Acoustic Research is a brand of Hi-Fi loudspeakers formerly produced by Acoustic Research Corporation of Massachusetts and now by Audiovox electronics company. AR is well-known for its original AR-1 speaker with a 15" woofer placed on the side of the speaker.

Company history

Acoustic Research, Inc. (“AR”) was founded in 1952David Dritsas, "Audio's Dedicated Servant.(Henry Kloss; Kloss Video Corp.)", Dealerscope: The Business of CE Retailing, Jan 2001, v43 i1 p28. and incorporated on August 10, 1954 by audio pioneer, writer, inventor, researcher and audio-electronics teacher Edgar Villchur and his student, Henry Kloss. AR was established to produce the $185 model AR-1, a commercial-loudspeaker design incorporating the acoustic-suspension principle based on patent No. 2,775,309, granted to Edgar Villchur and assigned to Acoustic Research in 1956. The acoustic-suspension woofer provided an elegant solution to the age-old problem of bass distortion in loudspeakers caused by non-linear, stiff mechanical suspensions in conventional loudspeakers. The acoustic-suspension woofer (sometimes known as “air suspension”) used the elastic cushion of air within a small, sealed enclosure of about 1.7 cu. ft. to provide the restoring force for the woofer diaphragm. The entrapped air of the sealed-loudspeaker enclosure -- unlike the mechanical springs of conventional speakers -- provided a linear spring for the woofer's diaphragm, enabling it to move back and forth great distances (“excursion”) in a linear fashion, a requirement in the reproduction of deep-bass tones. As such, the AR-1 set new standards of low-frequency performance and low distortion that were unsurpassed for many years; in fact, the best loudspeakers fifty-two-years later continue to use the acoustic-suspension principle for highest-quality, low-distortion bass reproduction. The small size of the high-performance AR-1 (dictated by the design requirement of acoustic suspension) was an unintentional dividend that helped usher-in the age of stereophonic sound reproduction. Two bookshelf-sized loudspeakers were far more acceptable in a living room than two refrigerator-sized boxes previously necessary to reproduce low-frequency bass notes. By March of 1957 AR had expanded and began shipping a smaller, less-expensive acoustic-suspension loudspeaker, the $87 Model AR-2, that propelled the company's sales from $383,000 in 1956 to nearly $1,000,000 by the end of 1957. Also that year, co-founder and Vice President Henry Kloss left AR (with Hofman and Low) to form a new loudspeaker company, KLH Research and Development Corporation.

Edgar Villchur's technical innovation was based in large part on scientific, objective-test techniques and research, all of which were publicly shared in the form of written documents and response-measurement graphs and diagrams -- unheard of in the industry at that time. Acoustic Research, under Villchur's leadership, was also innovative during this period in the way in which the company offered equal opportunity, liberal employment benefits, insurance and profit sharing to every employee.

In 1958 AR once again pioneered in loudspeaker technology with the introduction of the landmark model AR-3, which used the AR-1’s acoustic-suspension woofer in conjunction with the first commercially available hemispherical (“dome”) high-frequency tweeters available in a loudspeaker. For nearly ten years after its introduction the AR-3 was widely regarded as the most accurate loudspeaker available at any cost, and was used in countless professional installations, recording studios and concert halls. Many well-known professional musicians used AR-3 loudspeakers due to their life-like, accurate sound reproduction. In the early 1960s AR conducted a series of over seventy-five live-vs.-recorded concerts across the country in which the sound of a live string quartet (The Fine Arts Quartet) was alternated with the echo-free recorded music played through a pair of AR-3s. In this “ultimate” subjective test of audio quality, the listeners in these concerts were largely unable to detect the switchovers from live to recorded, a strong testament of Acoustic Research audio quality. On September 13, 1993, an AR-3 was placed on permanent display in the Information Age Exhibit, The National Museum of American History, The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

AR went on to introduce many other notable designs, and by 1966 the company had grown to hold 32.2% of the US domestic loudspeaker market, based on the IHFM and *High Fidelity* surveys statistics for that year. This was the highest product market-share ever held by a loudspeaker manufacturer since the days statistics have been kept in the industry.

AR also produced a low-cost ($78) belt-drive turntable, a type of phonograph, using a cast-aluminum 3.3 lb turntable platter suspended with a spring-suspended T-bar assembly that virtually eliminated acoustic feedback. A 24-pole hysteresis-synchronous, permanent-magnet Hurst AC motor propelled the platter through a precision-ground rubber belt to produce very low wow and flutter, exceeding the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) standards for turntable measurements.

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