gknutson

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1750.00 from Ritchies in Chilliwa

Summary:
I purchased these speakers around 1978 or 9. I had heard a Double Advent system a few years before at an audiophile store, Commercial Electronics in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and was impressed. The AR9 was, basically, a pair of AR11's in the same cabinet. I had also listened to other AR's and had been impressed, and fantisized of getting a pair of some. I read a review in High Fidelity magazine and was convinced to give them a listen. I found them in Vancouver, and was really impressed! The Vancouver price was $2000 Cdn EACH though at that time when they first came out.

One idea down in flames.

I mantioned it to the owner of a stereo store in town here, and he did some research. He said he could get them for $1750, tax included. Needless to say, I jumped at it. Took a loan out at the bank and they were mine.

At the time I was using a small Yamaha R600 receiver. Underpowered for high volume, but fine at low levels. Shortly after I got the Luxman R1120 receiver. It drove the AR's well, but again did not quite have the oomph that they needed, since it was only rated at 120 watts per channel. Still, the rest of the range was impressing. They sounded, basically, as clear as the B&W DM4's that I was using before the ARs, but had a LOT more bass. But I knew it would do better.

I paid off the loans in a couple of months and looked around again. I found a store going out of business in Coquitlam, BC, that had what I wanted.... the Luxman M4000 power amp and the C1010 preamp, and got a good deal, I felt.

The new system made the AR9's come more alive. The highs were Luxman smooth, the midrange was totally believable and the bass made the windows rattle. A year later I bought a second Luxman M4000... the last in Canada!... and that really improved everything, with bi-amping.

The system lasted me about 10 years. The Luxman amps probably were overworked, and died around 1992. No one has been able to repair them.... lack of parts. I have the AR9s operating with a Luxman R1120 again. My needs are no longer for high volume, which the ARs could provide. Maybe it is maturity... :)

They are presently in storage awaiting our acquisition of a new home.

Strengths:
Very smooth integration, between the highs, mids and lows, in my opinion. I fiddled with the level switches at the back of the AR8's and have them at the settings that please me most. This is necessary in some rooms. They can provide great bass augmentation if you place them correctly in a room. I found that any closer than 2 feet from a corner makes the bass overpowering.

I have heard a number of speakers that sound better, but I do not have the $10,000 or more to get better, because that is how much it would cost to improve the sound. I have heard many expensive speakers that cannot do better than the ARs.

Weaknesses:
Very power hungry, if you demand low Hz. Very low impedance at the low end.... 2 ohms or so. Many power amps find this load difficult, especially if you demand high sound levels. I think I was affected by this characteristic of the speaker.

Similar Products Used:
B&W DM4's are the closest that I have had. Many lesser quality speakers over the years...

Audtech

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1400.00 from Audio Den, Greeley,

Summary:
I have a pair of the original AR9's from the early 80's. They are the large units with the oiled walnut veneer and 12" woofers. They are outstanding speakers and the only ones I could find at the time that sounded better than my Rectilinear III's, which I still have. They are very clean sounding and listenable for hours at a time. They absorb lots of power without ill effects. I have re-foamed them once. At the time I purchased them I auditioned Advent, Bose 901's and other AR speakers against each other and my Retilinears. The AR9's won, hands down. These speakers are driven by a McIntosh 200 wpc power amp. They can be run all day with the amp "limit" lights on most of the time and sound fine.

Strengths:
Awesome sound, limitless power handling. Great looks.

Weaknesses:
Can't think of any.

Price Paid:  $1000.00 from Nel & Unwin

Summary:
I was disappointed when I listened to my AR 9's the first time at home in my music room. They sounded dull and flat. To cut a long story short, experiment with them ! It took me weeks to set them up just right. Remove the grills to start with. Next I fitted spikes and put them on 500mm solid marble. Bi - wiring is also highly recomended. You must be patient and let them run in for for many hours. A few months of keen listening will do it. After you experimented a lot with the perfect positioning you will find that it was all worth it. I use them on a stereo system with a vintage 25 w Technics amp. and a Rotel 1072 HDCD player. The sound quality is great ! I have never owned a true high-end system but when I compare them to some of the very expensive speakers in my friends' homes they come out tops. Excellent value for money.

Strengths:
Very nice high and mid-range.
Good, tight bass ( if on spikes ).
Unbeatable for the price.

Weaknesses:
Not really.

cool.101

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.86 of 5, 7.00 votes

Price Paid:  $11800.00 from naval base japan

Summary:
Wow sounds like these speakers might have changed a little.I bought a pair back in 1980 when I was over seas.They were $590.00 EACH back then and even quite a bit more back here in the states.I'm looking at the original receipt right now and it was 5/19/1980. As I recall they each weighed 130 lbs. One thing I noticed was the room that they were in really determinned just how much bass they were going to let you hear. They seemed to be kind of shy when in a room that had carpet. But boy,you put them in a room with a nice hardwood floor and they were all of a sudden the life of the party. The mids were ok but the highs weren't there at all. They would have been better if each individual speaker had it's own seperate pot to where you could actually turn one all the way off(not that you would want to) That way you could compensate for the least efficient speakers by equally balancing them better. My opinion is,if your amp of receiver tone controls or equalizer slides are any higher than at the flat level(half way mark)then either the room has terrible acoustics or the speakers are inefficient. I kept these speakers for three months sold them for more than I paid for them and built a pair for half the price that sound 10 times better.With the electrovoice and pyle horns and the black widow sub, all the slides on my EQ are way below flat and everything is right out there. And the bass is very defined. And I have never in the 25 years that I've had this receiver had to use the loudness switch on the ev/pd/bw speaker combo.

Strengths:
Built very well.Solid peice of furniture.

Weaknesses:
the individual speakers were not equally balanced as far as efficiency goes.

Price Paid:  $980.00 from Online

Summary:
I have this speakers, for almost a year, but they are not yet well broken in ! Maybe because i don’t have time to listen so often ! Even so AR9 sound great for the price paid ! Acoustic Research AR9 are the best speakers i have ever heard ! This speakers are very good with both music and movies, but i use them especially for music. The look is very nice, but only with the grills off ! Grill is very hard to remove, BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE ! The sound stage is good, speakers deliver clear music with good seperation of the Highs/Mids and the Bass especially when you BiWire / BiAMP them. But it seems to mix up different frequencies at VERY HIGH volume. Or this may occur because of my AMPLIFIER ?? Overall the AR9s sound very clean, with great detail ! The highs are very clean and crisp, no harshness ! The mid range is smooth ! So, the mids and highs are very open and detailed ! BUT HERE COMES the bad news ! The bass on the AR9's isn't earth shaking, it’s not too punchy, not enough deep deep bass. YOU WILL NEED A SUBWOOFER to fix that ! You’ll need also a good AMP and proper positioning to improve the bass responce ! A good choice is to use a separate amp to drive the woofers (the side-firing woofers need plenty of power to get them going) Also you need a large room . DO NOT place this speakers near walls or corners, because you will not get the best bass responce ! Experiment with the speakers placement for optimal sound ! And try to raise them up a foot, because you’ll get the mids and highs closer to ear level ! AR 9 are speakers that can flourish in certain conditions : bi-wire, large room. Some people may not like this, but i’m very pleased ! The tweeter is very clear, defined and if you are using an low-end reciever or a CD/DvD player that have even a slightly harsh sound, these speakers will show that off very harshly at high volume ! So use some decent audio equipament with this speakers ! This speakers are MADE IN CHINA ! The built quality is very good on the exerioir, but not so good on the interior ! The left speaker had a cable inside, which at VERY HIGH VOLUME, (when the 10' bass driver starts to "move" and produce vibrations) hits the wooden cabinet, making an disturbing noise ! So I had to remove the 10' bass driver, and stuck my hand inside the speaker to fix that cable with some packaging tape ! OK ! ACOUSTIC RESEARCH AR9 are not high end speakers ! Do not expect them to sound like high end speakers ! So if you want a good price/performance speaker around 1000 $, AR9 are one of the best ! If you wish to spend more than 1200 $ for a pair of speakers, look for something else ! (B&W, Dynaudio, NHT, Boston Acoustics, etc.) My system : Front speakers : Acoustic Research AR9 DvD player : Pioneer DV-656A-S AMP : Pioneer VSX-D812-S 100Wx6/DD-EX/DTS-ES/7.1 Speaker cables : Supra Rondo 4x2.5 Digital coax cable : Supra Trico Video cable : Supra FullSCART Good Luck !

Strengths:
- the mids and highs are clean, clear and detailed - sounds very good with both music/movies - BiWire / BiAMP - price

Weaknesses:
- The bass (YOU WILL NEED A SUBWOOFER) - MADE IN CHINA (quality) - you'll need space around the speakers and a large room

Similar Products Used:
JBL s312, Acoustic Energy AEGIS EVO 3, Mirage, Canton, Magnat, Infinity Alpha 50