Acoustic Research

Acoustic Research was a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company that manufactured high-end audio equipment. The brand is now owned by VOXX. Acoustic Research was known for the AR-3 series of speaker systems, which used the acoustic suspension woofer of the AR-1 with newly designed dome mid-range speaker and high-frequency drivers. AR's line of acoustic suspension speakers were the first loudspeakers with relatively flat response, extended bass, wide dispersion, small size, and reasonable cost. The AR Turntable remains a highly sought vinyl record player. Company history Acoustic Research, Inc. (“AR”) was founded in 1954 by audio pioneer, writer, inventor, researcher and audio-electronics teacher Edgar Villchur and his student, Henry Kloss. AR was established to produce the US$185 model AR-1, a loudspeaker design incorporating the acoustic suspension principle based on , granted to Edgar Villchur and assigned to Acoustic Research in 1956. Edgar Villchur's technical innovation was based on objective testing and research, most of which was made publicly available as documents, specifications, and measurements—all of which were then new in the loudspeaker industry. Acoustic Research as an employer claimed equal opportunity and offered liberal employee benefits, insurance, and profit sharing to its employees. Acoustic suspension loudspeaker The acoustic suspension woofer provided an elegant solution to the age-old problem of bass distortion in loudspeakers caused by non-linear, mechanical suspensions in conventional loudspeakers. The existing state-of-the-art at the time of AR's invention was the bass reflex speaker, which boosted bass response for a given amount of cone travel by directing sound energy from the rear of the speaker cone through a port in the cabinet "tuned" for reinforcement of the direct signal from the front of the cone by the signal from the rear of the cone. Among the drawbacks of bass reflex design are the stringent design parameters required for accurate bass reinforcement, requiring high precision and at the time, large cabinets. Some loss of accuracy ("smearing" or "vooming" of low frequencies) was inevitable and the results were not entirely predictable. Extensive prototyping drove up the development costs of new designs, pushing them out of popular price ranges. High fidelity woofers were vulnerable to damage from extreme low frequency signals. Those issues were addressed with the invention of the acoustic suspension woofer.