Why Crazy Prices paid for Pioneer 100 JBL L100 AR1 AR3 AR3A

I have one pair of AR 3 and one of AR 3a, and have listened to neither yet because they were rescued from a recycling place and I want to rebuild-them-some-day.  The AR 3 (early ones) have two salient features: AlNiCo magnets much heftier than later models, and at least very early ones had cabinets made of a Navy post-war overstock of teak wood or some wood very dense and impervious to the elements. 
As for the JBLs, I recall they were great for disco music but not really suited for classical music - maybe for jazz.  They were great in their days, but if one could show me a JBL Paragon system, now that was the nec plus ultra then, and perhaps even now, with all due foam and crossover rebuilds as mandated by all these dinosaurs. 
Pioneer? I had a QX-949 pseudo-quadrasonic, or tetraphonic (but not quadraphonic, a misplaced, mixed-roots neologism, as marketing mavens lured us to remember the technology). I said "Meh!" and sold it.  I preferred my Kenwood KA8006 and KT8007, very elegant design and I think at least equal performers to the aesthetically boring Pioneer corresponding amp and tuner.  Not to speak of my unequalled Marantz 2275, or better yet my 2270 (two phono inputs awaiting my Empire 498 and B&O 4002), which are awaiting the same fate as my ARs some-day-soon. 

Lots of reasons.   Quality, nostalgia, balance.   Back in the day, both the JBL L100 and AR3a were reference speakers, albiet for different purposes.  Both were descended from a family of speakers that set new standards for performance, and both speakers are regarded as points in time when everything fell into place.  A true whole being greater than sum of parts.

The JBL L100 was a consumer version of the primary studio monitor in use by top Rock and Pop Music studios.  You were literally hearing the same sound as recording engineers !  Combine that with bold styling, punchy bass and relatively high efficiency and you have a speaker that inspired wet dreams among pre-teen boys, at least until they discovered girls, then the speakers were a means to another end.....   If you like classic rock from 1965-1980, then you will love this speaker.

The AR3a was a redesign of the groundbreaking AR3, which was the first speaker to use dome midrange and tweeter drivers.  There is some controversy, but AR is believed to have invented dome drivers.  The AR3 offered true 30hz-15khz frequency response, with minimal distortion, and wide dispersion that modern speakers struggle to match.  Competing speakers were twice as large, and struggled to go below 50hz, and above 10khz.  At one time AR had about 30% of the entire speaker market.  The 3 and 3a rewarded serious listeners.  They were simply the most accurate speaker one could buy at the time.  They were true reference speakers for jazz and classical recording engineers.  They were used for sound reinforcement when backing acoustic instruments, ballet, recitals etc.  "Serious Music".  They were not rock speakers and that led to seeing their market share slip away as the market changed.  

AR speakers were designed for mid -far field listening...about row 10-15 in a concert hall.  They sounded best in a moderately sized living room, about 10-15 feet away from the listener, playing acoustic instruments.  Used within their limits, they sound wonderful even today.   The problem is the newest example is at least 45yrs old, and most are 50yrs+.  The suspensions of the mid and tweeter domes dry out over time, and the level controls become corroded.   There are people that can rebuild the dome drivers, and there are drop in replacements for the level controls.  Once serviced, one would be very surprised at how good they sound even today.

I owned a pair of AR3's for about 5 years(years ago.....don't remember exactly but probably in the early 1970's)....sold them and bought a pair of original Quad ESL's from Jonas Miller in Los Angeles. The first piece of classical music I played was almost not recognizable....the Quads were that much better than the AR's

  Recently watched a 1965 Ford GT350R serial number 1 go for $3.5 M. I can’t afford a vintage car but I have a pristine pair of 80’s JBL 4312A’s with custom Sound Anchor stands 26” tall . And they’re in the closet because they don’t sound like I remembered from my youth . Eventually I’ll rebuild the crossovers .  But since they are a near field studio monitor used in a horizontal array , maybe they just won’t sound “GOOD”. Friends with the big 15” stuff that’s bi-amped with tubes on top and A/B or class D on the woofers and running digital correction do sound pretty good , if you like the ZZ Top live sound . I had Vintage Klipsch and Large Advent . Gave  my Klipsch Heresys and a vintage Sansui to my daughter. Gave the Klipsch KG’s and a vintage Marantz to my son . Both received Schiit DAC’s too. They’re happy , I’m happy . Running 12wpc SEP tube to Zu’s now. Growing up in Fresno I remember Quadraflex , and Sun Stereo’s DWD’s. DWD built stuff for ESS. Also  Vandersteen is made in a nearby town . Now that’s a vintage speaker worth owning ! Cheers , Mike B. 

What must be remembered is that for many of us, we first listened to music on portable or table-top AM radios, later on FM radios. Once you were able to hear music reproduced using a receiver and two speakers of whatever kind, you were hooked. I think that sound was imprinted in our brains and to a large extent accounts for much of the demand for gear from the early-to-mid 70s. I have many pieces from that era (just bought a pristine Sansui TU-517 tuner that looks brand-new and sounds great) and I use large Advents and a couple of pair of ADS speakers to bring back
that sound. With the right music, I enjoy that as much as listening to my Audio Research/Accuphase/Vandersteen system. I know I'm a dinosaur, but then they ruled the earth for millions of years, so I figure I'm in good company.