WRITTEN BY:  TAWAUN A. WILLIAMS

The Acculine A3R,budget price and planar tweeters!

    Not too long ago, there were very few good budget speakers on the market
only a handful of manufactures really paid attention to the budget sector of loudspeakers.
Although there were exceptions to the rule which was the UK they had the Wharfedale Diamond series,
the B&W 600 series, the early Missions, the Epos ES series, the early Celestions,
and many others, the UK prided themselves on building excellent budget speakers.
In N. America less so, but in Canada there was the Paradigm Atoms,Titans, and Mini Monitors,
PSB had the Alpha probably the most succesful budget design in N. America of all time.
And of course the US had many of Henry Kloss' s and Peter Snell's designs along with the
great Pinnacle AC line,which still reside in many homes today, a few which I know and still
listen and enjoy.  Materials have made a huge jump since the days of these late great budget
designs, speakers measure better now, computers have changed audio and life itself so wel
come to a new dawn and era in budget speaker design.

New aged and ready to take over.

     Acculine is a new series, thats primed to make some noise in the very competitive cutthroat
budget battlefield, that's right folks it's a real war out there.This is actually the 2nd edition of this
still new speaker line, the changes are internal so it's nothing that the visable eye can see
but a few crossover changes were made the speakers are sold by "Theaudioinsider.com" on
line, the man behind "Theaudioinsider" is Jon Lane a very experienced speaker designer that has
3 decades of brain power in the audio world with lenghty experience.  Now let me narrow down the
siblings in the Acculine family, the A3R which is the subject right here, the A2R a LCR with a D'Appo
lito design, next up we have the A1R a bookshelf, and last but not least the A Sub with a 100 watt built in amp
for the bass unit.  All drivers are made by BG Radia Corp. 1 of the very best makers of planar tweeters
on the planet.The A3R is 39.8 tall, 7.9 inches wide and 9.6 inches deep with a cabinet made 3/4 inch MDF
all around with a black ash vinyl finish.  Now here comes the good part, the drivers which are shared throughout
the series except for the sub are 5 1/4  aluminum midbass drivers in a 2 1/2 way design with a linkwitz 4th
order crossover mated to the star of the the show a planar magnetic NEO 3 tweeter all this wraped up in
a compact package that weighs 35 pounds or 16 kilo's for you others around the world, frequency response
is 45 htz to 22khz,and their built in the US.

Setup and assciated gear
 
     The testing was done with the following hardware:  Amps Bada Purer 3.8SE, Melody SP-3, PopPulse T-70,Bryston B100-DA SST
and the Yaqin VK 2100 CDP's Bada HD-23, Musical Fidelity X-Ray V3 & X-10 V3 tube buffer, Bryston BCD-1, Bryston B100-DA SST, Cables,
Xindak cables and Kimbre cable (Bada Purer 3.8SE & Bada HD-23 were run balanced and unbalanced) &
(The Bryston BCD-1 was run thru the Bryston B100-DA SST as a transport)
The A3R was setup 3ft from the back wall and 3 1/2ft from the sidewalls with them toed in about 12 degrees
a little more than I usually go but it's essential so the tweeters don't become to directional, beam, ribbons, and
planars are usually more sensitive than dome tweeters when it comes to toe end.  How it works in your room will 
vary with your room and assciated electronics.  Speakers:  av123 Strata Mini, Swan Diva 6.2, Wharfedale
Diamond 8.1, Infinity Beta 20, Monitor Audio RS6, and Infinity Classia C336. 

The Planars are in action,did I say for a budget price????
 
     I'am going to start this review by saying these are some very dynamic compact speakers,in this regard they remind
me of one of my favorite $1k speakers on the market the Monitor Audio RS6, they can go from a loud crescendo to
a whisper in a flash with good timing and rhythum to, which is unsual for a budget floorstander,which is usually where
they give up ground to their bookshelf counterparts within the same line or at similar prices.  I cued up some Rippingtons,Fourplay
Creed, and Nora Jones (Nightingale) and they thunderded thru this material, Nora Jones had extension for days and
 the lead singer of Creed was as disinct as ever,all without being bright or fatiguing.  Next up was some Keicko Matsui
and to my suprise for a small speaker they really could handle her deep bass and grand Piano,just missing out on the
bottom C, pretty impressive stuff, I would say since I didnt take measurements that they play pretty good down to about 42
htz whch is pretty close to their specs.  Female vocals, Piano's and trumpets are very sensitive to my ears a speaker must
do these things correctly above all else to stay in my room, and at this the A3R did not disappoint, much of this is due to the
NEO 3 planar tweeter, they brought out things in the uppermidrange that only a handful of really good domes can do, which is
remarkable considering this speakers price, oh......wait did I say the price yet....yeah $499 a pair a bargain if their ever was 1.
As good as all yester years budget speakers were this a step up, with the drivers being the big reason why, the NEO 3 tweeter
isn't a stranger to more costly designs and many DIYers use them in various different kind of speakers, their not the easiest twe
eter to master but once a good crossover comes to the dance they can deliver uppermidrange and topend nuances like few
other tweeters on the market.

 Differences from the old version and the "R"

  Like I stated earlier the changes from the old version and the "R" are internal but its huge difference between the 2, with
the old version you really need something like EL34 tubes so you can listen to them over the long haul,other than that, the old
ones are still very good when mated with very warm gear.  The "R" is a big step up, they soundstage ad image very good to
my only gripe, is I wish they wold atleast offer cherry vinly or something, but I still like the look, simple but tasteful.  They are 4 ohms
so you need something with some stable current, watts isn't that much of a issue, but good current delivery is, also a good source
will go a long way, you will be able to hear every change in your system.  Stay away from bright gear, neutral with good warmth and
you will be fine, you will be very suprised how far they can go with better electronics.  Play with the toe end so the tweeter won't be isol
ated when you get that right they will image like a good budget monitor which we all know is excellent.

Conclusion

  This speaker is a reflection of how far speaker technology has come in the last decade and a half which points to substancial,7
years ago you could'nt get this much speaker for so little, I call budget priced anything up to $1k, as far as floorstanders go, there are
many that are good up to that mark, but these are half of that with a tweeter thats beter than most at that price, and at their price bookshelf 
or floorstander I dont know anything better, hats off to Jon Lane, the Acculine series is a top budget line, and "Theaudioinsider" often has
sales, and you deal directly with Jon with 30 day money back guarentee and he's 1 of best around to deal with so its a no brainer folks these are HOT!!

www.theaudioinsider.com