acoustic research ar17 black bookshelf speaker

[craigk]

picked up a pair at a pawn shop for next to nothing. hooked them up and have been listening to them for a few days now. i have to say i am surprised in a good way. changed a few things, plugged the port and flipped them up side down. tweeter on bottom now. also hooked up the sub and crossed at 80hz. these little speakers really came to life. the tweeter is a little bright so i will take a look at the xover and see if i can do anything about that. anyone with any experience with this speaker.

thanks for any help.

[ligs]

Re: acoustic research ar17 black bookshelf speaker

I assume you have the hi-res series AR 17s not the old sealed AR17's. I had AR hi-res series AR15's, similar to 17's but a little larger, very smooth sound as I remember.
Stereophile had a review of the top of the line AR1 from the hi-res series, which probably used similar technology. "The AR-1's clear, transparent mids and highs made listening to them emotionally involving."
http://www.stereophile.com/content/a...speaker-page-3

[craigk]

Re: acoustic research ar17 black bookshelf speaker

yes it is the hi-res AR17's. thanks for the website.

[benchtester]

Re: acoustic research ar17 black bookshelf speaker

The Hi-Res series is great and has a cult following. I have the small 3-way tower AR-11's. They measure flat and are a good baseline reference for DIY.

Unfortunately they were only marketed for a few years around 2000. They were probably priced fairly at retail; then they went on sale and became a great buy. (My towers were on sale at $199 for the pair.) Googling, I see yours were $380/pair in 2002.

I later bought the Acoustic Research ARXP52 (which you can see in Zaph's tidbits section). I think the company changed management and certainly design teams. They are pretty disappointing after the Hi-Res series.

[ligs]

Re: acoustic research ar17 black bookshelf speaker

Parts-express used to sell the 5" and 6.5" buyout AR woofers you may find some info here:
http://techtalk.parts-express.com/sh...372-AR-Buyouts!

BTW, when AR began to recycle model numbers from the past(such as AR 1, 3, 11, etc) it obviously ran out ideas if not technologies.

http://www.digital.com.uy/ar/hi_res.htm

[critofur]

Re: acoustic research ar17 black bookshelf speaker

I have a pair of the AR17s. I just dug them out - might use them as PC speakers.



Interestingly, the ScanSpeak Discovery 15W is just about the same size, the screw holes are just a bit off though.