Acoustic Research AR-2ax Speakers
The AR-2ax turns up again and again in period advertising and industry photographs, but formal documentation of the model itself is thin. What the record does show is that it had a reputation as a reference-quality transducer. HiFI-Stereo (December 1967, p.147) noted that the AR-2ax speakers and AR turntables were used at the Perma-Power Company of Chicago as laboratory measurement standards - the speaker served as a distortion reference to calibrate reverberant test chamber characteristics.
The same speaker also had some cultural cachet. High Fidelity (July 1971, p.77) ran an advertisement noting that bandleader Woody Herman chose AR-2ax speaker systems for listening at home, with the claim that the accuracy of AR equipment served as a valuable tool for many notable musicians. The ad copy appears to have been a recurring campaign - similar placements ran in HiFI-Stereo in June and October of 1971.
A period directory listing from HiFI-Stereo (1971, p.25) places the AR-2ax in the speakers and cabinets category, with a frequency response spec of 60 to 20,000 Hz at 20 watts input and less than 3% distortion down to 42 Hz. That is about all that is formally documented in the sources available: the lab-standard usage, the musician endorsement, and the basic response figures. Crossover points, driver complement, and enclosure dimensions are not part of the surviving record here.
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