Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Stevenson
I still own a pair of 901s, but mine are in storage right now. The AR3a is a better comparison to the Bozaks because both are direct radiator speakers. To give you some idea of the difference, Bozak Concert Grands were infinite baffle speakers, approximate dimensions 52"(h)x30"(w)x18"(d), weight ~250 lbs. each and housed 4-12" woofers, 2-6" midranges, and 8-2" tweeters in a line array. They were best if biamped and cost ~$950 per speaker. Big, expensive, serious speakers in the day. The AR3a was a sealed bookshelf speaker using the relatively small volume of air as an air spring known as an accoustic suspension design, approximate dimensions 30" (h)x12"(w)x10" deep, weight ~35 lbs. each. Because of their relatively smaller size, the AR design was less efficient. But both of these speakers had a sound that was easy to like. They were less bright on the top compared to JBL, Klipsch, Altec and so on. More laid back, less assertive is the way I would describe it. Bozak and AR made speakers that sounded so good to me that I forgot that I was listening to speakers. Another speaker from that era that did that for me was the Rectilinear III. People who preferred JBL or other west cost sound speakers thought the East Coast sound was dull, boring, lacking sparkle and excitement. The thing for me was to match the buyer to his or her preference in sound. These were all good products.
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Oh yeah! I had forgotten about the terminology of the day - west coast and east coast sound. One of my buddies had set of of AR LSTs being fed by a nice Tandberg tape deck.
I had a set of stacked Advent speakers at the time which I liked. Later I got a pair of Technics SB7000 which was quite a radical looking speaker at the time. It was driven by a Phase Linear 400 and Phase Linear 4000 preamp and Nakamichi 600 cassette deck and Technics SP11 turntable. Bob Carver created Phase Linear BTW.
Don't you sometimes wonder how these apparently ancient systems would stack up to those of today?