.
How would this speaker compare, sound quality wise, with todays speakers?
Is there anyone, who is not deaf, that remembers those days?

I am looking to build a modern AV setup and want not top of the line, but rather, good mainstream quality sound.

One of the X.1 systems will be my speaker system of choice.
I am looking for advice/suggestions in this area.

Thanks for your time

Good sounding speakers always sound good. Speaker technology hasn't changed that much since then. The biggest deal IMO is the shielding of the speakers for use next to a video system. I still think my XR16's blow away anything even 3-4x as much cost wise. Timbre matching seems to be a big deal but I think as long as you get something similar (soft dome fronts and center, or horns for all 3), it will sound good.

 

[JJMP50]

AR & Allison

I don't know if a lot of you remember him but Roy Allison, former president and chief accoustic engineer for AR and Allison Speakers, has been pulled out of retirement and has returned to his possition as CAE for the NEW Allison Speaker company. Roy was famous for designing the AR LST in addition to many other fine 70's products including his own line of Allisons. The new Allisons are a bit pricey though.

http://www.allisonacoustics.com/history.html

 

[cornelius]

Every day I listen to my system, I become a bigger and bigger fan of the Ohm Walsh series speakers (I've had the MicroWalsh talls since November). They started in the early 70s and are still going strong.

With the Ohms, however, you will not experience "mainstream sound." These are true hi-end speakers at prices that are way below what their sound quality would suggest. But, like many of the better speakers of the 70s, they will not draw attention to themselves or disfigure the music in any way to distract one from enjoying the performance (if that's what you mean by mainstream). They are the first pair of speakers that I've ever owned, at home or in the studio, that I wasn't tired of after a month or two. Even after going to the Home Entertainment Expo in New York the other day and hearing some great speakers, I was happy that an old school company like Ohm can still hang with the new guys!

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

The Ohm Walsh... are those those funky upside down cone speakers? Instead of pushing the air from a traditional convex outward-facing cone, it pushes it in a complete circular pattern from an inverted cone?

I've always read good things about their sound quality.

 

[cornelius]

Yes, that's basically it. The original Walsh speaker was full range and 360 degree omni. They were really hard to drive, so the later versions adopted a tweeter (which doesn't come into play until around 8k, so the cone is most of the frequency range that we hear) and a bass port. The new design does not have the 360 radiating pattern. They are diffused in the back so as not to have reflections off of back walls...

The most obvious traits are a truly boxless sound, huge sweet spot and no hiccups between drivers - very smooth sounding. Not smooth sounding in a way that would hint at hiding details, but rather a natural sound that doesn't have crossovers or different drivers handling mid-frequencies. The wide open sound really energizes the room, and makes the room seem bigger than it is. This unique approach to speaker design really places these moderately priced speakers up there with the more expensive models and other "giant killers."