I picked up a pair of the 312ho's from Recoton back in the day (yeah like 15 year ago).. amazing what you get when you spend the money. Normally I run them with a 120wpc amp and they sound great. For a party I'll hit them with 300-400wpc and they sound AMAZING. I don't know what their max power is, but they sound better and cleaner the harder you push them than anything else I've heard.. Finish and grills are holding up just fine. Here's to hoping they last another 10 years because I won't.. lol

I purchased these speaker from Crutchfield many years ago and they still sound great! I am interested in selling them. Looking for $500 for the pair. I also have a center channel A.R. speaker for sale as well...402-416-6497;

I picked up a pair of AR 312HO's, one owner, $175. Very nice cosmetically. They'll be driven by a Yamaha RXV-465, 105W, at 6ohms. Interesting the way the owner had them wired. The manufacturer short was missing. He split each speaker wire in half, half the strands to each post...

I can bi-amp them with this receiver. I get it that with one power supply I may still tax this receiver a bit but its rare I try and peel paint when I listen. The receiver only cost me $50 so if it goes south on me no great loss. I've searched and found no owner manuals for download. Sent an email to AR. Hope they don't laugh too much. Looking for help on what to do or not do with these. Hope some 312 fans are still out there.

These AR312HO speakers leave the Bose system I have for dead. Onkyo amp these are awesome speakers. I just had rubber surrounds replaced on the mids and now found one of my tweeters have died. I am going to cry if I can't find a replacement tweeter.

An absolute sleeper for the money! The rich full range sound of these speakers blew my mind! I am powering them with 200 wpc ss amp and they just soar! I am equally impressed with the cherry veneer, nice gold binding posts and capable of bi-amping or bi-wiring! You can find these rarely...but usually under $500.00 and they rival ones costing twice or 3 times more! Good bottom as well, I do not need a sub with this speaker. Buy them if you can find them!

strong

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i have these ar-312-ho not thinking they are to big for my place.i need to let them. go.what a sound.very scarey.very loud.must part with them.

Customer Service

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bose

Big sound, clear bass, great highs

need lots of power

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!

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

Clean Highs, Amazing efficiency, Great imaging

Size, Weight, Even with two Mids per tower, still lacking a little in the mid section

I must tell you, I use these for my home theater as well as music and couldn't be more satisfied (especially for $449 a pair on closeout). Contrary to most speakers I have owned in the past, the more you crank up the volume the BETTER these speakers sound. They Love power. Even at these high volumes they maintain their linearity and clarity. I also agree with some of the other reviews that suggest Bi-Amplification, but they still sound great without it. Overall, for the price I paid there is no other speaker that even comes remotely close. Get your hands on a pair of these if you can.

A great speaker to come from AR in quite a while

I can't fairly answer this as most of you know, I have extreem tasts. I like them, as I liked the AR3

This is more a testimonium to the smaller class A amps and quality tube amps. A friend of mine had purchased a used pair of the AR 312H and wanted to try them out on some class A tube amps. I began with the VAC 35/35 and I can tell you, I was just a bit taken back by the clarity and presence of these speakers! To my chagrin, these heavy but volatile sounding speakers were quite impressive. I still like the dome mid and high of the AR3 better, but that is a matter of tast. On the Threshold and large VTL, the sound only seemed to improve slightly at high listening levels. I then used a good class B Adcom amp; the distinction was quite apparent. This seems to testify to the distinctive quality of the AR speaker.
I would suggest, further, that you reverse Wang's suggestion; listen to speakers first in your own environment. Meters don't listen to speakers, nor do they have to live with them! Get the speaker you enjoy, then search for an amp. I was suprised to find the audible difference between such quality amps on these modestly priced speakers.

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AR3

Great for music and home theater alike

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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.

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Paradigm Monitor 90P v2
Paradigm Monitor 9 v2