Large Advent Utility

So that leaves me with nothing much to do. I am shipping out a Yamaha CR-800 that I restored, also a Yamaha CR-1020 (Third job for this customer and he tells me to expect two Yamaha CR-2020s any day now). A McIntosh 4100 on the bench, a second Fisher 400 waiting to have all the new caps and rectifiers installed, A Philips receiver with a distorted left channel, the Luxman 1030 turned out to be just fine, the KLH27 is sick, my second pair of original Large Advents are waiting for their final sanding and the tweeters when they get here. Oh yeah, the EPI 120Bs have been refoamed, sound bloody mahvelous, and are waiting for oak veneering. Other than that I have little or nothing to do. And there is a pair of 'Calssic' Large Advents, Model 5012/W whose cabinets I refinished that are one pair of Advents too many. But they sound good.

Rob
 
There were days when I thought I would never reach this point - they are both done! Woffers re-foamed. Sound just like Large Advents.

Rob
 
Here they are with the acoustically transparent (another way of saying it is twice as much per yard as JoAnn Fabrics charges) grills in place.
 
That's the EPI 120Bs hiding behind them, with the oak veneer sheets lying on top. Be a while before I get to them, but I have put new surrounds on the woofers and renewed the foam grills. They had sagged and bulged so I washed them in warm water. Laid them flat to dry and they shrunk lengthwise and got wider width-wise. So I washed them again and this time hung them vertically to dry - length is perfect but still a bit too wide so I trimmed them to fit - they look like new.

Rob
 
Rob
Those are gorgeous ! :thmbsp:

If you want to get top dollar, maybe bring them to AKfest in April.

Bet you wouldn't a bit of trouble selling those beautys :banana:

That and I'd really like to see them in person, not to mention the guy who did them :D

Take care!
Army
 
Thanks, like to meet you too. My problem with those puppies is that I put too much $$ into them and I don't have boxes to fit them. If someone wants to pick them up and hand me the $140 I foolishly sank into this project then they are all their's. I won't get anything for my labor, but pretty as they are they gave my a large Excedrin headache.

Rob
 
Rob
Those musta been a pain, your repeating yourself :lmao: !

I think your price is a bargain ! And that's an understatement ! :yes:

Wish I needed a pair those would be my first choice.

I'd be sleeping with them if I brought them home. :yikes: Sorry those don't cuddle so well ! :no:

Happy Holidays !
Army
 
I'll take them. I'll put a check in the mail in tomorrow's post and arrange to get over to pick them up after Xmas, if that works for you. I'll send you a PM to confirm. They are for my brother. He has three sets, but none as nice as these. And I want to see the Makore finish, as well. Thanks.

Glenn
 
Then they are all yours. If the server responds this time I won't double post. I'm never sure with my ISP, think they are using a 486 as the authentication server. I've offered them my SUN 3/60 for free.

Rob
 
Whats your address in MD, I've got a pair of Advents and Smaller Advents, and a pair of Klipsch, and a pair of Bozak Symphonys to ship you for some of that magic.

Without any reservation whatsoever - those are the nicest Advents I've ever seen including the custom pairs that Henry had built for himself in the beginning of the Advent saga.
 
Miracle worker

Wow Rob, are those the utility Advents you took off my hands? They are gorgeous. A tip of the hat to you.

Now if you can bring my Marantz 5-disc carousel to life I'll be even more amazed. I'll be in touch after Christmas.

Happy Holidays to all!
 
If you decide to do some more Makore I get first crack with my NS-1000Ms. BTW, just what are the problems with Makore compared to other woods?
 
Wow, let me try and answer all these posts in some sequence. Brian, we are at 4045 Roxmill Court, Glenwood, MD - just 3 miles north of Sunshine on RR97 (Georgia Ave). Richard, yes that is the pair and I won't even tell you what all it took to get to this stage. Glenn, Makore has a high silica content so it dulls tools and wears out sandpaper real fast. It is brittle and will split if you hold your mouth the wrong way and it does not sand down evenly, it's as if there were soft and hard bits in the wood. Plus it seldom comes absolutely flat so as a consequence it must have pressure applied evenly all over while the glue dries. Imagine if you will the moment when you remove all the clamps only to find that one part did not go flat and is bubbled up. After sobbing softly into a tissue you suck it up and strip the sucker and try again.

Everyone, if you want something veneered here is what you do; go to the eBay home page and search on 'veneer' (without the quotes) sooner or later you will start to see offerings from Thin Woods and Old Tools (no comments), this is one of the most honest guys I know and is my sole supplier for veneers. How do you know what you need? Well if the case, cabinet, whatever is 22" long, 15" deep and 7" high then you need at a minimum a lot containing 23" long pieces and enough of them to cover the area of the case. Width is not too important as I can join narrow pieces along the grain and you will really have to look to find it. Joining across the grain- forget it!

How long will it take? Each surface must be clamped overnight - # srfaces x 24 hrs. Final sanding approx 1 day, Poly finish or Tung oil finish about 5 coats @ one coat per day. Time to spend with the gentle lady I married tends to stretch these numbers, that and the fact that I am no longer 39.

Merry Chritsmas to all, God Bless us everyone.

Rob
 
Picked up these great looking and sounding Large Advents from Rob yesterday. Excellent work and was an opportunity to meet another of the fine gentlemen (and his lovely wife) who make up AK. Not only does Rob repair and refinish our vintage gear, he restores antiques and builds some of the world's most detailed and complex doll houses. Obviously, a man of many talents and near-infinite patience and abilities.

Dropped off a couple of Yamaha receivers for Rob to clean and check-out on the same trip. Along with the walnut cabinets he is making for a couple of Fisher tube receivers and veneering of some other Advents and EPI speakers I think we can keep him out of trouble. Thanks, Rob. See you in a couple of weeks.
 
What Did The LAU's Look Like Before You Refinished Them?

I ran accross a set of what I now think are the very speakers you refinished. Stupid me, I did not buy them ($50). I am going to try to get them next week. Are these the LAU's of which you speak?

The ones I saw were black and had black grill covers. Everything else about them looked exactly like the ones in the e-bay pictures down to the 10" woofers in the 12" hole with the masonite in the surrounds.

I was thinking I could veneer them as well and get new grill cloth -- this post is an inspiration -- I may be asking you questions about the best way to veneer them if I get them.
 
Very ratty with dinged corners and scratches in the walnut vinyl.

From your description of those LAUs it sounded like someone had stripped the vinyl and painted the MDF, they are not particularly smooth once stripped. I went to JoAnn's fabric shop looking for grill cloth for my Original Advents as I wanted both pair to match. Came home with some off-white/ivoryish burlap. Very open weave, does not impede the sound. It comes in many colors. Of course the LAUs you saw may have had the original grill cloth stripped and just the black underlayer was left.

Veneering LAUs is a multi step process. You start with the inside lip around the grill. Then you do the edge of the face. Then the bottom, the sides and the top - in that order. You can work pretty fast with water based contact cement though I have not had great luck with contact cement and so I use Titebond II and clamps. Just finished trimming the oak veneer tops of the EPI 120B cabinets today - tomorrow they get sanded and stained, then after that the finish gets applied. They sounded so good that I felt I must do something to the ratty finish they had. Label said it was scuff resistant vinyl, well I guess it had resisted as long as it could and finally gave up.

Chap from North VA came buy today and relieved me of the big old SUN computer and all the manuals, so I setup my PC on the desk and cleared the table for stereos. I will have to take the two monitors and laser printer to the recycle sometime as no one seems to want them.

It's a good thing I never wear a hat as my hat size would be two sizes larger after all the nice things you all have said.

Rob
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom