Acoustic Research

Type	Private
Industry	Consumer electronics
Headquarters	Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Products	systems
Owner	Audiovox

Acoustic Research was a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company that manufactured high-end audio equipment. The brand is now owned by Audiovox. Acoustic Research was well known for the AR-3 series of speaker systems, which used the 12-inch (305 mm) acoustic suspension woofer of the AR-1 with newly designed dome mid-range speaker and high-frequency drivers, which were the first of their kind. AR's line of acoustic suspension speakers were extraordinary for their time, as they were the first loudspeakers with flat response, extended bass, wide dispersion, small size, and reasonable cost.

Acoustic Research, Inc. (“AR”) was founded in 1952 and incorporated on August 10, 1954 by audio pioneer, writer, inventor, researcher and audio-electronics teacher Edgar Villchur and his student, Henry Kloss. AR was established to produce the $185 model AR-1, a loudspeaker design incorporating the acoustic suspension principle based on patent US No. 2,775,309, granted to Edgar Villchur and assigned to Acoustic Research in 1956.

Edgar Villchur's technical innovation was based in large part on scientific as well as objective testing and research, making most of it publicly available as documents, specifications, and measurements—all of which was then new in the loudspeaker industry. Acoustic Research, under Villchur's leadership, was also innovative during this period in the way the company offered equal opportunity, liberal employee benefits, insurance, and profit sharing to every employee.

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