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Mass. speaker manufacturer article


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You beat me to it, Carl. I was just about to post this very same news item after I stumbled onto this article today. Not only was there no mention of Edgar Villchur, but twice AR was referred to as "Acoustics Research".

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/07/27/audio-cluster-builds-long-history/D31z3A8L0ES4TrMhCZeMHK/story.html

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an MIT student, the late Henry Kloss, who helped launch Acoustic Research in Cambridge in in the 1950s and followed that by starting other companies familiar to almost anyone who bought speakers and stereo systems in ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s: KLH, Advent, and Cambridge SoundWorks. . . . [and] Boston-based Tivoli Audio.

Not inaccurate, and I like to see HK mentioned but you're right: Vilchur invented the Acoustic Suspension speaker design that all those companies were built upon. Kloss pushed him to start AR but Vilchur was true inventor. His name deserved to be featured prominently because none of those other New England companies would have existed without his invention.

Kent

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I agree with all of Kent's remarks, and this Globe article appeared, serendipitously, on a day when I happened to be taking a short road trip to pick up a pair of (modified) classic AR's from a very interesting guy who spent nearly 25 years working for venerable companies A/D/S and Cambridge Soundworks, and he seemed to know this whole history inside out.

Later yesterday, I sent a brief email to the writer of the article (no response....yet), where I acknowledged the interesting parallels he was trying to conjure up, as well as offering mild criticism for the two points I have raised. I suggested to him that even a cursory glance at Wikipedia for "Acoustic Research" might have improved the details in his writing (and I also suggested that he take a peek at this site), but I did note that "Kloss may have been quite brilliant, but Villchur was the initial inventor."

This article made me think about this notion of "East Coast" sound and the expanse of industry offshoots that originated with AR. It's probably already been done, but it would be most interesting to see a family-tree-type diagram with many of the central characters listed to be able to comprehend the extent of the progeny that sprouted from the proverbial loins of Villchur and Kloss.

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