Great even sound with very good imaging. Good bass for size and clear mids and highs

none at this price

For the Price these are great speakers, I Love the Clear even sound that they produce. Sound much better than the Jbl's that I replace and the bose I auditioned. To bad they don't make these any more because I find the horn loaded design give much better imaging that the new PS226 or S10 with silk domes. You can't beat a well designed horn. The Ratings are for the original list price of 299 a pair and would go even higher since I only paid 40 bucks for them.

Similar Products Used:

Jbl N26,Bose 301, Old Yamaha

very good range for such a small speaker

none

I can't believe how good these speakers sound, especially (and most appropriately) in a small room. While we're having our living room floors re-done, my wife and I moved all of our components (Denon AVR-4800, cheap CD player, turntable, VCR & TV) to another room; disconnected our Paradigm Monitor 9s, CC-370 ctr, PW-2200 sub, and ADP 370-dipoars; plugged in these little apeakers temporarily to the Denon and were amazed at how listening to music can be both a pleasure and very inexpensive. These ACR 216s can easily fill a small room, and though the bass is not going to rattle any windows, the power and accuracy of these were very impressive.

If you're looking for budget speakers for a small room, you just can't go wrong with these! I suspect they'd also serve very well as surrounds once you decided to upgrade to larger floor-standing front speakers, but for my money, I'm simply using them for 2-channel stereo and am enjoying listening to all kinds of music (primarily classical) before we re-connect the Paradigms. On the other hand, I'll probably use these in a second-room set-up when the Denon POA 5200 companion amp (to the AVR-4800) arrives. I just didn't expect much sound could come from such budget speakers!

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Monitor Series

I am very impressed by with these speakers. I was suprised to find out that Recaton (the wonderful company that brought us Jensen) could make such a fine product. I am using these speakers in conjunction with my Yamaha R-V1105 receiver and a AR 12" sub. I was using a set of Cerwin-vega 310 that doubled as the front channel speakers for my surrond sound and let me say that these speakers are a big improvement. The sound is so much more defined. The mids are clear and the highs are not distorted as was the problem with the Cerwin-vegas. The AR's are in a whole diffrent class when it comes to imageing. If your looking for a reasonably priced Sub/Sat system you should give these speakers a try!

I recently purchased the AR216PS speakers, and I must say they are a big improvement to my sound. The highs are extraordinary, and the lows are not bad for a book-shelf speaker. I purchased these speakers for $77.95 at a close out sale just to give the name brand a try. I must admit; I am very impressed by what I hear. I heard sounds from my CDs that I never heard before. I am so impressed that I recently ordered the AR328PS for my fronts. I can hardly wait to hear these two pairs together.

Exceptionally clear mids and highs

None

I have been listening to these speakers for a few weeks now and I love them. They have the best sounding mids and highs I have heard from a bookshelf speaker. I couldn't pass up the price on them either, I picked them up at egghead.com for only $69.00.

Lo price, small size

frequency range

Got these at Uncle's http://www.unclestereo.com for $139/pr. I bought these because they were inexpensive. Considering the frequency range is 20khz-55hz plus or minus 3db, it's very reasonable. Lots of speakers like the NHT SuperOnes don't even go that low, and the SuperOnes cost $300+ (brand new). Also, unlike most listeners I'm very familiar with Acoustic Research as a brand name. My Uncle is an Audiophile and owns a pair of vintage AR-3a's which supposedly "set the standard" for speakers at the time of their release. My Father also purchased a pair of small AR-MST 4 way bookshelf speakers in the 70's when he was younger, so I know in the past, AR has made some truly great and innovative speakers. In my listening test I listened to a bevy of music starting out with Santana's Supernatural. The receiver I used was a Nakamichi AV-500 rated at 120 watts (high current). In listening to "Smooth" I thought the highs could have been a little clearer and more defined. I found myself enveloped by Carlos Santana's beautiful guitar play. It didn't sound like a live concert, but how many speakers can do that? Maybe it was my CD player. I'm using a Panasonic Portable (SL-SW404)that I purchased in 1996. Maybe if I had a "real" cd player it would have sounded better? Hmmm. Threw on La Cream's "Say Goodbye" and started bumping to the beat. These speakers will play very loud. Bass is very good. The 6.5" woofers will not rattle your windows or walls much, but will shake the table. The tweeter sounded a bit harsh. I don't know why. Some people have said that speakers sometimes sound that way out of the box and require you to play about 20 hours before they are fully "broken in" (I have only listened about 2 hours so far). Other than this, the tweeters were very accurate and very flat. Soundstage is very good. The room I was listening to was about 20 feet by 20 feet with a vaulted ceiling which starts at around 9 feet and goes up to about 18 feet so it's a pretty good sized room. The speakers had no problem at all filling it up. Had to turn volume down a bit once while playing a song with very heavy bass. During the entire listening test I played the music very loud. I had the knob turned to about 10:30 most of the time and turned it to 11 and 12 o'clock occasionally. Loudness was switched "on" to boost bass and treble output by 10db. The woofer was working very hard. Took off the grill and watched it go in and out, air was coming out of the tuned port like an air blower :). The woofer is the strongest part of this ensemble. It is a full range woofer. The bass response is very rich. There's no need for a sub. Unless you are picky, these speakers will satisfy most people's listening needs. At $139 a pair, AR is not marketing this speaker towards audiophiles. I've listened to comparable bookshelves from Bose, Boston Acoustics, Energy, Infinity, and I think the 216's are better than all these. I don't even think there is a speaker on the market under $150 that goes down to 55hz if I've done my homework correctly. The bass response is something that, if lacking, in a speaker like say, the NHT SuperOnes, it really kills your listening experience. I've auditioned the SuperOnes and people say you don't need a subwoofer for those. Believe me, when you hear those "oh so clear" sparkling 24khz highs, and you get nada from those 6.5" woofers, you NEED a subwoofer for the SuperOnes. Personally I think it's bad marketing on NHT's behalf because what you are doing is teasing the listener by offering these incredibly crystal clear highs and nothing down below, while AR is offering a nice balance of both (for way less than half the price). Most music doesn't go much lower than 50hz, so that's the benchmark that most people use when they call a speaker a "full range" speaker. The 216's get close, close enough for me to call them "full range". In Summary: These speakers represent an outstanding value. This speaker will deliver full range sound and will not kill your budget. I did not review these speakers based on their size or driver dimensions. Hence, I'm not going to make comments like: "they sounded bigger than they looked" like so many other people do, because that doesn't necessarily mean they sounded GOOD. I went strictly by sound. I compared these speakers with every other speaker I've ever heard or owned. In comparison with my $260 Boston Acoustic's A70 bookshelves which featured a 1" dome tweeter and 8" woofer (exceptionally flat freq response: 22khz-60hz +-.5db.) I think the AR 216's sounded better. They were more balanced. Of course the tweeters on my Boston's smoked the tweeter on the AR's but the BA A70's tweeters would smoke about half the loudspeakers on the market today. Official Specs for the AR 216PS: 6.5" woofer, 1" polycarbonate horn-loaded tweeter, bass reflex, 1.5" port tuned at 55hz, 55hz-20kz +-3db, crossover freq: 3.5khz, 8ohms, enclosure dimensions: 14.5"X8.5"X9", weight: 16lbs each, heavy duty gold plated speaker connectors on the back. *Last note: Don't take my word for it. Audition it and compare it with other speakers. Acoustic Research is a *solid* speaker company. None of their stuff is crap. They have been building high quality speakers for decades. Buying one of their speakers is like investing in a company like IBM or Coca-Cola. It's a good conservative choice- you can't go wrong. Overall rating gets 4 stars because bass response only goes down to 55hz. If bass went down to 48hz I would have given it 5 stars.

Similar Products Used:

AR-MST, Boston Acoustics A70 II's

Tight Bass, Unboxy like sound for a little 2 way, overall disperses a well detailed sound, horn tweeter not bright.

I really could'nt find any

It's been some time that I've owed a small 2 way bookshelve speaker,my last pair of AR's of some 15yrs where an enormous, great sounding floor standing pair that had deep bass capabilities. I quess gone are those days. Nether the less I was very impressed with these little 216's. Their ability to sound uboxy and much larger than their size,tight bass ,( I actually could pick out better details in the upper bass on up, than in my last AR's). As I grow older I think my desire for larger more bass output speakers is tapering,but for those of you that are bass heads a good subwoofer could be added to compliment the 216's lack in that area. Depending on placement in your room I think in spite of it's price I think AR has another innovated product,deserving a serious listen.

Similar Products Used:

AR-9LSi

Great Bass and range for size

So nice-looking I don't want to screw them into a speaker stand :)

This is the first pair of speakers I purchased on my road to becoming an audio enthusiast, and while I am still short on the terms, I love the stuff. For the money that you should pay for these speakers, they are amazing quality. Great deep bass, I am amazed at how clear they boom at lower ranges (combined with a powered sub, they work some magic). I used them both as fronts and rears, being too poor to afford better floor-standing, but I have come to love the company. High quality in all their products I have listened to and at a great price. I did pay a little too much for mine, but hopefully you can find them for under $200. I recommend them for low-mid cost systems and for those who want elegance of appearance. Thanks to AR for making such greatlooking bookshelfs that sound like they are twice their size.

The price, and the good, clean bass for its size.

Midrange is lacking a bit.

You won't find a better speaker value anywhere if you ask me. These speakers put out a surprisingly large amount of bass for their size. The bass is very accurate and tight. It won't shake the house down, but what do you expect from a bookshelf speaker. The highs are also very impresive on these speakers. The horn tweeters give these speakers a large sweet spot and pretty good soundstaging. The highs are also not overly bright like many speakers are. The midrange is the only real weakness here, but with a two way speaker, you either get good bass, or good midrange, never both. For most classic rock/rock music they sound great. I listened to Bose 301, 201, Infinity Interlude bookshelfs at Circuit City and in my opinion these speakers sound the best at a much nicer price. They aren't as bright as the Infinity's and get much better bass than both of the other sets. For the value, you can't buy a better bookshelf.

Similar Products Used:

Bose, Paradigm