AR-9 and AR-9LS challenge ahead

RS Steve

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I have had the good fortune of acquiring multiple examples of both these model AR speakers and they have been on my bucket list. The one thing I have come to understand is they will quickly make you want to avoid surround replacement for a while. I'm looking forward to getting them up and running correctly, the WOPL amp is just begging to lay some wattage to these. (3) pair of 9's and (5) pair of 9LS's.

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Wow! Sixteen AR-9/9LS speakers. I'm even more impressed. You could have the ultimate surround system.

Oh snap. One other thought. You could stack AR-9's! Even more epic. I just hope you have 9' ceilings?

Plus, Floridians must have really liked Acoustic Research? That, or all the people who retired there, brought their AR's with them.

Seriously, any ideas what to do with all those speakers? A sweet problem to have.
 
No AR90s? Darn...
No just the big boys listed. Looks like all the surrounds are good on all but one pair of AR9LS's, that's a relief. I am pretty sure there are boxes with refoamed drivers here which will make things much easier. One pair of the AR9's is missing the upper mid bass drivers, so I'm going to look through boxes for those today.
 
Lucky me, this previous owner had boxes upon boxes of replacement drivers for these and then some. This will make things much easier for me, I would of gotten burned out on so many refoam jobs. I just unloaded all the drivers I found in the storage unit and will get started today.

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One AR9LS finished except for the foam dampening in the bottom port. Had to order a carton of 12x12s that I can cut to fit. I found that a couple of the boxed drivers were packed badly and have messed up surrounds so I will search for more boxes.

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I'm short one 10" down firing woofer, one of the boxes I grabbed had one that needed re foaming :(. So back to storage to find another 200033-0 that's ready to install. I'm anxious to compare the 9's to the 9LS's.
 
I'm short one 10" down firing woofer, one of the boxes I grabbed had one that needed re foaming :(. So back to storage to find another 200033-0 that's ready to install. I'm anxious to compare the 9's to the 9LS's.
They really are amazing speakers and I’ve been following your find since the beginning. This whole score is nothing short of amazing and interesting. I do know one thing, unfortunately I let them go a while back and I certainly do miss them the AR 9LS series speakers are so heavy and a pain to move around I cannot imagine having more than a pair to deal with. Good luck and take it easy on your back when needed!
 
They really are amazing speakers and I’ve been following your find since the beginning. This whole score is nothing short of amazing and interesting. I do know one thing, unfortunately I let them go a while back and I certainly do miss them the AR 9LS series speakers are so heavy and a pain to move around I cannot imagine having more than a pair to deal with. Good luck and take it easy on your back when needed!
I feel your pain, I quickly found out that I needed to install slides on the bottoms so there is no need to lift them much. They move with relative ease now.
 
I spent the weekend going through the pairs of 9LS's, all but 2 pair were functioning properly. One pair had rotted surrounds and the other had the 11 inch woofers with the surrounds backwards. It took a lot of digging through boxes, but I was able to find all the drivers needed to finish. The aggravating part was that many of the reformed drivers had the surrounds glued to the wrong side of the cone. I put those aside and luckily found enough that were correct. My garage is certainly looking like the AR wall of sound.

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Wow! This is awesome! I can hardly wait to hear how these compare to each other, and your current reference Snell speaker.
 
OK, I need more of this story!!! Where did these speakers come from? And what's with all the spare parts? It's like an AR time capsule. Did you purchase a storage unit, and have the tremendous luck to acquire an audiophile unit? What gives...??? :idea::idea::idea::):):)

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Wow! This is awesome! I can hardly wait to hear how these compare to each other, and your current reference Snell speaker.
So far the LS's sound a bit better especially the bass, but I like that the 9's have controls to tune the speaker. LS's and 9's seem a bit harsh and bright, but I'm used to hearing the butter smooth Snell's.
 
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