Aadams

I couldn’t find an appropriate open thread in which to place this comment so I started a new one.

 

I have been reading this forum for well over a year and perused most of the AR threads in the main forum as well as in the Kitchen,  so I will not be surprised if what I am about to say meets with disagreement, but I finally know why I prefer AR speakers.  

 

After many hours of listening to the AR2ax, 3a, 9 and 5 and years of fiddling with tone controls equalizers, subwoofers, surround systems and other speakers, I have convinced myself that I could probably duplicate the sound that I get from the ARs using other brands of well designed speakers including combinations of satellites and subwoofers.  After all, the sound of good music is subjective and not unique to the speaker but to the listener.

On the good side,  this means if I lose my ARs before I die, I really don’t need more ARs to get an AR sound  but on the downside I think the effort in getting there will be a lot more complicated than it is with the ARs and maybe more expensive.   I enjoy a variety of music genres but the only time I listen critically to the musical presentation of speakers is with classical music.

 

So, simply stated, the reason that I have come to prefer ARs, after many years of listening to other speakers, is the sound of well recorded classical music that I prefer is most easily achieved with ARs.  I am not sure I would have ever come to this conclusion if I had not come across this website while considering the purchase of some derelict 3as.  And I know that I would not be enjoying music as I am now.   Thanks

Did a search on these in this forum and did not find anything so I thought would make a contribution. Until now I had never heard a pair of Epicures only read good things about them. I came upon this set of Epicure 20+ at a good enough price to make me want to see how a larger Epicure would compare to the AR world. These are smallish 64Lb floor standing speakers containing a "double module" as termed by EPI . There are two radiating faces each containing a module consisting of an 8" cone woofer and an Epicure inverted dome tweeter. I set them set up in the same room with AR5s . After dialing them in to my tastes I can say they are very nice full range speakers with a big sound field that AB very well against the ARs. The 20+ are about 3db more efficient than the 5s but after learning how to compensate for the efficiency difference in comparing the two it became apparent that I could live very easily with either one. The downside for me is these are made to be placed on the floor but they do sound good.