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AR9's are coming home

lakegville

lakegville

Active Member
hi everyone.....once again i saw much praise here for this particular speakers and decided to bring a pair into the fold so to speak. They are one owners in really good condition and are at the speaker shop now having some re-foaming done to the mids. It may be a little while till i can get them set up because i am really out of room around here at the moment. I have La Scala, Cornwall, and JBL L-200's sitting in one room (along with other gear). It would be nice to bring them in and do an A/B test but i just don't think that will be possible. Anyone have any thoughts as to how the AR9's will stack up against these three? What about amplification.....i have heard that these need a lot more watts than the other three. I have some pretty heavy SS hitters.......just wondering how many watts are really needed. Thanks in advance.
 
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I am sure you will love them. Different than those other 3 you listed. (let us know on that) Typical to most AR's they love their power, and these are the biggest of all the AR's. Try various amps and let us know. At least 200 with high current ability.
Mine are vertical biamped with 2 Adcom GFA5500 amps and seem to do well with that. Yes, some may say they are fine with less, but I would say they are missing out on these babies potential.
You could try them in those tight quarters as they are actually a little forgiving in that regard. Still not ideal, no.
 
The 9's will pretty much be the polar opposite of the other speakers you list in a lot of ways. Much smoother sounding and less in your face than the horn loaded speakers on your list. Then again Klipsch give me a headache after about 10min of listening (even with upgrades and tubes) where I could listen to the 9's for days and never get tired, even at high volume. They are my favorite speaker for loud hard rock for these reasons (AC/DC, Sabbath etc), not the most resolving but they do have the fidelity to impress with "audiophile" recordings.

They are easy to place in the room (even smaller rooms) as they were meant to be pushed against the back wall. They don't sound great at lower volumes, but sound incredible when you turn em up!

I found the more power the better with these speakers. I started with my MC2105 which sounded ok, then I biamped them with a Crown XLS 2000 for the woofers and the 2105 for the mids and tweets and it was miles better.

A lot of speakers have come and gone in my collection but I think I'll always hang onto my 9's!
 
I've had 9s since new, and have run them on everything from Dynaco st70s, to Bryston 4Bs. The worst pairing was Crown IC150a controlling a pair of DC300a... bright as all get out, and actually a bit light at the bottom - believe it or not. The best was probably a Krell KST100 ( for base) & Quicksilvers ( for mid/tweeter) and a Quicksilver full function preamp.

In a reasonably sized room, they need AT LEAST a really good 60-80 wpc from tubes, and 100+ from (again GOOD) solid state... the Krell KST100s, as mentioned drove them well, and it's "only" a 100wpc.

As far as placement, they need to be pushed up against the wall, and have a pretty good amount of room to their sides, or the base will not sound right, and can become very boomy & "one note" like. Because of this, they often work best along the longer wall.

All & all, IMO they were, and still are one of the finest speakers I know of. Mine were only displace by KEF R107/2s because I slightly preferred their tweeter, and base was easier to get right in more rooms. But set up well, AR9s are really world class. I'm sure you'll be impressed too!
 
I have AR90s. And since I'm pretty certain the 9s out-class my 90s, you're in for a treat! As such, I wish I could find a 12" AR 3 way. Something like a pair of 91s or 58s.

As to amps, I've always felt quality over quantity. High current delivery over watts. I only use a 70 watt amp with my 90s, but it doubles into 4 ohms. Plenty for me.

Good luck & enjoy!
 
I have ar9's and L300's . I like them both a lot and decided to keep both pair in my main room. 100w is not enough . I tried the ar's on my ma5100 first and they easily clipped at not much volume. When they clipped the lower mid made a crackle noise and I thought maybe it was just the speaker. Next I ran them off a mc2200 and it was much better, but the power guard lights came on a little early for my volume taste. Now I am using a 1200w a side Yorkville ap4040 and could not be happier, great speakers. To me they are forward and in your face, not laid back and warm at all .
 
AR90 owner here, congrats on the 9's - awesome ! They are identical to the 90s as far as I known, they just go lower due to the larger woofers and they are taller. Do you know if they still have the original foam inserts around all the drivers - they are virtually impossible to find. If you need any advice with the refoam let me know, I had to do all six drivers in mine so I learned a trick or two,

As far as driving them goes, I used by SX-880 for a little while which sounded nice but the lights used to dim on it if anything over 1/4 volume was used. I now run a 400 wpc/4 ohm power amp and :yikes: the difference is amazing.
 
Markoneswift said:
Do you know if they still have the original foam inserts around all the drivers - they are virtually impossible to find. If you need any advice with the refoam let me know, I had to do all six drivers in mine so I learned a trick or two,
Click to expand...

Yes all original. All i know is that a friend brought them to a pro speaker shop and was told the mids needed to be refoamed. Everything else checked out. I spoke with shop yesterday and they had foam materials on order so i guess i am ok.
 
New AR90 owner reporting in. I purchased mine from an original owner about a month ago.
StimpyWan set me up with a BOM to recap the crossovers. I haven't gotten to it yet but I am curious about what kind of improvement I will actually hear.
 
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