Acoustic Research TSW-810

A floor-standing columnar with dual woofers on two different planes, and a spec sheet that leaves almost everything out.

Overview

The TSW-810 was Acoustic Research's top floor-standing columnar. AR's own advertising paired it with the TSW-910 as the flagship of the TSW loudspeaker series (Audio, October 1988, p.65). The defining feature, per that advertising, was a pair of woofers mounted on two different planes - one at the front of the cabinet, the other elsewhere. AR claimed this as a point of distinction, not a cost-saving measure. Past that, the record is thin. No production years, no original price and no independently verified specs survive in the sources available here.

The TSW line as a whole is better documented than the 810 itself. AR's advertising from the period put the TSW-810 and TSW-910 at the top of a range that also included the TSW-100, 110, 210, 310, 315, 410, 510, 610, and 710. That is nine additional models, spanning floor-standing and bookshelf formats. The TSW-115P, a self-powered audio/video speaker, anchored the bottom of the range. So the 810 sat at the top of a broad, tiered lineup. It was the most ambitious member of a family, not a one-off.

The available documentation doesn't say what the 810 sounded like, how much it cost, or how long it stayed in production. Anyone chasing a pair should be wary of a listing that asserts specific driver sizes, crossover points, or frequency-response figures. Those numbers are not corroborated here. AR's TSW models differed enough from one another that specs from a TSW-610 or TSW-910 should not be assumed to apply.