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Just how good is the AR XA turntable ?

To counter that I remember hearing a pair of full Acoustas, a 301, Decca FFSS arm and cart, can’t remember the preamp, Leak TL-12.1 amps and it rates as one of the most dynamically alive and believable systems I’ve heard. Jazz, can’t remember the record, but one with amazing drumming, every little nuance of the brush work was so clear, sax so alive and in three dimensions. If you like free and improvised music they are pretty damn good as they cut to the chase somehow. I totally understand folk picking up on colouration, they do have it, but they also have a dynamic life no speaker with a crossover or heavy modern driver can stand a hope in hell of equaling. I left with the feeling that I couldn’t live with a pair myself, but from that day on I knew *exactly* what is wrong with multi-driver speakers!

Rehdekos bark (literally) up pretty much the same tree. They sound bloody odd, but if you want to know what a really good drummer is actually doing they are rather good.

PS The Decca FFSS and SC4 remain amongst the very best cartridges I have ever heard at any price. Like the Lowthers they show just how undynamic all the other ways of doing things actually are!
 
I remember a room at a Bristol show, AR XA turntable (unknown cart) AR LST's breathed on by Mark Levinson, and acres of Jadis amplification. Music was slow blues. I was in heaven.
 
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Craig B said:
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A pair sat for years at a second hand audio and camera store in a city I used to live in. I was aware of their reputation and was surprised they never sold. They may have been there even when the shop closed for keeps. While beyond my budget of the time, I didn't think the price was unreasonable.
 
Ahh - the LST. Frankly- 50 years latter - I still have fond memories of these. The first stereo store I worked in had a pair and they were amazingly power hungry and one of the first speakers I experienced that would play LOUD and MUSICAL at the same time. So -benefit of being a audio dog- I get to order Marantz gear for 50% of retail. Pre-pay and months go by before my 33 and 250 (big BLUE meters baby!!!) finally come in - hook 'em up in the store to the LST's - Jimi Hendrix on the AR table/Shure type III cart and away we go -short demo-really impressive flames shoot out of the top of the Marantz 250 after about 2 min of purple haze. Didn't blo the fusses on the LST's . Heard Lowthers once ( very rare this side of the pond.) -driven by a EL-84 amp and frankly my memory is - pretty nice.
 
audiopile said:
Ahh - the LST. Frankly- 50 years latter - I still have fond memories of these. The first stereo store I worked in had a pair and they were amazingly power hungry and one of the first speakers I experienced that would play LOUD and MUSICAL at the same time. So -benefit of being a audio dog- I get to order Marantz gear for 50% of retail. Pre-pay and months go by before my 33 and 250 (big BLUE meters baby!!!) finally come in - hook 'em up in the store to the LST's - Jimi Hendrix on the AR table/Shure type III cart and away we go -short demo-really impressive flames shoot out of the top of the Marantz 250 after about 2 min of purple haze. Didn't blo the fusses on the LST's . Heard Lowthers once ( very rare this side of the pond.) -driven by a EL-84 amp and frankly my memory is - pretty nice.
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The early big Marantz transistor amps were known for that. And for oscillating.
 
I started off this thread about the XA and now we’re discussing the LST.
The whole AR story has intrigued me for years.

Absolutely fascinating.
Kept it up, folks...
 
Some implementations of the Lowther drive unit can of course sound better than my previous description, which was of a Lowther made entire speaker.. and genuinely horrible in every way. I have heard a modded driver, with what looks like a huge wooden door knob in the middle of it! in some horn enclosures https://www.tnt-audio.com/casse/virtuoso_e.html
This sounded very nice, as I would hope at that price!

It was a strange and ultimately very profitable evening for me.... On a dark and stormy night a long time ago in a land far away... well OK it was Stockton and Middlesborough about 23 years ago... I had completed a repair for someone who arrived to pick it up in a brand new highest spec Range Rover. I had a prototype class A amp I'd designed of about 30WPC on in the background and this guy asks to have a proper listen so we pick some music he likes and turn the wick up. He's very impressed.... and he asks if he can take the amp, and myself to set it up etc, to his place about 15 miles away in a posh area of 'Boro to try it with his system and that he'll drive me home afterwards etc.... I had nothing else planned so I took him up on it...

A large conservatory had been made into a listening room and there were the huge Bauhorns set up there... IIRC source was an upmarket CD player. His usual amp was an Audio Innovations valve power amp, likely an 800 IIRC, can't recall what the pre amp was.

Anyway we listened for a while and it sounded really good. I was quite impressed and shocked at how much better this implementation of a Lowther unit was compared to the couple of previous times I'd heard them.

After about 40 mins listening we swapped out the AI power amp for the Arkless one... well I was most pleased to find it was a combination made in heaven with these speakers! It thrashed the AI valve amp completely and in all areas!
Now this was a prototype as I said... I'd bodged it into a case that was rather too small and hence there was no lid on it and heatsinks that stuck up a good six inches out of the top...

Imagine my surprise when he suddenly says to me "I'll give you £1100 cash for this amplifier now if you'll sell it"!
So after a long hard think of about 1 second I agreed... (I was virtually looking around for the Candid Camera team by now!) he popped out in the car for 10 mins and came back with £1100 cash in a large brown envelope, and the amp was his. I never saw him or heard from him again...
 
AR XA turntable, a great turntable, albeit with an industrial grade arm. I bought one new, many years ago and was amazed at the improvements wrought when I got it home (replacing a Trio KD1033). I didn't keep it for long though, because, unfortunately, it had some extreme emf issues, that, at the time, I had no idea how to solve, and the dealer was uninterested, so regrettably, I had to fight for a refund.
 
I thought the XA was a very decent table, especially considering the budget prices of them way back. The head shell was always kind of a pain in the ass, but otherwise. Like most tables, it can sound pretty damn good, or dire depending on setup etc.
 
Martyn Miles said:
I would have loved that System III, with the AR XA and Shure cartridge, Dynakit PAS-2/Stereo 70 & AR3 speakers.
Much fun to be had building up the Dynakit components.
Can you just imagine sitting down in front of that ?
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I had all of that, except with ESL57s instead of AR3s.
 
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Like you I lusted after top of the range AR speakers and bought AR 7s
Still think AR 7s a damn fine speaker but eventually was able to get the AR3 through the magic of EBay and a delightful chap who was using two pairs in a surround system and had to downsize.
Love these speakers but probably could manage with the AR7s I still have and have re foamed.
 
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