Seeming, limitless dynamic range. They can be driven hard and they sound good and are undamaged.

Side fliring woofers. This is only a problem on speaker placement. It appears to be a plus for the sound quality.

Purchased new in 1980. These were the only speakers I found that sounded better than my Rectilinear III's, (which I still have). They are listenable for extended periods of time. They have clean, balanced sound. The bass is there when it's in the program material and is not boomy or muddy. Toeing them in a few degrees improves the imaging in my room. I have re-foamed them once. Overall, very satlisfied with their performance.

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Rectilinear III speakers

Very nice high and mid-range.
Good, tight bass ( if on spikes ).
Unbeatable for the price.

Not really.

I was disappointed when I listened to my AR 9's the first time at home in my music room. They sounded dull and flat. To cut a long story short, experiment with them ! It took me weeks to set them up just right. Remove the grills to start with. Next I fitted spikes and put them on 500mm solid marble. Bi - wiring is also highly recomended. You must be patient and let them run in for for many hours. A few months of keen listening will do it. After you experimented a lot with the perfect positioning you will find that it was all worth it. I use them on a stereo system with a vintage 25 w Technics amp. and a Rotel 1072 HDCD player. The sound quality is great ! I have never owned a true high-end system but when I compare them to some of the very expensive speakers in my friends' homes they come out tops. Excellent value for money.

Built very well.Solid peice of furniture.

the individual speakers were not equally balanced as far as efficiency goes.

Wow sounds like these speakers might have changed a little.I bought a pair back in 1980 when I was over seas.They were $590.00 EACH back then and even quite a bit more back here in the states.I'm looking at the original receipt right now and it was 5/19/1980. As I recall they each weighed 130 lbs. One thing I noticed was the room that they were in really determinned just how much bass they were going to let you hear. They seemed to be kind of shy when in a room that had carpet. But boy,you put them in a room with a nice hardwood floor and they were all of a sudden the life of the party. The mids were ok but the highs weren't there at all. They would have been better if each individual speaker had it's own seperate pot to where you could actually turn one all the way off(not that you would want to) That way you could compensate for the least efficient speakers by equally balancing them better. My opinion is,if your amp of receiver tone controls or equalizer slides are any higher than at the flat level(half way mark)then either the room has terrible acoustics or the speakers are inefficient. I kept these speakers for three months sold them for more than I paid for them and built a pair for half the price that sound 10 times better.With the electrovoice and pyle horns and the black widow sub, all the slides on my EQ are way below flat and everything is right out there. And the bass is very defined. And I have never in the 25 years that I've had this receiver had to use the loudness switch on the ev/pd/bw speaker combo.

- the mids and highs are clean, clear and detailed - sounds very good with both music/movies - BiWire / BiAMP - price

- The bass (YOU WILL NEED A SUBWOOFER) - MADE IN CHINA (quality) - you'll need space around the speakers and a large room

I have this speakers, for almost a year, but they are not yet well broken in ! Maybe because i don’t have time to listen so often ! Even so AR9 sound great for the price paid ! Acoustic Research AR9 are the best speakers i have ever heard ! This speakers are very good with both music and movies, but i use them especially for music. The look is very nice, but only with the grills off ! Grill is very hard to remove, BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE ! The sound stage is good, speakers deliver clear music with good seperation of the Highs/Mids and the Bass especially when you BiWire / BiAMP them. But it seems to mix up different frequencies at VERY HIGH volume. Or this may occur because of my AMPLIFIER ?? Overall the AR9s sound very clean, with great detail ! The highs are very clean and crisp, no harshness ! The mid range is smooth ! So, the mids and highs are very open and detailed ! BUT HERE COMES the bad news ! The bass on the AR9's isn't earth shaking, it’s not too punchy, not enough deep deep bass. YOU WILL NEED A SUBWOOFER to fix that ! You’ll need also a good AMP and proper positioning to improve the bass responce ! A good choice is to use a separate amp to drive the woofers (the side-firing woofers need plenty of power to get them going) Also you need a large room . DO NOT place this speakers near walls or corners, because you will not get the best bass responce ! Experiment with the speakers placement for optimal sound ! And try to raise them up a foot, because you’ll get the mids and highs closer to ear level ! AR 9 are speakers that can flourish in certain conditions : bi-wire, large room. Some people may not like this, but i’m very pleased ! The tweeter is very clear, defined and if you are using an low-end reciever or a CD/DvD player that have even a slightly harsh sound, these speakers will show that off very harshly at high volume ! So use some decent audio equipament with this speakers ! This speakers are MADE IN CHINA ! The built quality is very good on the exerioir, but not so good on the interior ! The left speaker had a cable inside, which at VERY HIGH VOLUME, (when the 10' bass driver starts to "move" and produce vibrations) hits the wooden cabinet, making an disturbing noise ! So I had to remove the 10' bass driver, and stuck my hand inside the speaker to fix that cable with some packaging tape ! OK ! ACOUSTIC RESEARCH AR9 are not high end speakers ! Do not expect them to sound like high end speakers ! So if you want a good price/performance speaker around 1000 $, AR9 are one of the best ! If you wish to spend more than 1200 $ for a pair of speakers, look for something else ! (B&W, Dynaudio, NHT, Boston Acoustics, etc.) My system : Front speakers : Acoustic Research AR9 DvD player : Pioneer DV-656A-S AMP : Pioneer VSX-D812-S 100Wx6/DD-EX/DTS-ES/7.1 Speaker cables : Supra Rondo 4x2.5 Digital coax cable : Supra Trico Video cable : Supra FullSCART Good Luck !

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JBL s312, Acoustic Energy AEGIS EVO 3, Mirage, Canton, Magnat, Infinity Alpha 50

good shape,clean sound, av/hifi dual use

bass

really good, considered the price

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jbl,bose,infinity...

Unbeatable performance/price ratio. Clear mids and higs, awesome image, tight bass,................etc,etc.

May be grills, and vinil finishes.

HI. I have this beauties, almost for a year; and they sound better, and better every day. I compare them, with the B&W604, MOURDANTSHORT 908, and JMLabs 765, and the ARs outperformed them. I hooked them up, to a YAMAHA AX930 amp,and I use a Denon 3300 as a preamp. I have a Marantz CD-67MkII as a cd player, and a Yamaha S795 as a DVD. I`m using AR Pro-series 2 interconects, and DIY Cat 5 for the speakers. Im very happy with muy set up, and the AR9s sound awesome, with great detail. I was afraid to the metal tweeter, but I have to say this one offered crisp and sweet higs. I recomend them 100%, if you are looking for this kind of loudspeaker, give the AR a listen. Marvincho.-

Tonal balance on the warm side. Very musical. Enough bass that I don't feel I'm missing much. Kills anything "mass market"

Not the greatest at detail resolution or ultimate smoothness.

I credit these speakers with turning me on to audio gear, and really redefining my goals in sound reproduction. My father is an avid audiophile, and owns some very nice equipment. I inherited some of his older gear which is decent mid 80's stuff. But it wasn't until I bought these speakers that I really understood what being an audiophile was all about. Ever since I picked these up, I've been reading all sorts of articles and reviews, and Robert Harley's "Complete Guide to Hi End Audio" (A must read for anyone starting out in audio). Anyway, on to the review. While I think these speakers were primarily designed for home theater, they turned out to be very musical. Their tonal balance is a on the warm side, especially when I compare them to my Axiom Audio M3ti's, which are more acurate, less warm. This is not a criticism; I actually prefer a bit of warmth. I actually think they are the best deal in the AR line. Going up the line gets you more bass, but the mids and highs remain the same. If I were to pay $1000 for a pair, I'd want a little more out of the midrange and treble. My gear: -Hitachi DVD player (cheapo) feeding a Channel Island Audio DAC -Yamaha P-350 turntable with Sumiko Blue Point cartridge -Yamaha C-80 preamp -Yamaha M-60 power amp -BSR Graphic EQ (not used) -Yamaha tuner

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Older Energy, KLH, Axiom Audio M3ti

Very nice sound for the price, and well built.

None really for the price.

I bought these speakers along with all new components as an upgrade to my previous home theater. I would like to say that they perform very well, they are not by any means high end or close to it but for people on a budget (like myself) they are a great value. I pitted them against many other speakers in their price range and some that were twice as expensive, they came away the winner. They even sounded almost as good as B&W 603 S3 that cost $1,000 pair, (remember thats almost). The bass on the AR9's isn't earth shaking but it still has oomph. The mid range is smooth and highs are nice. The drivers are made from materials used in many other speakers that are alot more expensive, so thats a nice feature. The AR9's are solidly built and weighing in at I think 65 pounds each, they are no cream puffs. So if you're on a budget or looking for something thats better than what you can get at Best Buy, then these are very nice speakers for the money. You can even pay more for the AR7, AR5, or AR1 and get a built in powered amp for the woofer. If you have more money to burn ($3,000) then I would suggest something like Monitor Audio Silver series, PSB Image series, B&W DM series, or something along those lines. Remember how a speaker sounds is an opinion, some may love how one sounds and others will hate it, but don't be biased about them and post false or bad reviews just because you have it out for a brand or style or price. The reviews should be informative and honest. Oh and for people who are curious about what other peoples home theaters consists of like I am, here is a list of what I am using. Front channel: AR9's Center channel: AR4C Rear surrounds: AR215PS Subwoofer: ARS108PS HDTV: Panasonic PT-53WX42 (not bad but not great, Philips are better) DVD: Sony DVP NS-715P A/V Reciever: Yamaha HTR-5560 Optical Toslink: Monster Cable Lightspeed 200 Component video cable: Bettercables Silver Serpent component video cable Speaker cable: Transparent cable 14/4 I also tried Bettercables Silver Serpent digital coax and can't really tell any difference in sound between it and the monster 200 optical, but a big difference between it and the monster lightspeed 100 optical.

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JBL, KLH, Sony, Cerwin Vega, etc. Also have auditioned many speakers from $300 to $10,000.

Clear detailed seperation of the Highs/Mids and the Bass. Tight controled bass and shows absolutely no sign of fatigue at any level (ofcourse it depends on the distortion level of your set to begin with). Bi-Amplifiable, heavy wood cabinet and heavy drivers.

The fact that they were dis-continued

I have had these speakers for less than a year now and WOW. I went to the Home Entertainment Show here in NYC in the Hilton. I have to say the new POLK Lsi9 are awesome book shelf speakers. They sounded extremely full and DAMN GOOD. OOps sorry. I heard a lot of systems (I was really impressed with the new POLKs) that impressed me, but when I got home and listened to my set I was a proud father again. These are some excellent speakers. They are top notch and deserved to be hooked up to a unit with the right amount of power and performance.

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AR11, AR428PS, AR308HO

Excellent sound stage, built quality, very smooth mids, overall a very versatile & quality speaker for all kind of music. So far I have not heard any speaker better than Acoustic Research AR-9.

Grills

I had spent a lot of time in auditioning different speakers, for example Infinity Alpha 40 & 50, JBL LX-7,S-310, N-series, Klipsch RF-3, KLF-10, SF-2, Jamo 670, 870 & Classic 8, DCM-12, MTX, Bose AM series and a few more. None of them was satisfying my need, except Jamo& AR9, some were too loud, few were mixing frequencies at high levels, high sensitivity speakers like Klipsch are not for my type. But when I heard AR9, I was sure, that they are the ones for me to keep. Acoustic Research AR9, is an excellent product. It can play super clean and loud with no sign of distorsion. The sound stage is excellent, speaker delivers music with high degree of sound separation, while other speakers tend to mix up different frequencies specially at high sound levels. The mids are just too smooth, its diamond hardened Titanium tweeter gives wonderful highs,no harshness whatsoever. Bass is just perfect, it is not too punchy but it is full, atleast enough for my need. I have tried AR9 in dts mode in a home theater & I did not feel a need of SubW, thats how good the lows are. Sound separation is a very special feature of these speakers, very clear & distinct sound, does not mix any frequency, every detail comes out crystal clear. These are the kind of speakers which are smooth to your ears & one can listen to them for a long time, rather than getting a headache after listening to for a short while. The built quality is excellent, aesthetically designed with Biwiring facility. They would cover all type of music, from a soft instrumental to hard rock, if you pump them up, they convert into something real wild, thats how versatile they are. I would like to compliment the Acoustic Research Team, to have come up with such a high standard & quality product. As a customer I am very satisfied & would specially like to thank Mr. Najam the SalesManager who lead me to this speaker. My system : Acoustic Research AR-9 : as mains BIC-America DV62vsi : as surrounds BIC-America DV62CLR-S : as center Yamaha 520 : AV reciever/Amp Pioneer 233 : DVD player AR-9 with these BIC-America speakers is a perfect match, from a home theater sound to 5 Channel stereo, overall its the best combination one can find. I would highly recommend this combination. All these speakers are also among the "Top Picks" of this site, which says a lot about them.

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Used Infinity Alpha 50, JBL LX-7. Auditioned : JBL S-310, N-series, Klipsch RF-3, KLF-10, SF-2, Jamo 670, 870 & Classic 8, DCM-12, MTX, Bose AM series and a few more