AR LST vs. Allison One

HepcatWilly

HepcatWilly

Just trying to be Hepful
I spotted an AR LST on the Bay and it got me drooling. Another AR LST thread on AK, and now I'm obsessing over things I can't have at the moment.:no:

Has anyone heard both the LST and Roy Allison's later Allison One? How do they compare?

I've heard Allisons, and they are great. I understand that the LST was stunning. The Allisons came after Roy Allison left AR and you would think the Ones would be an improvement. Is this the case?

Thanks for any insight!
Hep
 
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I've owned LSTs. They are VERY nice. Speakers of this caliber are very satisfying. If you get a pair you will be happy for quite a while.

They do appreciate a bit of power put to them to make them come to life.
 
There is no single "perfect" speaker for every listening preference. Every speaker design is a series of compromises.

Different people require and expect different performance characteristics from their speakers which is why there are so many different speaker designs and manufacturers.

There are some people who think Bose 901s are god like. There are others who have a very different opinion of them.

If there were only one perfect speaker there would be no need for this discussion group would there?

KLH 9s, like all speakers, have flaws. They beam. They have very little vertical and horizontal dispersion. When you are out of the "sweet spot" they fall off drastically so they are not good "party speakers".

They are VERY selfish speakers. Only 1 person (2 maybe) can listen to them, even as a double pair, and be in that "perfect" listening position. A double pair has no response below 32 hz and nothing above 19k.

They will not play loud, no matter how much power you put to them. They are not going to have thundering base like JBL/Altec/CV... They are not going to rip the cabinets off of your walls with their bottom end.

BUT

When you are in the sweet spot, they vanish and you are left with nothing but the performance, no speakers exist at all.

I believe that this old (1974) reviewer sums it up perfectly in this article http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/666klh/
When they say in their review conclusion:

To date, nothing we had found seemed to suggest that this system was worth anywhere near the $1140 the manufacturer asks for it. We changed our mind, though, when we heard music through it. This was the first time, since we started dabbling in high fidelity in the early 1940s, that we have ever felt we were really listening through a loudspeaker instead of to it; the system has a degree of transparency and detail that we simply did not believe possible.

This is the most nearly perfect loudspeaker we have ever heard, and we've heard every likely contender that's in commercial production. It does not favor some instruments over others, but seems to make everything sound almost perfectly natural.
 
I had LST's powered by KW L-07M mono amps back in the late 70's. It was a great sounding system with an effortless quality. If you can get you hands on a pair I think you will be very pleased.
 
Not to redirect the thread, but KLH Nines, when setup and working properly are incredible. I agree with KLHNine nearly 100%. However, using two or more pair of KLH Nines help the "beam" aspect immensely. Further, I have added outboard vertical tweeter panels with superb success. My favorite setup is 3 pair with stock tweeters disabled with 1 homemade long narrow vertical tweeter per side. I have tried Martin Logan panels as outboard tweeters with great success as well. There just may be such a setup at next years AK Fest.. :yes:

Electrostats give a great presentation.

Are they the best speaker? IMO, it depends on what you want... They do what they do, VERY WELL.
 
I've heard LST II's against Allison 1's and prefer the Allison. I think the bass is better, the midringe smoother, and treble more delicate sounding on the Allison. I believe Roy Allison designed the LST before leaving AR and the Allison One takes the design to the next level. Both use dome mids and tweets, room interaction/placement for bass response and cabinet design for dispersion.
 
You might consider your room shape in choosing between the two. LSTs are not corner friendly! The ones produce bass both low and musical, but the overall sound is a bit darker than the LST.
 
Apparently the Cello Amati was the ultimate manifestation of the AR LST.
I know a fellow who is recreating a pair of Amatis with AR drivers (including, with luck, some of those scrounged from my ugly dump-find AR-3s).

No, I haven't heard LSTs (or Amatis)... The LSTs must sound a lot like AR-3s or 3as, though, right?

proamati_p.jpg


I like Allison Ones.

This didn't help at all, did it?
 
4 pair of KLH Nines with Marantz 9s in triode are as close to heaven as you can get imho. I never heard anything that could come close. You do need a room large enough to properly set them up though.

As for the Allison Ones and LSTs, the overll sonic character is not all that dissimilar however, the LST does not convey the delicacy if the msic to the extent the Ones do. Betwen them, it is really only a question of personal preference as both are very good New England school speakers.
 
HepcatWilly said:
Three...THREE pair of 9's? Did I read that right!?!
Click to expand...

Thank you. Actually, I am lucky enough to have 4 pair. However, I have never had all 4 pair in the same system running at 1 time..

I do have the power supplies of two pair apart at the moment for updates and modifications. Three pair have had the woofer panels recoated with the original coating already.
 
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