Sandpaper7
New Member
l purchased a pair of Allison Fives online a few months back and am completely blown away by the sound that comes out of these little boxes. I listened to a bunch of "bookshelf" speakers prior to buying the Allison Fives and wasn't satisfied with any of them. I live in Tasmania, a small island at the bottom of Australia. There's not a lot of choice down here, and what is available isn't cheap due to high freight costs.
Anyhow, I saw the A5s for sale (once again not cheap), but I was desperate. There's not much online about the 5s but everything written about Roy Allison's speakers is so positive I just bought them. I'm gonna say when they arrived I wasn't that impressed with their cosmetic appearance. They hadn't been treated well by the previous owner, but once connected up to an appropriate amp, WOW. They were crisp at the top and had unexpected bass for such a small package.
I knew straight away I was going to have to put some work into making the cabinets look as good as they sounded. There was significant water damage, but the veneer was sound and there were no chips or dents.
I got to work with some fine-grit sandpaper 120+ grit so as not to put a hole right through the veneer. It's quite thin so I was very careful, especially on the edges. Once I'd sanded the cabinets back to remove the stain and the water damage, I finished with very fine grit and coated the veneer with a water-based matt protective varnish preserving the color of the natural wood veneer.
As a final touch I re-sprayed the plastic grills with a black satin spray paint. I'm happy now that these speakers look almost as good as they sound and couldn't be happier with the finished product.
I think it's American Oak. Not entirely sure. Anyway, I guess this was one of those cases where it worked!
Anyhow, I saw the A5s for sale (once again not cheap), but I was desperate. There's not much online about the 5s but everything written about Roy Allison's speakers is so positive I just bought them. I'm gonna say when they arrived I wasn't that impressed with their cosmetic appearance. They hadn't been treated well by the previous owner, but once connected up to an appropriate amp, WOW. They were crisp at the top and had unexpected bass for such a small package.
I knew straight away I was going to have to put some work into making the cabinets look as good as they sounded. There was significant water damage, but the veneer was sound and there were no chips or dents.
I got to work with some fine-grit sandpaper 120+ grit so as not to put a hole right through the veneer. It's quite thin so I was very careful, especially on the edges. Once I'd sanded the cabinets back to remove the stain and the water damage, I finished with very fine grit and coated the veneer with a water-based matt protective varnish preserving the color of the natural wood veneer.
As a final touch I re-sprayed the plastic grills with a black satin spray paint. I'm happy now that these speakers look almost as good as they sound and couldn't be happier with the finished product.
I think it's American Oak. Not entirely sure. Anyway, I guess this was one of those cases where it worked!
