I recently purchased the ar315 from shop 4 com. The product arrived within a week (i was impressed). For the money i think it was one of the best values around. It is a beast in size so you better have ample space. Great base and good for music or home theater. With the powered subs you dont need a mega amp. I have denon 2800 (85 watts) and i cant get it to top out. Good speaker, great value (paid)$1,100.

1) Beware of shipping damage. One internal power supply transformer for the woofer amp broke off!I fixed it. Overnight shipping company must employ some monkeys. This was the second pair they shipped. The first pair were refused because of shipping damage.

2) The AR service department is worthless. They do not do as they say. After an argument, they said that they were going to ship one set of missing spike/feet, but they never did. They do NOT care for people buying through the Internet - like from netmarket.com. It didn't matter that they don't have a stocking dealer in the Dallas area. They told me that I did not have a warranty.

To tame this beast I suggest the following:

3) You MUST used sharp spikes to couple the cabinet to the floor. The bass is now knot tight and has so much muscle that goes right through my body. I use a narrower sharper feet which pierce through the carpeting and couple to the wood floor way better than the supplied.

4) For the best sound you MUST adjust the spiked feet. Adjust so that any rocking of the cabinet (from the top) is minimized.

5) For the best sound you MUST feed a second line level input to drive the subwoofer amp. Use a Y adapter. Even with a passive preamp.

6) Use quality directional audio cables. Acoustic Research makes some top-notch ones which are excellent. They are inexpensive too - like $25 or less from Lowes Hardware. Or Netmarket.com sells the 3' lengths for only $13. I believe that Monster audio cables sound to bright and should not be used with this speaker.

7) Use LOCKING banana plugs with soldered 12 gauge wire. Radio Shack has the best ones that I've ever seen for $6, even better than the expensive Monster ones. Remember you will see many other banana plugs for the same price. Do NOT buy them. The LOCKING type applies pressure between the metal surfaces and reduces contact pressure. That is why sound better.

8) I find it best that the speakers NOT be angled in.

For $1250 these blow away any other speaker at anywhere near their price. Easily 5 stars.

These speakers are absolutely incredible. My entire speaker budget went out the window when I first heard them. I had no choice but to buy them, and now that I have I don't regret spending much more than I had originally planned. I believe that these speakers are one of the best values for the money. In fact, I challenge anybody to find a better pair in this price range.

The imaging is absolutely phenomenal. Bass is solid. I have never heard more accurate sonic reproduction.

Some of the following reviews for these speakers make some extreme statements that I originally took with a grain of salt. Now that I own these speakers, I have no choice but to agree 100%.

I realize a lot of other speakers have received high ratings as well. I have listened to alot of those other speakers in this price range and if they truly deserve 5 stars, then the P315HOs deserve 10.

Two words.........BAD ASS

Just received the 315 HO's through shop4. $1187 delivered, including membership fees. the cartens were pretty beat up, but no apparent damage. One set of spiked feet missing ,the AR service dept. not to helpfull and were quick to point out I did not have a warranty. Shop4 however, offered 2 year service protection plan through General Electric, free with membership... We'll see. I've auditioned Def Tech BP2 & 3000, Energy 2.8's, NHT 3.3's , all very high quality speakers, but the 315's blow them all away when price is factored in!! From an audio standpoint,NHT and Energy win hands down for critical music listening, for home theater/ casual music,save your money, BUY THE 315'S you absolutely cannot go wrong... If you are worried about a factory warranty , check out onecall.com $1400, an authorized internet dealer. The rest of the system.. Sony STR-DA80ES Toshiba SD-3107 Carver TFM-55x Tara Q4 Prisim audio cables (excellent) Monster Interlink 400MK11 (very poor) Speaker Lab 7's (suround speakers, a kit I built in 1977, metal horn tweeter and midrange) Infinity Overture 1 (center channel,very nice)

JUDGING FROM THE SOUND OF THE CS25HO CENTER/SURROUND SPEAKER FROM ACOUSTIC RESEARCH, IF THE P315HO HAS THE KIND
OF IMAGING AND CLARITY THAT THIS SPEAKER DOES THEN IT HAS
TO BE AWSOME. I PURCHASED THE CS25HO ON THE 15TH OF FEB
FROM A SITE ON THE INTERNET CALLED SOUNDCITY.COM AND HAD
THE SPEAKER IN 2 DAYS, BUT ON THE OTHER HAND I ORDERED THE
P315HO AT THE SAME TIME FROM A PLACE CALLED
SMILEPHOTOVIDEO.COM AND WAS GIVEN THE RUN AROUND FOR DAYS
BEFORE I WAS TOLD THAT THE SPEAKER WAS NOT IN STOCK, SO
CANCELLED THE ORDER AND PLACED IT WITH SHOP4.COM ON THE
26TH OF FEB AND HAVE BEEN HAVING NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS SINCE
PLACING THE ORDER WITH THEM. AT PRESENT I HAVE THE CS25HO
AS A CENTER CHANNEL SPEAKER AND TWO BOSE MODEL 100 SPEAKERS
IN THE REAR. THE AR CS25HO IS AN EXCELLENT SPEAKER AND AS
SOON AS I RECEIVE THE P315HO SPEAKER I WILL COME BACK WITH
MY COMMENTS.

I recently auditioned these speakers. The 500 watt built in Bob Carver amplifer in each tower performs quite well. The overall sound I found very "warm" and easy to listen to. In the end, I went with the B&W CDM7SE's because ot their uncompromising clarity and solid bass. However, I believe AR P315HO is a true bargain for $1,100.00 pr. thru shop4.com. . Because of the price, these speakers deserve 5 stars.

These babies ROCK.......HARDDa BAZZ is BAD!!!!

I love these suckers..
5 stars aldaway....

Happy listening
PEACE...

I have owned the P315HO for several months now. For the price I love the speakers. A few things I would recommend are; 1. Try very good directional subwoofer cables (Monster 351 is what I use), this will tighten up the bass by a large margin allowing you to have higher volume with better accuracy, do not use zip cord or Radio Shacks best (if you must use less expensive cables be very careful with the gain control, it can sound very muddy if set to high), 2. Try good quality interconnects for all your audio system such as better quality Audioquest, Monsters or other good interconnects , this will bring out the speakers accuracy in the mid to hi ranges, 3. I highly recommend the best speaker wire you can afford (Monster M2.4s are great and 99.99% silver/teflon wires are excellent), don't skimp here, if you have a picky ear only high end wire will do, 4. If you are starting from scratch on your system go separates or a very quite receiver (the speakers pick up everything). I understand that many of the afore mentioned points are quite obvious to most. As I could slowly afford these upgrades each one really brought out the speakers potential. I sure hope I've helped you out!

I have been enjoying these speakers for over a month now and have learned to really appreciate them. I originally ordered them from Shop4.com at the end of January for $1100 shipping included. Since I had ordered the cherry finish they were back ordered. After several months of phone calls and delays I noticed that the new AR1's were available. I told Shop4.com to send me them, instead if they were in stock. Well I ended up recieving both pairs at the end of April. This allowed me to try out both sets of speakers in my house. The new AR1's have a less adaptable set of inputs on the back and it looks as if they sourced the drivers from a different manufacturer. None the less the two pairs did not really sound much different from one another. The AR1's black vinyl cabinetry looked cheap compared to the 315HO's cherry finish.
These speakers pick up any noise in your system. I ended up driving them off of a Sony DA30ES reciever because the subwoofer amp was generating too much noise off of my older Sony prologic reciver with line level subwoofer outputs. This solved the noise problem but the interconnect upgrade resulted in much tighter bass. These speakers require much more personal attention to setup and connect than my older Polk SDA-2B's.

I would recommend purchasing a pair if they are in your price range. They are a lot of bang for the buck. Save yourself several hundred dollars and get the 315HO's over the AR1's; there's no difference. The 315's price should be dropping with their discountinuation. The shipping cartons are poor and usually come damaged but the speakers are unmarred inside.