Teledyne AR-91, a review

a while back i picked up a pair of AR-91's for cheap (craigslist). a very easy refoam of the woofers and they were placed into service in the oldest daughters bedroom.

earlier today i picked up 2 pairs of speaker stands (craigs again) for even cheaper. i only wanted one pair of stands (for the ADS L-710/L-810 stack in the other daughters room) but they came as a 2 for 1 deal.

i remember when i first refoamed the 91's, they were ok but didnt stand out much, i thought of them as the little brother to the AR-9. they did a stint in a stack with the AR-9's for a while, but that proved to be less than satisfying. at one point i had a pair of ADS L-730's in the daughters bedroom stacked on the 91's. direct A/B testing only showed the 730's were brighter and the 91's had a more prominent low end. i had'nt checked out the 91's since then, and decided to try the extra pair of stands on the 91's.

they had been sitting on the floor facing the bed. the bed being the only listing position, if you had your feet on the floor, the drivers would point at your shins. with the stands they are off the floor about 8" and tilted slightly back, and now sitting on the bed you get the drivers pointing right at your face.

before, there was not really any sweet spot or defined soundstage, but they sounded ok. with the stands, there is a very definate sweet spot and, considering how close they are together, there is a suprisingly well defined soundstage. the downside is that the enjoyment stays in the sweet spot, leave it and you leave the joy behind.

but what joy it is. now the music has focus, precision, accuracy and detail have come to the forefront. what was once a somewhat sloppy bass is now articulate and fluid.

i put on Joe Jackson's "I'm The Man" which has re-emerged as a favorite of mine. now this is what its all about, pure, involving music enjoyment! all the subtleties and nuances of the recording that were previously only implied, are now revealed. i could hear the slight changes in timbre when the bassist would pluck this way or that. the impact of the drummers' strikes from one to another were now readily evident. Joe's voice which had sounded unrefined was now breathy, unrestrained or precisely controlled.

every element of the sound improved dramatically and i still dont have them positioned optimally. i have to say the 91's suprised me a bit, i didnt think they were quite this capable. they can step out of the shadow of the AR-9 and stand on their own as a damn fine speaker.

Mr.Dingus.
I have a set of AR91's that I bought locally at Goodwill that needed refoaming as yours did. I have mine stacked atop of my Bose 501's. Such a great punch to the low rumble of the bass of the 501's. Adds great clarity. For $35.00 bucks!! $30 to refoam and man what a set of speakers! I was using a Pioneer VSX-9300 to power the masses but, once again at Goodwill, what to my wondering eyes appears? At the same store a $5.00 Sansui 9090DB!!! WOW!! Clean a few pots and we are cookin'!! I'll not take a thing away from the Pioneer, it is a great av receiver, but to be able to introduce a "period" receiver with the power to drive these speakers was such a treat! Yes a sweet-spot!! Glad you found a spot with yours too!

yes the AR91 is a bit of a sleeper and often underrated imo. they need to placed and amplified properly, but the sound they deliver is more than worth the trouble. i've run them with the big Yamaha 70's receiver, a smaller Rotel amp (that does a very good job despite its diminutive 60wpc), but the best i have ever heard them is with a Yamaha MX-D1 digital amp.

Nice write up! I think I'll always have a soft spot for bigger AR. Have had lots of speakers that did this or that better, in one way or another, but ARs just seem to make me happiest.

Welcome. Those are smoking deals! $70 for AR91's and 9090DB cannot be beat. Time to cash out your Blows 501's!!

This post has been edited by socal sam on February 13, 2010 05:16 am

A friend called and asked about a pair of these. $75 bucks. I said grab 'em. He passed, and brought home a busted TT.

He's a great fella, so I forgave him.