Sound, price and looks

The grill pegs do not fit snug

This review is for Acoustic Research AR-S50's.

First off let me say I am very happy with my purchase. I wanted to replace my book shelf speakers (polk rt25's) with floor standing speakers inorder to have better sound. I have an Onkyo reciever, a Marantz CD player and my turn table- yes turn table- is a Bang and Olufsen. I listened to several brands of speakers, polk, definitive tech, tweeter tower II's and paradigm. These sounded best. Sound from these speakers are beautiful. The highs are clear but a bit bright at times, not with all music (my wife did'nt notice). The mids are warm and the bass is strong and tight but not over powering....which is nice. The speakers come with three foam inserts which allow you to adjust the sound from the back. You do this by inserting them into the reflex holes. Use a combination of the three inserts or none at all. I chose not to use any. If you want thumping bass get a sub. These speakers have very good bass but not thundering. The sound (music) from these speakers are clear smooth and tight. What I'm trying to say is not boxy or woolly but clear crisp and real. They are GREAT.
I do have one complaint, the pegs on the grill do not fit snug into the cabinet. I did the old tooth pick trick on two pegs. No big deal. My wife doesnt like their height, 40" but loves the sound that comes from them. They are tall and slender but does any audio equipment go with the decor?(my wife said 'oh well') The cabinets are put together nicely and have nice finish.
Over all I love these speakers. Sound is different to all people, some will love these and others may not. I have also come to realize after reseaching / shopping for several months that there are not any steals, just good sales. Do the ground work and you get what you pay for. Once again, I am very happy with may purchase.

Similar Products Used:

Polk, Paradigm, Tweeter-TowerII's. Any floor speaker around $800.00

perfect sounding speaker with very good base from 6.5 woofers

actually None..they are on the heavy side so you dont want to be moving them around alot

acoustically simular to both the bic and MFM-5 listed above.
with added base. these do come close to subwoofer energy.
Mentioned below the comment on the soft plugs theat can be inserted in the rear. I have found that the center plug is best inserted for an all round equal sound. the upper speaker (midrange is accoustically isolated and should have the plug removed for better midrange sound. however the center plug should not be inserted (behind the tweeter, The release of all the sonic base energy directly to the rear of the tweeter causes the base energy volume to the rear to effect negatively the sound of the tweeter. Sometimes the energy is so great at loud volumes the tweeter (at a distance) appears to cut out. After investigating I discovered the tweeter is not cutting out but the base energy being released from the rear of the tweeter acts sort of like a muffler on the tweeter. Over all I would suggest to anyone with these speakers (if played louder than human speech)to insert the center plug and listen to it for a couple hours and see if the sound appears more balanced. Addressing the comment of these speakers at times being overly bright.. remember the old addidge " Crap in, Crap out" Dont blame the speaker blame the sound engineer who mixed the song. I rate these a 5 of 5 (these are even better than the MFM-5, which is a great speaker,(I rate it 5 also) however the base level of the S-50 is superior.

Similar Products Used:

Warfedale Diamond 7.3 Warfedale MFM-5 Bic 736 (modded)

JUST GOT THEM. ALTHOUGH NOT BROKEN IN THEY STILL SOUND QUITE GOOD AND I BELIEVE WILL GET BETTER.

NONE

AT P C RICHARD HAD THE PRICE DOWN TO $300 A PAIR FOR EITHER
BOSE 501'S OR THE AR S40'S. THE REVIEWS ON THE BOSE SEEM TO
BE ACCURATE. BESIDE CHEAP PARTS, LIKE CARDBOARD BASS PORTS,
THE SOUND ACTUALLY HURT MY EARS. ON THE OTHER HAND I WOULD
HAVE BOUGHT THE AR'S FOR THEIR LOOKS ALONE. NEVER MIND THE
GOOD SOUND. I HAVE BEEN AT THIS SINCE THE LATE 60'S. STARTED WITH A FISHER 700 AND KLH MODEL 6'S. NOW HAVE A
MARANTZ SR 63 AND MY AR S40'S. I NOW BELIEVE I CAN SIT BACK, RELAX AND LISTEN.

Similar Products Used:

BOSTON ACOUSTIC, KLH.

Best speaker Ive ever heard (s-50)

maybe a bit too tall

WoW! did you hear me... WOW!.. How can you describe sonic perfection. Ive been in the Navy 14 yrs and have been to several countries... and have heard many brands of speakers that no one else has ever heard of. All I can say again is WOW!.for under $500 I now have a set of speakers that sound better than some of the speakers that cost $2500 dollars in other countries. (US dollars) not that old european stuff.
I do not claim to be an audiophile or know anything about speaker specs but I know what sounds good to me and these are simply fantastic . Before you WASTE your hard earned money (or your mates) check these out before you check any of the others.. and after your done that check these out again. I know what you'll be coming home with. They are almost as tall as myself.. but I forgive them. If its true they are discontinued.. better search the web before they are all gone...

Similar Products Used:

these are the first set of tower speakers I have ever owned

see below

absolutely none

Hey Pat... what did you pay for an $800 + $100 or so shipping pair of speakers ($360?) why do you give these speakers such a bad rating even when you say how good they are? Want more bass use the plugs and plug up the 2 bass holes in back of the cabinet.. problem solved!

Similar Products Used:

NA

S-50s (they just kick ass)

they take your breath away.. like mary lou (my 6th grade sweetheart) LOL

The reson Im posting another review.. is to let people know who are interested or curious about the S-50 that it is discontinued (and are awesome speakers.. in everyway...) not enought bass.. maybe if playing your reciever set to 0-bass 0- treble... click the bass up a notch or 2 and drop the treble down just 1db.. (TADA!)

Well my point is if you happen across a set.. grab em up.
they listed for $800 a pair... and are worth it at $400 or less... you got a bargain.. and dont wait for another pair to come along later... once someone get a pair of these Bad Boys they arent gonna cough em up.. unless they need money for Mom's operation....

Similar Products Used:

see below

N/A

N/A

Great sound from a respected maker of quality speakers. I use these to replace some old Kenwoods for my HT outfit. Biggest difference - crystal clear mid's and highs. Cabinet is attractive and classy looking. Overall, a very good speaker and a great buy at the price. BUT...the hidden cost from U-bid really pulls down the overall value. Here's why:
Over the past couple years I've gotten a lot of pretty good deals from U-bid. But for the past several months they've been spiking their shipping fees to more than $2.25/lb. That's twice what their prebid advertising says, and bidders don't get that information until AFTER their bids are in. For big speaker sets like AR S40's and JBL S312's this can make what seems at first like a good deal, not good at all. I've challeged U-bid on their shabby tactics, to no avail. My recommendation...boycott U-bid.

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch, Bose, Infinity, JBL

This is for S-50 Great look and even better sound. Great looking typical tower speakers. Super low bass response!

Bass isnt super loud. Doesnt come in other finishes other than black.

I am so glad I got these. I was the guy that bought the last pair from Accessories for less. These are discontiued, but the S 40s will live on.
These speakers and sounding better everyday. The break-in period is so true. The bass response has improved every week.
I cant believe that three 6 1/2" speakers can ACTUALLY reproduce a 20hz signal!! No kidding! The THX optimizer completely blew my socks away with that bass. Im guessing in a few more weeks, I may not need my subwoofer as loud as it is.

I have never owned any speaker this nice before, and the looks are stunning. I plan on buying the s40s for my rear channels in the future because these speakers are great!

They are being driven buy a Outlaw 1050 reciever and they can take everything that unit belts out. Im talking louder than I can stand it! At regular volume levels, they sound wonderful. I get no fatigue at all. My wife even loves them, her odd collection of music has never sounded better.

Bottom line, I love my S50s and if your considerig buying the S40s, dont hesitate!

My stuff,
Toshiba 32" monitor
Toshiba 5 disc DVD changer
Pioneer 6 disc cart type changer
Outlaw 1050 Rcvr
AR S50 fronts
Harmon Kardon center
Bose outdoor surrounds
Awia sub
All wired with home Depot 12 gauge wire and AR interconnects

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Non at home like this, but have listened to lots at stores

Exceptionally clean low bass and good mid range, nice smooth highs. Very good for surround sound theater as a large main front L&R product. Small area space a big plus, seated listening level, nicely accomplished.

The ops manual was brief. Would like to have heard an included music CD set up to demo its best potential and alighment potential!!

I looked here at your reviews before I committed first. I did get the S50 models (Thank you everyone). Then I committed to price second, "ubid.com", came in very well at $129 ea. minus their over priced FedEx shipping charges. I have inquired with their email CS several times and only get "boxed" responces. This is terrible on "ubid.com" part, to date they have not addressed my specific inquirieys.
As for the product, delivered in fairly quick order (no tracking number, just surprised). Unboxed and hooked up very easy. Still experimenting with the 3 foam plugs to get a good room responce curve. The top mid driver seems to pick
up better midrange with the foam plug in, leave the lower two foam plugs out for great low bottom end, unless you have a very low responce powered subwoofer! Bi amp design is a nice plus, will play with that and the sub amp potential to them. A factory set up CD would have been super here to evaluate with.
Overall this is a very good home theater product and value, the best I can find any where. AR has a good name and I endorse the AR S50 product highly in my review.

Similar Products Used:

B&W, WARFDALES, MISSION, TOBY

Excellent highs, Nice tight (almost subwoofer - like) bass, awesome Mids. Clean, crystal clear sound at all volume levels.

Ummm.... what weaknesses?

Ok, first of all, I would like to say that I got these speakers thanks to these reviews and the dependability of Acoustic Research. When these puppies came in, they blew my mind. Even after reading these reviews, I did not expect the sound to be so clear. This is the best investment that I have ever made. They sounded incredible right out of the box. The first thing that really impressed me were the highs and the mids. Later on, when I popped in a techno groove that took the Hz down to around 23, that's when the bass REALLY took off. It was wall shaking. Since I got these speakers, my neighbors upstairs came down at least 8-10 times. I still have not bought a separate subwoofer because I have no need for it. I must tell you though, my living room is moderate sized. If you live in a mansion, get yourself a sub. But if you are skeptical about 2 little 6.5" woofers producing deep bass, let me tell you, the size of the woofer is not the only thing that matters, it is also the resonance chamber for the sound. These speakers are made with a lot of thought behind them so don't worry.

BOTTOM LINE : KICK A$$ SPEAKERS!

My Setup:

Onkyo 575X receiver.
front -(2) AR S-50s
center - PSB Image 9c
surround -(2) Klipsch Quintets

Similar Products Used:

AR 428PS, Bose, KLH, JBL