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AR LST road trip....


xmas111

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Heading up to Maine, (From Plymouth Ma) on Sunday to cheak out a pair of LST's for sale!

AR LST's

I've been looking for a pair of these for years. :D

I'll let you all know how it goes.......I'm so excited!

If I get these I'll have the trifecta..... AR9's, LST's and newly accquired 3a's.

John

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Indeed, best of luck with the travel, inspection and potential purchase - - even on CL it is a bit odd not to include a picture with a 'for sale' posting, but I suspect you've already had some dialog with the seller.

Have to confess to my personal chuckle when I saw the title of your post here - - - upon first glance I thought it said "LSD road trip" and I thought, "sign me up, I haven't been on one of those in about 30 years!"

Last, I just have to expose my near-miss recent encounter with some LST's. Below is CL ad from several weeks ago (also here in Boston metro area) that I stumbled upon, but I was about an hour late in having the first look at them. Even though your seller's price is higher but far from outrageous, this pair was mostly likely a steal.

As they say in the flea market arena, "You snooze, you lose."

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Good luck with the trifecta. Just as a point of reference to rarity, there's been a pair, described 'mint', unsold for about a month here in lower Fairfield County CT.

http://newyork.craig...2874364513.html

Those are LST-2's.

Very nice speakers, I still have my original LST-2's. Rebuilt them a couple of years ago and they sound wonderful.

John

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Indeed, best of luck with the travel, inspection and potential purchase - - even on CL it is a bit odd not to include a picture with a 'for sale' posting, but I suspect you've already had some dialog with the seller.

Have to confess to my personal chuckle when I saw the title of your post here - - - upon first glance I thought it said "LSD road trip" and I thought, "sign me up, I haven't been on one of those in about 30 years!"

Last, I just have to expose my near-miss recent encounter with some LST's. Below is CL ad from several weeks ago (also here in Boston metro area) that I stumbled upon, but I was about an hour late in having the first look at them. Even though your seller's price is higher but far from outrageous, this pair was mostly likely a steal.

As they say in the flea market arena, "You snooze, you lose."

ra.ra,

I almost fell off my chair looking at that craigslist posting......the guy told me the LST's he's selling has had the side grills changed to a different color.

I sent him the pics from that listing to see if his looked the same. He said they're the same speakers!!!! He got them from some guy who bought them off craigslist in Concord MA!

$200.00 then......$750.00 now! Oh well I guess because someone gets a very good deal doesn't mean their going to pass the same deal along.

John

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Picked up the LST's today.

Long road trip today.....6 1/2 hours round trip.

I'm surprised how good the cabinets are. There's one very small chip on the top corner of one of them, shouldn't be a big deal to fix.

I'm not surprised that the woofers need to be refoamed. Not a big deal either.

BUT what really surprised me is ALL the tweeters and mids work!! They all look like they're the originals installed when manufactured. I had a bad feeling most of them would be history but not the case.

So now the restoration begins.

Refinish the cabinets. Refoam the woofers and rebuild the crossovers. Replace the grills.

Guess I have some reading to do on the forum so see what has to be done to the crossovers. I'm hoping it's just replacing the caps.

These LST's should look pretty damn good when all done considering how good of shape they're in now.

I'll be posting pics as the restoration goes along.

Can't wait to hear them......

Here's some pics I took today when I got home with them.

Forgot to mention I talked the owner (real nice guy) down from the original asking price of $750.00 to $500.00......(hope it's ok to mention prices here)

John

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Picked up the LST's today.

Long road trip today.....6 1/2 hours round trip.

Forgot to mention I talked the owner (real nice guy) down from the original asking price of $750.00 to $500.00......(hope it's ok to mention prices here)

John

Hi there

Great deal my friend.

Does the other cabinet also have the outside rear mounted crossover?

If and when you do remove the crossovers from the enclosures please post photos here.

I see that someone scratched off the paper from ther rear of the speaker.

When you remove either the drivers or crossover you will have the date of manufacture at least.

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Congrats John on your find of such exceptional speaker and outstanding price, the other owner was very very generous :) back in 2002 i purchased mine @ tune of $1525.00 which on my restore I also did the cap replacements cabinet refinnish,both woofer refoamed all tweeters and mids are original and working great :) Attached some pics

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Apologies for delayed response, John - - - I began a reply to you a few days ago but was unable to get it completed before I was called elsewhere. I had begun to fear that this tale was taking on a rather unseemly twist of plot - - - with possibly three sales within five weeks and huge price escalation to boot - - - and but I am now relieved to know that there has been a successful and happy ending after your weekend road trip.

Let me first say that it never even occurred to me that 'your' LST's could have ever been the very same speakers as 'my' LST's. My assumption was that, serendipitously, another pair had re-surfaced in New England from some dusty attic or as a result of a retiree's downsizing. Had it ever occurred to me that we were both chasing the same pair, albeit five weeks removed, I would have never shared my CL near-miss for fear of dampening your enthusiasm.

My close encounter was mildly disappointing, but I just figured that some other collector or enthusiast found his best-ever deal, and I thought, "Good for him .... enjoy your new speakers." My reason for sharing this ad in the first place was simply to remind people that you just never know what's going to turn up out of the blue, and the hunt can sometimes be part of the enjoyment.

I am very pleased that someone who wants to keep these speakers has ended up with them after their travel across several state lines.The final comment that I was going to leave you with in my previous attempt to get this note out was: if you originally felt 750 was a fair price, just stick with that assessment (despite my unknowingly exposing the previous sale), but as we now know, your perseverance paid off and you faired much better than originally anticipated.

Great looking speakers. Good for you. Keep us posted on restoration progress.

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Ron,

Those look great! I hope mine look as good when I'm done with them.

ra ra,

Thanks for ypur response.

I'm still shocked to find out these LST's were the same one's you were chasing..... I now feel a little guilty that I snagged them knowing that. I promise to make this a good home for them! :)

I took one one of the woofers today to see what the crossver looks like. The big blue cap in the center is a 2500µF 60V.

It's not going to be easy to refoam the woofer. The glue they used to bond the surround to the masonite ring is next to impossible to remove. It's going to take some work to do it....but I'll get there.

Plus I find it odd the woofer has no part munber on it. For some reason I thought they all had a AR part number on them.

A couple pics for you attached.

John

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Ron,

Those look great! I hope mine look as good when I'm done with them.

Hi there

Very nice and clear photos.

I shouldn't tell anyone this, so now the entire net will know.

When I first saw the red + stickers on some of AR's several model drivers, I thought that AR had something to do with The Red Cross or first-aid.

This had been an obviously wrong assumption on my part.

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I shouldn't tell anyone this, so now the entire net will know.

When I first saw the red + stickers on some of AR's several model drivers, I thought that AR had something to do with The Red Cross or first-aid.

This had been an obviously wrong assumption on my part.

Now that is funny!!!! :lol:

John

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Finally got one woofer all cleaned up and ready to install a new surround.

I was confused for a while trying to figure out where the 40µF cap was. Then I realized the 6µF + 4µF + 30µF(can) = the 40µF cap. Was there a particular reason for using the three caps to make up the 40µF cap? Just curious.

John

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Finally got one woofer all cleaned up and ready to install a new surround.

I was confused for a while trying to figure out where the 40µF cap was. Then I realized the 6µF + 4µF + 30µF(can) = the 40µF cap. Was there a particular reason for using the three caps to make up the 40µF cap? Just curious.

John

John,

AR was probably just using up parts by paralleling available cap values.

Attached is a photo of a (presumably later) crossover in an LST I recently worked on. All of the caps are single components for each required value. Predictably the 3 Sprague caps in the photo measured within spec, but the Industrial Condenser 6uf tweeter cap needed to be replaced. The same was true for the other LST of this pair. It provides some perspective on the hand wringing sometimes associated with the purchase of replacement caps.

As an aside, there is a thread in another audio forum where a poster is claiming to be able to hear a "clear difference" within a tolerance of .02uf in a discussion regarding the replacement of caps in 40+ year old KLH speakers. :rolleyes:

Roy

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genek, Roy,

Thanks for that information. I kind of figured that might have been the case.

I've worked in manufacturing plants and I know during the assembly process everything isn't made exactly to specification. Sometime you have to use what you have on hand as long as the final product meets specifications.....

John

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The first crossover rebuild is complete.

I also attached a picture of the second crossover before rebuilding it, it's exactly like the one Roy posted earlier.

Think I'll refinished the first cabinet then put it all back together and give it a sound test.

John

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It would be correct to assume that I am following your progress with some degree of interest. Because these speakers so deftly eluded my grasp, I could easily feel like Charlie Brown after Lucy pulls away the football at the final moment.

But, alas, your perseverance at growing your impressive collection shows true dedication, and your skills at re-building and restoration are unsurpassed. Your restoration of the AR-XA TT is indeed an extremely detailed step-by-step documentation of your pursuit for excellence in both appearance and performance. Your decision-making is well thought out, and the descriptions of tooling techniques and materials are very clear. Furthermore, the design of your modifications is clever and creative, and your craftsmanship is superb, whether it be woodwork, metalwork, or electronics.

Likewise, I recently followed your AR-3a restoration and was equally impressed. No capacitors sitting in a gob of hot melt for you, no sir, everything is carefully composed and mechanically attached - - - even the wiring layout is a work of art. Who ever knew that crossover circuitry could be so elegant?

Keep up the terrific work with the LST's. I particularly love the entire x-o mounting panel that is removable from the rear - looks like Roy's were identical in this regard. Since I notice T-nuts and foam gasket along the perimeter, I have to assume this was a later version of a factory preparation - - - I noticed this week's ebay sale of LST's did not include this very clever feature. It reminds me of the flap on pair of woolen long johns.

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