[Need help for AR-12 refurbish]

If you plan to refinish your AR-12's, note that the veneer used by AR is fairly thick and can be easily sanded if you are careful.  I picked a pair of AR-15's on eBay that had been painted black and they turned out to have a beautiful veneer under the paint.  Why anybody would have painted them in the first place is beyond me.  The attached photo shows one speaker still painted black with the other refinished.

There have been a number of refinish options discussed in the forum.  I used Watco Danish Oil.  Wet sanding the first coat and adding 3 additional coats.

[AR-3a vs. Original Large Advent]

I never had a chance to listen to a direct comparison of the 3a or the 2ax to the Large Advent, but I did attend a demonstration put on by an Advent sales rep in 1977 at a local stereo shop that pitted the Large Advent against the AR-11.  The rep was very clever in his setup and his choice of music.  The impressions of the Large Advent by all attending was very positive and some felt that the Advent’s sound was superior to the AR’s. 

On closer inspection, it was obvious that the setups were not exactly “equal”.   The Advents were placed only a few inches from the back wall @ about 6-ft apart, with the high frequency switch set to high.  The AR’s, on the other hand, were placed inside of the Advents @ about 4-ft apart, and over a foot away from the wall.  In addition, the high-range switch on the AR’s was set to -6 db.  Finally, most of the music played during the demonstration was standard rock with limited detail and range.

After the Advent guy left, the store salesman let us rearrange the speakers and adjust the switches.  We also had him use the just released Steely Dan album, Asia, for the comparison.  The difference was like night and day.  The AR’s sounded smoother, far more detailed and possessed a much tighter base.  The Advent sounded muddy in comparison. 

That is not a knock on the Advent.  It is an excellent rock speaker for the price – far better than the KLH 6’s that I owned at the time.  It just is not in the same league as the 11’s.  By the way, I ended up also listening to the AR-14’s, which lead me to selling my KLH 6’s and buying the 14’s.  I know that there are many that won’t agree with me, but the 14 is also a better overall speaker than the Advent.  I still own them today along with a pair of restored 11's and a pair restored 15's that make up a 6.1 system.