Price Paid:  $750.00 from Used from friend

Summary:
I bought these speakers when I was a senior in high school, before I had a receiver. I had seen them in a Future Shop for $1300 and had to have them. Boy am I glad I bought them when I did, I've looked at Circuit City and Magnolia HiFi, and the only thing that comes close to these babies are the higher end Klipsch speakers, nothing else comes close. I was amazed when I hooked them up to my dad's Yamaha stereo receiver, with seperate channels for the woofers, it made all the difference! I live about 1/5 of a mile from a lake, so one day I turned them up all the way, walked to the lake and I could make out the lyrics to a Scorpions song! Great bass, great treble and midrange. I am now buying home theatre equipment, and intend to use these speakers for the front left and right channels, and will look for more AR speakers for the other channels. These are the best investment I could make for home audio enjoyment!

Strengths:
Big sound, clear bass, great highs

Weaknesses:
need lots of power

Similar Products Used:
Listened to some Klipsh speakers in a Magnolia HIFI, they sounded great too, but much more expensive.

Price Paid:  $1500.00 from sale

Summary:
i have been using the 312 for more than a year now,not giving them any break,music and films,and they just wany more and more.im using the yamaha 2095 amp,and its prety strong,so that tese two are good copples.i think its one of the best speaker in town

Strengths:
very strong

Weaknesses:
none

Price Paid:  $900.00 from shoppersadvantage

Summary:
I'm adding this to my review of 9/00 to tell everyone who owns these (312,310,CS25,308) to take off the grilles. The lack of high-end extension was mainly the grilles fault, not the sweet, sweet tweeter. Detail, which was good before has become excellent.
I would also recommend giving the 312's as much power as you can. I upgraded from the Yamaha DSP-A1 to the WONDERFUL Denon AVR-5800. This amps power (170w) has given new life to the 12's. The Denon is also very detailed and really makes the AR HO series shine. I gave them a four before on music but now the Denon has brought that up to a five, and movies are now five+. For the money these speakers cannot be beaten!

Strengths:
Sweet tweet, strong base, good midrange, high sensitivity.

Weaknesses:
None.

Similar Products Used:
Niles, Infinity.

Price Paid:  $1200.00

Summary:
I have been using these speakers for several years now and they still perform admirably. I have just purchased a Paradigm Monitor 9 v2 for a second setup, which I found in the showroom quite comparable to the Paradigm Monitor 90P v2 for listening to music, at half the price. (I have no doubt that the 90P would fare a lot better than the 9 for home theater, but I needed a new pair for music mainly.) I had the opportunity to compare the Monitor 9 to my AR 312HO and the 312HO simply blows the former away. Knowing how well the Monitor 9 fared against the 90P which cost the same as the AR 312HO used to, the latter being 4 years older model, I am amazed at the quality of these babies. Quite frankly, I didn't expect it to hold up to the current crop of speakers. Now, according to several reviews, as well as my opinion, the strength of the 312HO lies in its performance as a home theater speaker. I use them with AR CS25HO center and Polk surrond speakers (the Polk's timbre is very close so I didn't need to throw them away when I bought the front speakers). They are great. Simple as that. The bottom line: these are great speakers and I would buy them again. And again. And again.

Strengths:
Great for music and home theater alike

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Paradigm Monitor 90P v2
Paradigm Monitor 9 v2

Price Paid:  $500.00 from Crutchfield Outlet Store

Summary:
I have had these speakers for a couple of months now. They sound absolutely great for both music and movies. I also love the beautiful cherry finish, looks almost too good to no be real veineer.

I have them hooked up to a Sony STR830DB reciever with AR308HO's for rears, (overkill, but sounds great) and a CS25HO center channel. Love the sound both for movies and music. I have played all kinds of music on these and I continue to be impressed. I have several friends with much more expencive home theater systems, none that sounds noticably better. The only think I have noticed is that the bass is not as thight as some systems I have heard with a powered subwoofer, but according to these reviews that appears to be fixable with either bi-wireing or better yet bi-amping.

Overall great speakers. The few that are left in stores (they are discontinued) are selling for about half of the comparable newer AR7, which makes them an absolute steal!!


They are large and heavy and takes some trial an error to position right due to the side firing woofer and the rear port. I ended up positioning the rear fairly close to the back wall in my room with the woofers pointing in to the room.

After listneing to a frend's much more

Strengths:
Great sound, Great Looks

Weaknesses:
Kind of large and heavy