LST SHIPPING BOXES

[roundhome]

Just wondering how common are a pair of original box's for LST's?

Jim

[Steve F]

Just wondering how common are a pair of original box's for LST's?

Jim

I've never seen a set of original LST boxes. I can't imagine they're too common these days, nor do I think I would trust 40-year-old corrugated to hold priceless 90-lb speakers.

If it were me (and I do have a set of LST-2's that will need to be shipped at some point soon), I would construct a set of custom-sized plywood shipping crates lined very generously with thick foam or have 'foam in place' blown in once the speakers are inside the crates. I can't think of a more unnecessary way to lose Classic AR speakers than from shipping damage.

Steve F.

[roundhome]

Thanks steve

I just picked these up serial number's 1018 ,1029 they have the original box's and stands since they were early they would need some work wrong looked like new cloth not stained or stretched or faded. well they will need some tweeter and foam but wrong again they had been sent back to the factory at some time all new back wired tweeters new woofers AR9 type .

plug and play.

I will be doing a cap job on them and I have some original woofer I can put in.

First time these were close enough to pick up the last ones I got mailed one was smashed.

want to do a cap job on them first then see if the new woofers make a diff other then handling more power.

[genek]

The 11" AR woofer was pretty much interchangeable from the AR-3 all the way up through the 9 series. As long as yours are genuine AR drivers and not the post-AR replacements from ABTech you will probably not notice any difference putting the old drivers in.

[tysontom]

The attached image was taken in 1976 at the Norwood, MA AR factory in the finished-goods area. In the background, far left, are AR-LST-2 shipping cartons (they were white); in the center are AR-LST cartons and on the right are MST cartons.

The cartons were double-thickness, heavy cardboard and the inserts were originally multi-layered, heavy cardboard inserts the shape of the LST about three inches thick into which the bottom-side of the LST would rest, and the top piece was an inverted form of the same thing. Once packed, the carton was very sturdy, and the LST would be four or five inches from any surface. The carton alone weighed nearly 20 lbs. Later, styrofoam-like inserts were placed in the bottom and on top of the LSTs.

--Tom Tyson

[dualref]

I once had someone ship some Bang & Olufsen speakers to me using the original 25 year old cardboard boxes. One arrived on my doorstep with just the speaker and the top of the box, the rest was gone. And the speaker wasn't damaged. The other speaker arrived with large portions of the original box gone. Your AR-LST's are worth more than that.

I think what happens over time is that normal moisture in the air makes the original cardboard weaken and disintegrate. So don't even take a chance with those.

The way I would ship them is to double box them and wrap a comforter around each one (1 per box) and then line the inside between each box with thick foam. I have shipped large German radios from Germany to the U.S. like that and they arrived undamaged.

[tysontom]

The original LST box was quite large, and originally these were intended to be shipped by truck freight rather than UPS or FedEx. The safest way to ship them would be to palletize both speaker boxes, banded together, and ship as one 200 lb. consignment. The original cardboard boxes, however, if still intact, were very strong and didn't deteriorate if kept in a dry location. The cardboard used by AR for the LST was significantly more rigid than standard cardboard containers. The cardboard was treated for moisture, but not waterproofed, of course, so that air moisture would not adversely affect the heavy cardboard.

Wrapping a "comforter" around each enclosure would likely damage the grill cloths and possibly some drivers, and this should never be done. The speakers need to be encased in a thick plastic bag and placed into a cutout insert, 4-6-inches thick, the shape of the speaker bottom (sort of trapezoidal shape) with a similar piece on top. Standard Styrofoam is not sturdy enough; the plastic closed-cell foam is probably better. A new box could be fabricated similar to the original AR box, and in the absence of an original box, this would be the best thing to do. Then band the two boxes to a pallet and ship by truck freight.

--Tom Tyson

[roundhome]

Hello Mr Tyson

I will try to get some good pics of the box's to post.

Jim