Estate Sale Find

What are you gambling? I mean unless the voice coils corroded and ceased up or something crazy which would be very un-likely, go and run them suckers in... Higher volume even.. Worse case is the rubber would be stiff on the surrounds, you could take a little armorall to get them a little cleaned up and softer if necessary... Its possible they have newer foam type surrounds, but still only 8 years old, and unless they were stored in really bad conditions they should be fine, then again if a lot of moisture collected in the sub amps that could be another story with never being used, I don't know.
Maybe 50 to 200 hours should open them up pretty nicely.
Good luck

These speakers were a Stereophile Class A or Class B speaker in the late 1990's. I believe that they were a $3000 speaker.

In 2000, Accessories4less became a popular internet reseller as they were a liquidator for Acoustic Research speaker stock. You could not go wrong with their prices, as the AR speakers were typically discounted 60-70% off of MSRP. I picked up several pairs of AR-302's for $250 ($1000 list). The 303 series dated back to 1995, were designed by Ken Kantor (NHT fame), and were marketed as re-issues of the 1960's AR designs.

If you look around, there is a Stereophile review of the AR-1. They are a quality speaker and definitely worth the gamble.

Regards,

Rich

Here is the review from Stereophile from June 1999. The AR1's listed for $2500 in 1999.

Regards,

Rich

Thanks for the responce gents. Undertow The basement looked in fairly good condition. But it does get humid in the summer months. With the holiday I have not had a chance to fire them up and wanted to get some opinions before I do. Rich thanks for the link to the review.

If they were still sealed they should be fine.