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.
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.
