What speakers are these?

[Carnivore]

Hi, I just discovered this site after a friend of mine asked me to evaluate and help her restore her AR speakers. She has a set of LSTs that are in very good condition, and this smaller pair that don't seem to match any of the classic pictures I've looked at so far. Can somebody help me identify them? The tweeter may look metallic in the photo but that's just because of the flash -- it's actually a black dome. The stamp on the back panel says "Made In Denmark".

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/609.jpg

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/610.jpg

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/611.jpg

[mluong303]

It looks like the classic Dynaco A-25 speaker. They are decent sounding speakers and I actually prefer these over the AR-4 speakers family. Good Luck retoring your Girl friend's AR-LST speakers. Becareful with the way you are handling the AR-LST since they do need tender loving care...

Minh Luong

mluong303@aol.com

[Carnivore]

Wow, so they are. And in a bizarre twist, the owner of Greg's Dynaco speaker page linked from this site is a longtime friend of ours. We've shared plenty of stories about music but never really talked much about speakers. I didn't even know he had such a site. Small world! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

[tysontom]

>Hi, I just discovered this site after a friend of mine asked

>me to evaluate and help her restore her AR speakers. She has

>a set of LSTs that are in very good condition, and this

>smaller pair that don't seem to match any of the classic

>pictures I've looked at so far. Can somebody help me identify

>them? The tweeter may look metallic in the photo but that's

>just because of the flash -- it's actually a black dome. The

>stamp on the back panel says "Made In Denmark".

>

Yep, those are definitely "aperiodic" Dynaco A-25s. When they were introduced at the New York Music Show around 1966, one of the exuberant Dynaco engineers caught AR's Ed Villchur and dragged him into their booth and asked him what he thought of their brand-new speaker. Villchur listened and said, "How much do they cost?" The engineers replied that they were approximately $79 each. Villchur then said, "They sound like good $80 speakers." I happened to be walking with Villchur at that time, and I followed him into the Dynaco booth. I am sure this let the wind out of the Dynaco engineers' sails, but Villchur wasn't one to mince words. I believe the A-25s, which really were pretty decent speakers, went on to become top-sellers. They were highly regarded by *CU* and received a "Best Buy" rating. Complaints were slight over-emphasis in the 70-140 Hz frequency range and weakness in the very high treble, but the overall sound was very good. Incidentally, I don't believe that they were ever considered to be as accurate or smooth as the AR-4x, but they could go lower in deep bass.

--Tom Tyson

[dynaco_dan]

Hi there;

Another of my 2 1/2 cent commentaries of this speaker system.

The unofficial Dynaco site is well worth a visit, if, you are interested in the old classic Dynaco equipment.

There is a brief history of the A-25 speaker as well as some of the electronics.

The Dynaco history is not complete, but, Greg Dunn has done a wonderful job of what there is.

The A-25 designer is named, as was the original prototype 4 ohms rating initially.

A Dynaco rep insisted on an 8 ohm rating, because most amplifiers of that era could produce more watts into 8 ohms than 4 ohms.

Power handling would be about the same as the AR-4X.

Rating for amplifiers is deceiving, be cautious, as I saw only burnt or blown woofers when the SCA-80 size amplifiers were used or smaller.

I never replaced a tweeter, as I remember, and we had boxes of empty woofer frames waiting to see if time, money and recone kits might become available down the road.

Rock music at loud volumes probably accounted for most burnt ones.

I know poor glue or gluing technique caused some voice coils to slip off the former and unravel, allowing us to warantee cover this one only example, when voice coils were burnt.

I know that there were at least two driver manufacturers, Scan, the woofer with a round perimeter aluminum frame and the tweeter had a perforated or expanded metal shield cover.

The other on-going supplier was Seas, the woofer had horns where the bolt holes were along the perimeter and the tweeter has a wire mesh screen.

Warantee replacement woofer that we received were the "horned" Seas.

This meant that when we replaced a Scan woofer, we had to chisel out the cabinet slightly, for the horns to fit that enclosure for sealing purposes.

There was the enclosure with the vent above the tweeter, and also below the woofer.

I never read any commentary, anywhere, about the different drivers or enclosures.

Heaven knows which version of the A-25 J.Gordon Holt of Stereophile fame tested and raved over.

A semi-trailer load a week went through the distribution network and over 1,000,000 speakers were thought to have been sold overall.

When they were first introduced here in Vancouver, they were about $117.00 retail each or more, if my memory serves me right.

They were shipped from Denmark to the US and back up into Canada, adding a double duty.

Someone changed that, they then had them stored in bond and the prices dropped to as low as $53.00 each cdn retail discounted later.

I remember this fact, as my brother worked downtown, close to the store that advertised this price.

He was there at door opening, they had 2 pair only, Heh?

I have lived with a pair of these, as well as other Dynaco speakers, and I enjoyed them, very similar to AR, but not the exact same sound.

Somewhat like cousins, rather than brothers, very liveable in my opinion.

They really needed a lot of power reserve for them to open up, as I remember, even though I only had a AR amp at the time.

Their 5 position tweeter level control switch was a better and more reliable and repeatable control rather than AR pots.

I have not ever had a problem with my AR pots to be honest.

A 1 amp fast blow fuse in a open type fuseholder would be a good safety feature for your investment.

Looking at the time of AR's startup in the mid '50's and Ed Vilchur's comment of the Dynaco A-25 at $80.00 in the mid '60's, his comment must have carried a lot of weight to say the least.

Or one heck of a let down for the Dynaco rep, I guess he was hoping for a, well, "they're worth a lot more than that", Maybe?.

Have a great night.

>>Hi, I just discovered this site after a friend of mine

>asked

>>me to evaluate and help her restore her AR speakers. She

>has

>>a set of LSTs that are in very good condition, and this

>>smaller pair that don't seem to match any of the classic

>>pictures I've looked at so far. Can somebody help me

>identify

>>them? The tweeter may look metallic in the photo but that's

>>just because of the flash -- it's actually a black dome. The

>>stamp on the back panel says "Made In Denmark".

>>

>

>

>Yep, those are definitely "aperiodic" Dynaco A-25s. When they

>were introduced at the New York Music Show around 1966, one of

>the exuberant Dynaco engineers caught AR's Ed Villchur and

>dragged him into their booth and asked him what he thought of

>their brand-new speaker. Villchur listened and said, "How

>much do they cost?" The engineers replied that they were

>approximately $79 each. Villchur then said, "They sound like

>good $80 speakers." I happened to be walking with Villchur at

>that time, and I followed him into the Dynaco booth. I am

>sure this let the wind out of the Dynaco engineers' sails, but

>Villchur wasn't one to mince words. I believe the A-25s,

>which really were pretty decent speakers, went on to become

>top-sellers. They were highly regarded by *CU* and received a

>"Best Buy" rating. Complaints were slight over-emphasis in

>the 70-140 Hz frequency range and weakness in the very high

>treble, but the overall sound was very good. Incidentally, I

>don't believe that they were ever considered to be as accurate

>or smooth as the AR-4x, but they could go lower in deep bass.

>

>--Tom Tyson

>

>