During a search for more info on them I found this observation from Andrew over at Audikarma: https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/acoustic-research-ar-8-what-are-these.388524/
The AR-8 was AR's entry into the rock speaker market and was voiced to emulate the west coast sound made famous by JBL. Longtime AR customers considered this model to be boomy and unrefined, and JBL owners liked JBL's version of the west coast sound better. In the end, no one was really happy and the AR-8 was not a big success, it lasted only a short period of time. If you are looking for a comparison, the AR-8 sounds most like a JBL L26. That said, the AR-8 is a fun speaker to listen to, and some folks really like them. Andrew
I found it interesting that AR would voice a speaker to match a specific type of sound VS accurately reproducing the original signal, which was one of the reasons I bought mine back in 1980.