I put them in my air-conditioned storage (68-degrees/45% humidity). They are in excellent physical and electro-mechanical condition with grills that look almost brand new and have had virtually no use overall. The grills, which are carefully stapled on with special small white staples, have intentionally. The serial numbers for this pair, (F 19015 and F 19060), are later but approximately midway through the production for the AR-4, which was produced for only one year. The grills are nearly perfect and white, and show very little dust. The oiled-walnut cabinets are nearly perfect, as well, with only minor imperfections, amazing for speaker fifty-one years old! The woofers and tweeters have been extensively tested and are excellent with clean, low-distortion output. The level controls are slightly oxidized, not surprisingly, and must be rotated back and forth to find a “sweet” spot, but this is 100% normal for older classic AR speakers. Even the knurled-knob input terminals are shiny and new in appearance, and don’t display the usual oxidized and dull appearance. Torn off when the speakers were new, but the serial-number tags are still intact except for some slight curling. There has been no attempt to open these speakers and rebuild them; the sound is surprisingly smooth and accurate, and operation appears to be pretty much as intended in 1964. The cabinets are in excellent condition with only minor marks (easily rubbed out) with no scratches or. In corners or veneer separation whatsoever. Both AR logo plates are intact and completely original; the lacquer coating is perfect on one and nearly perfect on the other logo plate. Overall, one would be hard-pressed to find a better set of this fairly rare (produced for only one year) AR-4 loudspeaker pair. Acoustic Research AR-4 General Description. The AR-4 was introduced in October, 1964 and it included a new 3½-inch, treated-cone tweeter also used as the midrange driver in the 2. , in conjunction with a newly developed 8-inch acoustic-suspension woofer of outstanding performance and low distortion. This tweeter had excellent transient (tone-burst) response and smooth, undistorted and uniform frequency response, both on- and off-axis. The crossover was set at 1.5 kHz. The AR-4 was a brand-new compact design for Acoustic Research, a departure from the larger AR-1, AR-3 and AR-2 bookshelf designs, and it was built in relatively low numbers and for only one year until the introduction of the AR-4. The following year; thus the AR-4 is comparatively rare. Both the AR-4 and the more common AR-4. Were considered to be the finest small loudspeakers in the market for many years, and remained unsurpassed in smoothness of frequency response and low distortion for at least ten or fifteen years in this market segment. To this day, there are very few speakers this size that can matchlet alone surpassthe bass performance (low distortion) of the AR-4. It was a remarkable achievement in loudspeaker design. Julian Hirsch of Hirsch-Houck Labs, HiFi/Stereo Review , said of the AR-4, Unlike some smaller speaker systems that either go dead or distort badly below 70 Hz, the AR-4 produced very clean if diminished output down to at least 30 Hz. The smoothness of the system is attested to by the fact that no peaks or dips greater than 2.5 dB were measured from 30 to 15, 000 Hz. In short, the AR-4 was (and still is) one of the finest small loudspeakers ever produced for high-fidelity sound reproduction in the home. Noteworthy for its smooth and natural sound quality, this speaker has been a favorite for decades. The sheer quality of this little speaker also created a competitive spirit in the high-fidelity speaker industry for models in this price range that could compete with the tiny AR-4, and many competitive modelssuch as the KLH Seventeendid emerge that were generally on a par with this little speaker, but no small speaker built during this early period was truly comparable to the little AR-4 and AR-4. In terms overall sonic performance, accuracy, smoothness and natural sound reproduction. This was a fitting testimonial to this extraordinarily well-engineered little loudspeaker. Reproduction or copying of any of this material without the express permission of the writer is unlawful and strictly prohibited. These loudspeakers are 51 years old, and no guarantee as to long-term performance, safety or efficacy can be made for them. Note to International Buyers. Additional Note to International Buyers. The item “Acoustic Research (AR) AR-4 Loudspeaker (pair) in Oiled Walnut, Vintage, EC” is in sale since Tuesday, December 22, 2015. This item is in the category “Consumer Electronics\Vintage Electronics\Vintage Audio & Video\Vintage Speakers”. The seller is “acoustic-research-inc” and is located in High Point, North Carolina. This item can be shipped worldwide.
- Brand: Acoustic Research, Inc. “AR”
- Model: 1964 Model AR-4
- Country/Region of Manufacture: United States