RIP - AR-1 speaker designer Villchur dies

[RWebb]

He designed the acoustic suspension loudspeaker. Without that, we'd all have to add a full room on just to accommodate the Klipschorns...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/business/edgar-m-villchur-hi-fi-innovator-dies-at-94.html?hpw&gwh=40F5046C3C88EEE818E312B66E6D869F

[gshase]

I remember my AR speakers I Purchaser at the Air Force exchange in Naples Italy. Some SOB stole them from me. They were Great ......RIP

[jhynesrockmtn]

I have a pair of AR's I bought in college hooked up now until my cats settle down. Then I'll hook the Allison's back up. RIP Mr. Villchur.

[imcarthur]

Certainly a pioneer. He & his sidekick (Henry Kloss) shaped the loudspeaker industry for years. The AR turntable also paved the way for Rega, Linn etc. And Henry made the first good home video projector (not forgetting his KLH brand - my first good loudspeaker).

Ian

[Don Ro]

Mmm. Not much response from the forum.
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A pioneer, indeed...Mr. Villchur.
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Back in the mid 60s I had a set of AR3as driven by two Dyna Stereo 70s in mono. I liked them but I always thought they could give more.
Then I read that Hirsch-Houck Labs tested the AR3as for sound reproduction, it took 135w RMS/ch to recreate/duplicate live sound. (See note below)
In time, I had four AR3as and drove them with two Crown DC300s. They lit up and danced around the room.
A good sound...as I recall...but I moved on to the Infinity Servo-Static system w/the big bass commode driven by its own 100w RMS mono amp. (plus the DC300s)
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I also had the AR turntable...little rubber drive belt that wanted a dusting of talcum powder now/then. I built a new suspension system and anti-skating device for its tone arm.
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Those were the days...we neophytes never said "stereo system" back then, but rather "hi-fidelity".
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RIP Edgar Villchur...Thank You, I enjoyed your work.
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Note: "Among Mr. Villchur’s duties was promoting the products. In the early 1960s he sponsored “live versus recorded” concerts around the country, including one in a recital room at Carnegie Hall and another at Grand Central Terminal. At the concerts, a string quartet would play a piece of music, then mime it as parts of a recording by the same quartet played through a pair of AR-3 speakers. The listeners were rarely able to detect the switchovers."

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Don Ro

Mmm. Not much response from the forum.

I'm just at a loss for words.

Henry Kloss - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Acoustic Research
Kloss co-founded Acoustic Research Corporation (AR) with Edgar Villchur in 1954. Villchur, a former teacher of Kloss, had conceived a novel way of building an accurate loudspeaker. Together they developed the AR Model 1, which changed the way that speakers were designed. Until then, speakers of quality had to be quite large. By using an enclosure with a sealed air cavity behind the speaker cone which acted as a spring to damp woofer motion, they were able to make less-expensive, bookshelf-size speakers. Although they were inefficient in power consumption compared to ported designs, they had extremely low distortion. The AR-1 was the first commercial acoustic suspension loudspeaker.

A recent (short) article about his life and passing;
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9QES04O0.htm