The History of Acoustic Research, Edgar Villchur and Acoustic Suspension Loudspeakers
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- čas přidán 3. 07. 2024
- It was 1954 when Edgar Villchur invented and patented his revolutionary acoustic loudspeaker suspension. It would change the way the world made speakers.
But how did Edgar arrive here?
Thank you for watching my most ambitious video production yet! I think it speaks volumes that a Hi-Fi enthusiast like myself from way down in South Australia can understand and appreciate Edgar's inventions and the legacy AR left behind.
I really just wanted to give something back, and although there are a few really great reads online I figured I could create a concise abbreviated video that covered most of the important aspects of the the company. Of course there are lots of things I wanted to mention but couldn't quite fit in the video. Certain things would probably have bogged it down a little or deserve they're own videos - like Edgar's Live vs Recorded Music demonstrations or the many other people involved with AR.
So with that in mind, as with all my videos lets make this an ongoing forum in the comments section. Let me know what you think and your experiences with AR's products. If you ever worked for them, definitely chime in!
Don't forget to like and subscribe for more upcoming content!
These were my references below when writing my script.
villchurblog.com/
edgarvillchur.com/
www.stereophile.com/interview...
• Edgar Villchur "Loudsp...
0:00 Introduction
0:40 Edgar Villchur Enters WW2
0:55 After The War
1:14 The Acoustic Suspension Invention
2:37 The Patent
3:12 Forming AR With Henry Kloss
5:22 Edgar and Henry Part Ways
6:05 The AR-3 Speakers
6:39 A New Turntable
7:22 Teledyne Buys AR
8:15 Further Buyouts - Hudba
I worked for Dr. Roy Allison back in the '80's. Allison Acoustics was located in Natick, Massachusetts. Great place to work. Our speakers are still being enjoyed.
Great story.
By me, right now. Just watched this video through a pair of Allison CD6s. Great work, thank you.
Edgar Villchur was quite literally a genius - contemporary hi-fi has an enormous debt to his pioneering vision and work.
Wholeheartedly agree ❤
I love my early 70s AR2ax speakers. $40 at a garage sale, recapped, refoamed and sounding excellent.
AR had a semi-permanent demonstration room on the mezzanine of Grand Central Station in New York in the mid 1970s. There were no sales allowed there, just music demonstration of the whole AR equipment line. It was open all day until the evening. (There was another one in Boston-Cambridge.)
That's awesome, I wish there were more things like this around today!
Now why couldn't my history lesson be this interesting at school. I never knew this but enjoyed it.
haha I know right, they could tie into the years of WW2 history!
Villchur was a pioneer and a genius. Also his practice of nondiscrimination was part of what made the company so great. His daughter wrote that he would often say "How could it be, he wondered, that he was the only one to figure out that hiring without racial prejudice resulted in hiring the best workers-what he called 'the cream of the crop?'" I have my AR2ax speakers and my ARXA turntable in regular use. The sounds is amazing even after all these decades. Thank you Mr. Villchur!
Thank you for this history of AR. Back in the late 1960's, I worked jobs before starting high school to save up for my first pair of speakers, the AR-2a, and a Kenwood TK-55 receiver. I later owned XA and XB turntables, too.
Your welcome 🙏
That's awesome, it must have been a been a good feeling to buy the AR-2A's after working hard
Acoustic Research are the most natural sounding speakers I've ever heard.
I haven't heard the models from the 60s, I had an AR17, AR 25, AR 30s, AR12 and now I have an AR9, no money to sell them for
Le mie AR M1 sono fantastiche.
Il rapporto qualità/prezzo è insuperato e insuperabile. Saluti da Roma.
I have found allot of Vintage AR Audio Speakers for Cheap on EBay and bought heavily for Restoring them back to Their Original Sound and Luster in newer denser heavier cabinets and More Modern crossovers than what was offered back in the day.
Had a nice pair of AR 48s back in the day. Discovered so much great music with them.
Since the work of folk like Villchur loudspeaker advances had all but ended by 1960.
Since then it's mainly been a process of refinement.
I still have my AR28s's I picked up in the late 70's. After refoaming the woofers and replacing the tweeters (Simply Speaker or someone makes them, not Teledyne) I stripped the vinyl 'wood grain' and refinished the cabinets in a gloss 'piano' black.
Thank you for giving them a second life, that's what it's all about for me!
Hells yeah i was hoping for an AR short doco like this
I just had to do it! There are quite a few great companies that I could see myself making these videos about
I have the AR2AX and AR2A speakers and they are absolutely the best speakers I've ever owned! Great video 👍
Thankyou! What's your setup with the AR2's? Are they on a bookshelf or stands or floor?
@@vintageboulton I got them on stands powered by a minty Marantz 1180dc integrated amplifier. I have a fx dac6 mk2 for Bluetooth and my television. And a pioneer pd-10ae cd player. But I'm a huge collector and that's just my current 2 channel setup.
@@vintageboulton btw you just got a new subscriber 🤘👍
@@timbabyfacesavage377 your the best! 🙏
@@vintageboulton you know just an opinion but I would love to see something like this on Sansui . Just a thought lol.
In the mid 90's AR, as it was at that time, was at a crossroads. Where to go? And as you mentioned in your video the company that owned the AR brand was not very interested in Audio. But what there was of the AR engineering staff came up with a smaller self powered acoustic suspension computer speaker. They built a couple prototypes that even by today's standard are absolutely first class. There were NOT going to be cheap.
I still own one of those prototypes and still use it today on a computer.
In the end AR decided, in the mid 90's, not to get aggressively into the Computer Speaker market.
Another Boston based speaker company, Boston Acoustics, made the same decision around the same time. No computer speaker market for Boston Acoustics.
And the rest is history
I've always been a fan of the AR speakers from the late 90's when they were owned by Recoton. They had guys like Cary Christie who was famous before for his work at Infinity. The built power houses like the AR1 Hi-Res and AR9's. Amazing speakers that won awards and don't get enough recognition. my home theatre and Hi-Fi systems are AR from that time. i seem to collect them ever since i worked for Radioshack back in the late 90's and these were the best speakers we sold. I've had some since back then, so now 25 years old and still working perfect.
Great history,thank you 😊
I have 4 AR 16 speakers and a AR turntable that I bought new in 1977.
Great video! Well done!
I also had the Advent Large speakers 4 of em the "double advent" system driven by Dynaco ST-400
Thank you for this informative vid... looking forward to more... excellent history and research... 🎉
Sealed Speakers, are some of the BEST Ive ever heard, and own. My favorite, is the EPI 100v speakers (with the updated plastic-bezel tweeter). After hearing them... I put my 90s era Techniques 3 ways, out on the Curb. There was simply no comparison, whatsoever. The speakers vanish.. and the sound is "Holographic"... 3D... as if you could point to a spot in the room, where each virtual instrument.. would be playing. The bass is Deep / low, punchy, and shockingly much more powerful than you would expect, for such a small speaker box. Then you open them up, and realize why. Those woofers have very Large and strong magnets, and very strong coils. They weigh more than 3x the mass of my former techs 12" woofers... and these were only 8" drivers.
By chance, I had found a pair of AR-3a speakers, at a thrift shop. But, my father stole them.. before I could ever get a chance to restore them. :(
Your dad knew what those were.
Haha dammit Dad!
excellent video
Every time I look over documentaries I get really sad.
I grew up in probably the best time of our country.
If I had the backing of my parents, I could have been part of all this innovation and development.
I had negative and toxic parents.
I'm 66 and making one more go of it, life. While all my friends from Highschool, their lives are winding down, I'm cranking it up.
I had a pair of the AR 9LS speakers for years.
You can see the AR Amplifier in the lower left hand corner of the photo at 7:19. Great little amp (along with the tuner and receiver which combined the two).
It seems hardly anyone produces acoustic suspension speakers anymore. I think the rebooted KLH company's new speakers are that design.
I still have my pair of AR-3a speakers I bought in 1970. I still think they are better than most of today's speakers. I also have had AR-4x, AR-6 and AR-7 which were less expensive, but performed well.
I was thinking about this myself, but at least the mechanical springs are mostly gone in drivers
That's what gets me is how hifi equipment hasn't really changed or gotten better but we are a wasteful society and will throw something out for the newest thing in a heartbeat
The KLH model 3’s are awesome! I just bought a pair. Detailed not fatiguing and excellent bass
I still have a pair of AR3a Improved stacked in my basement...
I still use a pair of AR98ls's in my 5.1.4 setup. Only work done on them is to replace the woofer surrounds and the capacitors in the crossovers.
As most children as Edgar did in the 50-ties I also experimented as a child with loudspeakers.But with no sucess in the commercial market.The ordinary speaker principle are still function very well.
I had the AR2-ax's and AR -XB TT...
I almost purchased the AR-3's back in early 70's. I ended up getting a pair of KLH-5's instead...from E. J. Korvettes.
I had a pair of AR 7's in the '70's which I loved however not being kept in air conditioning, the surround rotted away to nothing (but it never affected the sound). After my father passed away I got his pair of AR4xa's and I ditched my giant JBL's. The 4xa's were kept in climate control and are still great!!
Great video! The audio industry was lead by science back in his day, which he proved could be incredibly successful too, considering the +32% marketshare AR achieved--a record which I believe still stands as being the highest any speaker company ever reached--but sadly over the years the industry is now lead by marketing and tons of copy cat "me too" designs. His "dome tweeter" invention for example, first seen in the AR-3, was groundbreaking and set the standard which is still used by most high end designs to this day. The AR-3 was used by recording studios including Motown Records, also Miles Davis, and conductor Herbert von Karajan.
Thank you 🙏 that means a lot coming from you 😊
I love that advertisement with Miles Davis, I should have put that in the video!
AR forever!! I own a pair of AR38s, still sounding very good. Now I’m searching for a pair of speakers from the 70’s. Such as AR6, AR3 ..
Thank you very very very much Edgar Villchur.
You and the workers at the AR, changed the listening of music, you made history.
Thank you America 🇺🇸.
listen to the AR9, U will be surprised, a lot
@@damirhlobik6488 i know I know those speakers 🔊.. but too big for me!! 😆 unfortunately i do not have much room
Just realized I have a set of ar-2ax's the other day, too bad I have nothing to hook them up to 😢
Wouldn’t it be something if someone picked up where AR left off. Although, the present KLH looks as though they are taking a run at it.
I'd love to produce another wallet friendly suspended turntable
Great story but sort of glosses over the impact that Henry Kloss had. Seems like the original idea was indeed Edgar's but Henry did all the work which I believe was why they parted company. Also, Henry felt that a two-way system was easier to "voice" and why the KLH 6 and KLH 17 were such successes which were of course designed after he and Edgar had a parting of the ways and Henry took Lowe and Hoffman to form KLH. Henry unfortunately lost his way after Advent. He didn't see flat screen TV's coming and they blindsided his dreams of video projection as being the future of TV. If only he had stuck to audio.
Nope
Longer and detailed history answer to come later tonight
Wow slow down. Are you saying I have this bloke to thank for my Samsung wireless soundbar or? Asking for a friend. Great info 😜
Haha and It be a fine soundbar!
Why was the patent granted for the speaker design if soon afterwards Electrovoice would successfully sue causing Edgar to lose his patent?
The finer details are in some other articles online that I've linked in the description and Vilchur explains in an interview that if he'd done more homework when applying for his patent he would have been protected from this.
My friend has 2 AR3 speakers.
The first ones.
They are still in fairly good shape.
They sit outside ,under a roof hangover.
Cabinet,s not so good .
He'll sell .
Henry "Close" not "kloss." Also, in narration, a second reference uses the last name, not the first. e.g. (for example) "Vlichur says." or "Vilchur decided."
Thanks for the clarification 😊
AR: Decedent's of pirates... 🤗
Yes, he was brilliant. However, Villchur's patent 2,775,309 was granted on Dec 25, 1956, not 1954.
You are correct! I should have realised that! Filed in 54 but granted in 56, thanks for the correction
HiFi is not a dream, it's a nightmare like any other dopamine addiction.
"Advanced audiophile" junkies spend enough to make great bass to get an adrenaline fix too.
Dopamine and adrenaline at the push of a button = devil's work.
Please! Get rid of that music background, so we can hear what you tell......😥