Acoustic Research AR-9 speakers -- comments...?

I have a pair of AR-90's the smaller brother to the 9's they are very nice but POWER HUNGRY. Mine are in need of restoration such as foam surrounds. There is a person on e-bay called vintage AR that sells parts for AR speakers that I understand is a very good person.

Chuck

I am planning on restoring my AR 3As. I would guess that most of the existing AR Speakers out there are due for restoration or repair. (if not done in the past)

It was the widespread popularity of the AR3a combined with its 84dB (in)efficiency that inspired Bob Carver to create the Phase Linear 700 power amp (IIRC from one of his interviews).

I remember these (from my days of Advent and AR...). I think that one of the keys to really liking these speakers is your proximity to local power generation. They were truly a black hole for many amps - electrons went in but not much came out. But when they were driven with a real amp - legitimate old-style triple-digit power, the kind that didn't expect to get help from a powered subwoofer - they could be very impressive speakers with a commanding big sound (sorry, but I don't know too many flowery phrases for this stuff). I think they eventually got kind of a bad rap for being so power hungry but from what I remember (and this is obviously from way, way back when) they could sound darned good (run by an amp I could never afford then...).