Side Speakers

Acoustic Research AR-4x Speakers

What are they? When were they made? What are they worth?

The AR-4x speakers were made by Acoustic Research sometime in the 1960s or perhaps 70s. This article will research this.

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Today (28 Nov 2009) my partner Bill Newell picked up a pair of AR-4x bookshelf speakers. They have a nice veneer on the outside, two thumb-screw connections on the back for the wires, and a blond weave grill. On the back are the two original glued-down papers which describe them.

Source: Oaktreevintage.com

I cleaned them up and started doing research and found this article in Kiplinger's Personal Finance dated July 1965 which mentions the "Acoustic Research AR-4", and stating that at that time, a pair of them cost $114. I'm not yet certain that the "AR-4" is the same as the "AR-4x". Oddly however, I found this article from Billboard dated 14 May 1966 discussing the San Francisco High Fidelity Music Show which had been held in April, and then stating that Acoustic Research was then "debuting" the AR4 to retail at under $60. Possibly they here mean under $60 each, not for the pair. At any rate, I don't know why they are claiming they they were debuting them several months after Kiplinger's already stated that they exist. This snippet view of an article from the Saturday Review dated 1966, appears to explain it, evidently the AR-4xs were "this years" model of the AR-4s "introduced a year ago".

[Edit]
That woofer you see there has a treated cloth surround, not foam. Treated cloth either does not, or at least takes a very long time to deteriorate. These surrounds are forty years old, and still look and sound fine. Foam surrounds have to be re-done every ten to fifteen years at least, your mileage might vary, but it's likely to vary on the worse side.

At this link at epinions there is a review for the AR-4x, originally written Jan 2007, by Horswispr. He there specifies that it has an 8" woofer and small cone tweeter. He there guesses that their dimensions are something like "maybe 19" tall, 10 1/2" wide and 9 1/2" deep". I measured the pair I have and the dimensions are 19" tall, 10" wide and 9" deep.

The blond-weave grills come off, but originally AR glued these directly to the front baffle with a strong glue. So apparently someone in the past, had pried these screens off very carefully. The grills do not appear to be remade, they appear to me to be the original cloth and frame.

[Edit]
The veneer is a walnut, and evidently these, along with others of this time period, mark a change in the way speakers were designed and marketed. The nice veneer appealed, according to Billboard, to women, who now saw that speakers could be a piece of beautiful furniture, instead of just an industrial-looking toy for their husbands to listen to, in the den. The badges (logos) screw into the front of the cabinet, through the grill cloth. They are almost always the first things to go, and of course the pair I picked up didn't have them. A replica badge, but glue-on, is available on ebay.

Here is one guy's story about refinishing his AR-4x's here, but notice that these have new grill cloth, several shades "whiter" then the original blondish cloth. One parts website at oaktreevintage.com at this link appears to have several items for sale and sold related to this speaker and it's siblings. It's unusual that I find this, but there is apparently a guy who has carved out his niche as a premier dealer in vintage AR equipment. Link to his profile page on ebay. And a link to his items for sale on Ebay.

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Only the right side of my car speakers work when I insert the Aux line from my iPod on my 2008 Honda Civic. ? ?
When I insert the aux line into the back in my car which is connected to my iPod the only sound which comes out is heard from the right side of my front and back speakers. I thought it was the line so I purchased a new Griffin one and it worked great for about four days but then back to the same problem so I would have to jiggle it to the left until it worked fine once again. Now, the only way it will work well is if I push it to the left and hold it there, but once I let go the sound from the right side speakers once again turns off and the only sound that remains is from he left hand side. I'm guessing I will have to replace the jack line. I really don't know. Can anyone please lend me a hand with what I should do or any suggestions. I hope this is something I can do on my own. Thanks a mill.

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Is this computer good?
These are the specs. Its used and is selling for $510 AMD Athlon II 630 Quad-CoreProcessor; -4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 DIMM) (expandable to 16GB); -750GB Hard Drive; Genuine Windows 7 Premium 64-bit -High Definition Audio with up to 7.1 surround sound capabilities; -SuperMulti DVD Burner -HP USB keyboard and optical mouse; -15-in-1 memory card reader: SmartMedia, xD, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital (SD) Mini Secure Digital, Compact Flash I; II, IBM Microdrive, Memory Stick; Pro, Memory Stick Duo; Pro Duo, RSMMC, MMC Mobile, MMC+ Front Ports: Headphone, Microphone and 2 USB 2.0; Back Ports: 4 USB 2.0, 2 USB 1.1, VGA-out ; DVI-D, Microphone/Line-in/Line-out 10/100/1000Base-T network interface; Built-in wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n; 2 external 5.25" bay; 1 external 3.5" bay; 2 internal 3.5" bay Rear speaker-out, Side speaker out, Center (subwoofer), LAN, 1 FireWire (IEEE 1394) port; Optical Digital Audio Out (Back) I have since also upgraded the video card, so it also has an hdmi port, vga and dvi. Video card is: -ATI Radeon HD5670. DirectX 11 compatable I have 5.1 surround sound speakers I purchased for this computer, 5.1 surround sound logitech speakers, has subwoofer. and the speakers that come with it are loud What do you think. I know quite alot about computer but I need some second opinions. Is it good for gaming?

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I have a newer Onkyo 7.1 surround system with JBL surround speakers and a set up mike.....?
The speakers are all used JBL S38 II's ( 3 way with 8 inch woofers ) and no sub woofer in the system!. The listening room is about 30 foot x 15. Here's the problem: When I run the set up mike in the 3 different positions ( the minimum required is 3 and I position the mike at the center and left and right side of my listening chair, at ear level ) I am getting way to much bass! And I mean "way to much bass"! To the point of having to turn the bass down the maximum minus 10 db allowed (internal base control) after I run the set up mike? And the extra -10db bass reduction, is still not enough! I had a 10 inch sub, but it kept going out, so after buying the used JBL's, I removed it from the system, sinch the S38's have plenty of bass with 8 inch woofers. Oh, the two surround side speakers are actually JBL J900MV floor speakers and the center speaker is an S-3 way. All speakers (except the J-900MV's) are off the floor on stands Any ideas as to why this extra bass problem exists and how to correct it?.....The four surround speakers are rather close, being about 10 feet from surround side to surround back, but seperation is 15 feet in width on each set. Thanks.

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