TomK

Mike, not a problem. I haven't logged in for a bit as my work is just crazy, and weekends are crazier. There's a lot more/better experts than me here so don't be afraid to ask questions, and I have more pictures than I've posted so let me know if you want anything else. --Tom

I agree with that. $50 you could do something with them. It's a good excuse to ask a fellow forum member to make a detailed drawing of that front panel.

The completed "Left" speaker. Came out beautifully, the grain really pops, the new grills really bring out the contrast. The right speaker which looked flawless turned out to be a real gut-wrencher. While overall the scraping was far less, the scrapes on it were much deeper. So I had to balance the need to get down to that layer without going too far. The right thing to do would be to replace the veneer, but it looks fine for my use, and if it ever bugs me, I'll take it to a furniture maker and have one of the veneer pieces removed (note, you cannot see the spot in this picture). You'll notice the wood on this speaker looks much lighter. It is indeed lighter. And it was that way before I started. Despite these being sequential serial numbers, this one had a much lighter walnut color. I have to wonder if it was considered objectionable originally by a customer, and returned, which is why it was available to me. To me, it makes the speaker much more interesting. The speaker grill cloth looks good too, thanks to a Larry (aka vintage-ar) who supplied the recovered grills. The fabric is thinner than the original, but it looks very similar. I'm well pleased. The only thing I had to do was staple new Velcro fasteners and they pop right on. I cleaned up the sound profile selector. And they really sound marvelous. Now that I can crank the speakers a bit, I've changed the sound profile to position 2 which apparently (based on the literature available) is a flat frequency response, and cools the tweeters off just a hair. I really love them. Now I'm just looking for a stand that can hold 60 pounds, and hold them about 28" inches in the air.

Well, the speakers are now in a visually presentable condition. This is the left speaker that was so scraped up on top is now on my workbench after being sanded: . You can tell because it has that weird crescent moon "mark" in the wood. I'll say that the mark was there since they were new, it's kind of like a birthmark. You can see the view from the top: So not to drag out the suspense, but despite this one looking like the far more damaged cabinet, actually this one wasn't bad at all. I used boiled linseed oil mixed with two parts mineral spirits. I had never tried linseed oil before, but in the next post, you can see the results Just an FYI, the two front posts on the speaker are not veneer, they are solid walnut

I'm glad you've posted this. The LST-2 (and probably the LST) I believe need to be higher and away from corners and walls, and at ear height or slightly higher. I'm already struggling to find a speaker stand capable of holding 60 pounds, much less one that will raise them to about 36" or more (sitting on a couch listening). I can't even find the original owners manual online for a bit of guidance, which is a shame. I'll continue to try different things with them. Right now they're sitting on some 18" children's chairs from when my kids are little and they are just too low.

I decided to try the 30hz tone method just because, as I said, if it all went south, I would just redo the foam surrounds. But it seemed to work. The first speaker I had to gently shift the surround, but the second speaker centered itself just playing the tone. They really do seem fine. As to refinishing.... I've already block sanded the more scratched up cabinet, and it turned out pretty well (I'll post pictures after the weekend). I basically followed the advice I got here which is to finish with boiled linseed oil cut with two parts mineral spirits. They look really good; in fact, when I finish the LST-2's I'm going to go back to my AR-2x project and do a quick sand and oil (those are basically perfect, except they just need a refresh, so I'll start with a 240 sandpaper just to get past the top surface; I don't want to take too much of the veneer away). The part that irritated me was I didn't realize that some of the veneer was already pretty badly damaged in a 2" by 1/8" section on the left angled side of the front; I used some tricks I found online with walnut colored wood filler and a little artistry with slightly darker stain and toothpick to to make it invisible from more than two feet away. The right thing to do would be to replace that section of veneer, but I don't know where to find something that would match in color, grain, and age, so that is not going to get done unless I discover something that matches perfectly. The sound has been pretty much as I remember in the late 70's since I did the re-foam. Once I refinish the second cabinet, I'll work on replacing the cloth grills with the recommended replacement. At that point, I'll probably tinker a bit; I still haven't checked the crossovers yet to see if they're still in spec. I'm also considering having my Marantz 2285B professionally refurbished so I can enjoy it another couple decades. That will have to wait because that's pretty pricey.

These speakers, as I mentioned are in my home office, and I moved my Sansui receiver inside a cabinet, running optical out of my PC motherboard, into an inexpensive A/D.... ....and these pretty good speaker. I have the placement wrong, the room is too small for them, but still, these are significantly better than the Bose Computer speakers that I've been using (which are really quite good for computer speakers). They don't require a lot of volume to shine, which is important in an office setting. So certainly not classic AR either in construction or philosophy, but they deliver detailed, pleasing sound, and can probably hang with contemporary speakers in the $300-500/pair range. If you want a pair of speakers to just enjoy without worrying about who made them, these would be good choice especially if you found them cheap at a yard sale. And with the metal cone speakers, they'll probably last 50 years.

The benefits of experience. I also appreciated that if I screwed up the foam and let it dry, the white glue makes it absolutely trivial to remove it and try again. As I said in the LST-2 thread, the glue that AR used to attach the foam to speaker frame was a nightmare to get off; it required some heavy-duty chemicals and a lot of elbow grease (all while avoiding touching the edge of the cone).

Fair enough. I didn't quite appreciate the white glue until I worked with it and I liked its forgiving nature (at your recommendation). The only panic reaction I had is the glue takes a bit of time to sent, and the foam kept popping off the speaker cone, but that also gave me the time to get it into the correct "notch" on cone and it took about 15 minutes of gently rubbing my fingers around the foam to keep it sticking until it set. I watched a baseball game while I kept pushing down the foam. I've seen videos of experts online who managed to nail it with the fast setting glue, but these were guys who have done it repeatedly for decades.

30hz is used to test whether or not the voice coil is centered. My material science information is extremely old at this point, but I would think the purpose of synthetic foam is to ensure a consistent suspension throughout its lifespan. Can foam really soften that way?

Chet, Those are in amazing condition considering their age. I don't know where you intend on selling them, but I would think they would fetch top dollar...er.... Euro...er pounds.... since they seem completely pristine. Good luck! --Tom

I purchased a set of surrounds for 10" woofers in my LST-2's from both looneytune2001 and vintage-ar and the foam surrounds were precisely the same. I will say that looneytune2001 and vintage-ar supply different types of adhesive and recommend different ways of centering the voice coil, but I think it's one of those tomato/to-mah-toe type discussions. Vintage-ar also provides new dust caps and shims. Either person's approach will make you successful.

Just a few more photos. I was able to listen to FM on the speakers, but I can't tell much from that; FM radio has dropped all pretense of great sound and now is just AM in Stereo these days. I need to dredge some equipment out of my fabled closet to understand how they sound. I used a "spudger" to remove the grills, it's a ported bass (very non AR design) and a tweeter, both are metal cones. The foam surround for the tweeter gets dented from the grills, but I'm not sure it does anything other than protect the tweeter. At low volume with FM radio, they seemed okay; I'll see if I have a spare CD player around. My office is fairly small, so it will be an interesting test.

I was moving my Marantz 2285B to the basement to test my work on my LST/2, and I forgot I purchased these maybe....15+ years ago because I wanted some AR speakers for my office. They look completely unlike any other AR model, and oddly Recoton chose an existing AR name. They are true bookshelf speakers, and there is a heft to them, although it may be from the cabinet. They don't look bad, and the terminals are doing their best to impress you that they're serious. I dont' think I ever used them more than a few minutes because I was disappointed with them when they arrived in the mail because they didn't look anything like an AR speaker.. I can't remember where I bought them, and I don't remember how much I paid for them. I tried tugging at the grills, but I'm not even sure they come off. I'll hook up a receiver tonight and see how they sound. But does anybody know anything about these speakers? Or are they well known, but you don't talk about them (like the 914 in Porsche clubs ) --Tom

I should check that more often. Thanks for the tip. I ordered the largest piece of 18-count Wichelt Lambswool linen they sold, and we'll see if I need more.

Replaced the Speaker cloth over the weekend. I spent most of my time refoaming the woofers for my AR-LST2's, which are coming along. I recently purchased a pneumatic upholstery stapler, which made the job go faster. I purchased the cloth from a guy on ebay who swore it was a perfect replica of the AR speaker cloth He lied. But it's not ugly, and I decided to use it anyway because these are my test-mule speakers. It an okay-ish job. This cloth resisted any attempt to get the grain straight. My wife dropped down in the basement and pronounced them "very nice", which passes the test as far as I'm concerned. If you know a better source for the material, please let me know. Next job is to do a quick clean of the cabinet a quick sanding and a new Linseed Oil re-finish (using some of the techniques you guys have shared in these forums), which should be quick since these speakers have a very clean and very original look. I'll take a shot at it this weekend. Thanks again for all your advice.

it resisted goof-off, but mineral spirits softened it enough that I could eventually work it loose through a combination of pulling at it and rubbing it with cloth. It took about an hour to get that adhesive off. The second woofer didn't end up as scratched (not that it matters, you can't see it) because I didn't attempt to use a chisel or knife. This was the first time I'd tried to re-foam a speaker, and the only thing difficult on these particular speakers was the screen that prevented me from pressing the edge of the cone into the foam. But I like how that white glue tacks up in about 3 minutes making it easier. I purchased two re-foam kits, one from vintage-ar and the other from looneytune2001. I figured I'd screw them up once, but it turns out I didn't. I used the looneytune2001 kit which uses a 30hz wave on CD to center the cone rather than using shims. Thought I'd give it a try and if it went horribly wrong, I'd use the foam from the other kit. In my two speaker experience, one centered the voice coil all by itself, the other, I had to play with a bit, but it didn't take me more than 15 seconds to center it by hand. On the set screw, I first have to apologize to xmas111. There are indeed two set screws. I got the stuck set-screw out by using a different hex key (which was the same size, but apparently a hair bigger), and that got it right off. In fact, I had to use pliers to pull it out of the set screw. So had AR not used that weird paste on the metal frame, the re-foam would have been quick and easy. I've been listening all night to the newly fixed speaker. They're every bit as good as I remembered. Love the sound of these things. I feel like the bass isn't as loud as the 2x, but it sounds better controlled (maybe the new foam surround versus the cloth surround?), and the addition of a real tweeter really opens up the high-end. I still like the 2x, but the LST2 is just plain better. I'll have to see if the library has the original owner's guide to the LST2. I'm curious about AR's recommendation on placement (if they had them).

After a crazy week at work, I had a fruitful weekend working on my speakers. I first put renewed cloth on the AR-2x speakers I'd been working on. I realized that although it was advertised as "replica AR material" that I bought about 8 weeks ago, it's not. I didn't do an artful job, but it's a good enough job that my wife finally said "they look really nice!". Anyway, my first task on the LST2's was to re-foam one of the woofers. Removing the hardened foam from the paper cone was easy, but the glue they used on the surrounds was a hardened version of an industrial adhesive that resisted any attempts at removal with a chisel or knife (which explains the scratches). As you can see, I eventually got all of it off....

I use it quite a bit working on my cars; pretty effective if you're prepared to wait. Maybe I'll put a drop in there and let it sit overnight. These are SAE sized hex screws, I'm hoping I can get a metric hex key in there that's a bit over-snug, tap it in with a hammer and unscrew it. Any idea of the diameter and thread pitch of the screw? I'll be looking for a replacement.

That was one method that I'm considering; I have a set of ez-outs, but the hole is really tiny; I'll test whether any would be small enough to fit without destroying the knob. And I will have to get another hex set screw that would fit. I'm going to let things sit as is until the surrounds come in. I do need to finish the speaker cloths for the 2x's to put that project to bed. Once that's done, I'll work on the set screw, take the woofers out and determine if the crossover has caps that need to be upgraded. I'll probably test any capacitors in the box to see if they still meet spec.

Now that I've seen the shim method and how it simplifies the entire process, I think things will go pretty well. I'll continue to take pictures and post them. Just curious though.... on the 2x's, the main thing I had to do was replace the capacitor and tweeter level control. Is there anything similar that needs to be done in the LST/2 crossover?

Kent, That's a great video. I now see the purpose of the shims, and that would appear to be the easy way to center the voice coil. I checked out the ebay contact, and he isn't currently selling foam for my speakers, so I sent him a note. Xmas111, Yes, I am excited to get them working again and having my setup. The 2x's I refurbed a couple weeks ago are very credible speakers and they're the best working speakers I have but I've been looking forward to getting my old speakers working. As for the set screws, at least my two LST/2's have just one. What you see on them is not corrosion, it's just crud that will clean off very easily.

Actually, getting the set-screw out will just be some patience. I'm good at that. The refoaming... what do you think? I'm watching "How to refoam a woofer - the basics" by Jordan Pier and he seems pretty common sense about it.

Unfortunately, on the "other" speaker, I must have rounded out the hex set screw, so I could only peek inside by prying the grills back, but the woofer is in exactly the same condition. So obviously I need to refoam the woofers, but I've never done anything like this before. I saw a refoam kit for both speakers on ebay for $28 (roughly) plus handling, but I'm not sure that's what I should be using, so I'm asking the experts here a couple of things: 1) I watched a youtube video on refoaming speakers, and it didn't look hard, just like a fussy arts-and-crafts project. Do i have that right? 2) What kit should I use? Any other advice would be terrific. I think I can make the cabinets look good enough for my purpose (I plan to listen to them, not sell them), my goal is to make them play like a new speaker. Thanks again. --Tom P.S. I forgot how heavy these things are.

Here's the other speaker. It's in roughly the same condition, although the wood is a little rougher, but easily fixable. And yes, the grills need to be replaced.