Good on you. The original AR3's were actually a better speaker than the AR3a. But I don't think you would want to see the Klippel results for either. We've learned a bit about driver placement and crossover optimization since then.
They weren't all that big, so the weight was manageable. The 5" ScanSpeak Revelator produced about the nicest mid-bass I've heard. The crossover? Not so great.
Let's see. I didn't mess around with the KLH6, EPI's, Proacs, or ADS because I didn't know anything about crossover design at the time, and I sold the 590's before I could ruin them. I tore into all of the rest.I'm curious which speakers retained their original crossovers.
I am imagining all of these speakers hooked up in series ....Large Advent (Did the inverted pair thing as a kid. My brother in law now has them))
Magnum Opus "Opus 200" Lost in a house fire.
I think I still have all the others...
1984, picked up three different pairs of different Angstrom speakers. Not impressive, but Stereophile letter graded!
Acoustic Research AR 90 (also did the inverted pair thing.)
AR 9 (Big inverted pair thing...like those old Duntechs looked!)
Acoustat 2+2, used three pair, with the middle panel on each side run full range, and the outside panels as woofers only.)
Klipsch La Scalla
Klipsch Heresy
Infinity Intermezzo 2.6
This small Monsoon table top speakers (I did not measure them, but they sounded great.)
Apogee Studio Grand
Apogee Mini Grand
Ferguson Hill FH001 (Tried them with Lowther DX#, DX4, Voxativ AC-4X, Tang Band, and Fostex drivers.)
Ferguson Hill FH007
A/D/S L2030
Yamaha NS 1000M
Wyred 4 Sound W4S Tempus
For outside, some cute little AR Santa Claras with the battery.
For outdoor parties Makie 215
Old party workhorses, Cerwin Vega XLS215
For the bedroom, Soundstage 360 from Kickstarter: they are a regret, they can't play very loud, but otherwise OK for late night quiet sound. (I do not endorse them.)
Someone gave me some B&O tall and small powered speakers: yet to play with them....eventually, bedroom.
Pi 4
Some home made kinda Cornscala things.
Pair of Altec based vintage speakers...a couple of 414 woofers on each side and I forgot the tweeter number just now. Will look at home.
Chario Academy 2
January, 2024...awaiting some Stonehenge-ish cabinet with Altec 604 8H-III drivers.
What were/are your feelings about the pi 4? They are a speaker I might try to have built one way should my current ones die on me.Large Advent (Did the inverted pair thing as a kid. My brother in law now has them))
Magnum Opus "Opus 200" Lost in a house fire.
I think I still have all the others...
1984, picked up three different pairs of different Angstrom speakers. Not impressive, but Stereophile letter graded!
Acoustic Research AR 90 (also did the inverted pair thing.)
AR 9 (Big inverted pair thing...like those old Duntechs looked!)
Acoustat 2+2, used three pair, with the middle panel on each side run full range, and the outside panels as woofers only.)
Klipsch La Scalla
Klipsch Heresy
Infinity Intermezzo 2.6
This small Monsoon table top speakers (I did not measure them, but they sounded great.)
Apogee Studio Grand
Apogee Mini Grand
Ferguson Hill FH001 (Tried them with Lowther DX#, DX4, Voxativ AC-4X, Tang Band, and Fostex drivers.)
Ferguson Hill FH007
A/D/S L2030
Yamaha NS 1000M
Wyred 4 Sound W4S Tempus
For outside, some cute little AR Santa Claras with the battery.
For outdoor parties Makie 215
Old party workhorses, Cerwin Vega XLS215
For the bedroom, Soundstage 360 from Kickstarter: they are a regret, they can't play very loud, but otherwise OK for late night quiet sound. (I do not endorse them.)
Someone gave me some B&O tall and small powered speakers: yet to play with them....eventually, bedroom.
Pi 4
Some home made kinda Cornscala things.
Pair of Altec based vintage speakers...a couple of 414 woofers on each side and I forgot the tweeter number just now. Will look at home.
Chario Academy 2
January, 2024...awaiting some Stonehenge-ish cabinet with Altec 604 8H-III drivers.
I have not measured, only listening impressions: I like them, very easy to drive, and they image quite well and haven't been too picky about where they are in the room.
Thanks for the super quick and thorough reply, with pictures to boot. I’ll pm you as I’ve been very tempted to get this exact model of speaker.I have not measured, only listening impressions: I like them, very easy to drive, and they image quite well and haven't been too picky about where they are in the room.
I semi-corner placed them, but even with the 15 inch woofer, they are a bit lean in the bass, but no boom or obvious 'hump' in the bass, just not 'phat.'
The woofers seem to keep pace with the tweeters for one not drawing overmuch attention vs. the other.
I wonder if they would like to be set lower like Klipsch Heresy speakers or those old Rectilinear III speakers that had the low rise bases with a bit of upward tilt. That might enhance to bass, as well.
There are in my son's room, he thinks they are imaging champs. They are great for "listening in the dark."
They also don't make for listening fatigue: some speakers seem fine, but for whatever reason, their flaws make it so you don't want to sit and relax forever, if you know what I mean. I can sit and enjoy, even with the lean bass.
I think they are somewhere around 98 dB for efficiency and are easy to drive. I've everything from SMSL and Ayima cheapo amps up to (don't judge me) Tomcat and Bottle Head tube amps. They are so efficient, it make it easy on the tube amps. The Bottle Head is a 300B and perhaps these speakers simply like even order harmonic distortion!
I would call them easy companions, but, again, I have not measured anything, so I can't really say how they actually sound.
I also don't know if you would call this far field, more like middle field. The tweeters are about 7 1/2 feet apart and I listen at about 12 or more feet away.
If I can be useful in any way, feel invited to PM me.
Speakers are a personal thing... my list is roughly chronological. So no, I left them quite a while back.
Yeah, I get that. I bought a couple pairs of Duevel Omnis this past year, my first foray beyond many conventional “box” speakers over 40+ years, opening my mind to other “out of the box”, so to speak, speakers. I have an opportunity to get some Soundlabs from a good friend, but 2/3 the way across the country presents quite a challenge for something that big and no shipping containers. My experience has been 0 for 2 on receiving large speakers undamaged in shipping, so trying to get input from people like you who have owned them and compared to many others—you certainly are well traveled down the planar path given that list. Planar types have always intrigued me—I’ve almost bought some Eminent Technology LFT-8 at least a half dozen times over the last 15 years, but the prospects of our cats racing up and down them stopped me. The Soundlabs are even bigger, but that’s not a problem now. It’s probably going to cost as much to ship the Soundlabs as buy a new pair of ET, assuming there even is a “white glove” shipping service out there where he points to the dusty Soundlabs and the shipping service handles it all from his basement to my living room.
