Large Advent score....Worf don't kill me...

[thekid]

Well when it rains it pours.......

While thrifting in the usual places I spotted a pair of speakers stuck in the corner next to some "classic" Yorx and Sanyo speakers. I turn them around and am greeted with a off-white grill and a large Advent badge down at the bottom.

I get the grills off and everything seems in order except for the odd looking tweeter. It looked at first like a bad rehab job. But after looking closer and thinking about the "fried egg" tweeters on my Genesis I's i started to wonder if these were not the real deal. I know nothing about Advents except by reputation. I see they want only $25 for them so I roll the dice.

Well after getting home and finding some pics it looks like I scored some original "Large Advents" with the "Bullnose" fronts.

If anyone here knows Advents and can confirm I would appreciate it.

[E-Stat]

But after looking closer and thinking about the "fried egg" tweeters on my Genesis I's i started to wonder if these were not the real deal.

There were two generations of the original Advent design. These appear to be the second generation New Advent design like mine, but clearly one of the tweeters is kinda funky with the tape. I'm not sure that has any audible effect, but it is different. There were a number of subtle changes with the "New" flavor. The tweeters were ferro-fluid coupled for higher power handling, the baskets of the woofers eliminated the masonite ring with steel frames and the crossover was both simplified and adjusted from 1 kHz up to 1.5 kHz.

Enjoy!

rw

[Auricauricle]

A friend o' mine, you know him as CaptJJ here, owned a paif of some very heavy Advents that are pulled out for parties 'n such like....These are monster speakers and the sound is simply huge! Unfortunately, space constraints have made it necessary to scale back, but what I heard was quite impressive. Keep us up on yer listening pleasure, and congratulations....

[thekid]

Thanks everyone!

Scoring a pair of Large Advents and Dynaco A-25's in the last week for a grand total of $45 is well within my budget.........

[Luvin Da Blues]

Thanks everyone!

Scoring a pair of Large Advents and A-25's in the last week for a grand total of $45 is well within my budget.........

LOL, at the rate you buy speakers you'll soon have to factor in $150/month to rent a storage unit. Keep up the good work.

[basite]

congrats!

I own 2 pairs of advents, stacked to make a double advent system...

great speakers for their money, keep em!
& enjoy

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[thekid]

LOL, at the rate you buy speakers you'll soon have to factor in $150/month to rent a storage unit. Keep up the good work.

I keep promising myself that I will not pick anything else up and then something falls in my lap. I really am at the saturation point, even the garage is almost full at this point. I doubt I am going to find a pair of Thiels or Maggies at the local thrift......

[blackraven]

I'll sell you a pair of Magnepan QR1.6's from my garage so I can buy the 3.6's but I don't think you would like the price!

[thekid]

I'll sell you a pair of Magnepan QR1.6's from my garage so I can buy the 3.6's but I don't think you would like the price!

Would you take $20??
I will go as high as $25 if you pay for shipping.........

[thekid]

Put a little Restor-It and some Feed-n-Wax to them and they cleaned up very nicely.....

Looks like these will go into the starting line-up tomorrow...

[blackraven]

Very nice, hopefully they will sound as good as they look!

[thekid]

I have played them so far with some classical aand accoustic music and they sound great. Very similar to the KLH-17's as you might expect. I might have to A/B them to see which ones have the edge but I think I am a winner either way with these puppies on board. I am not sure which amp to hook them up with at this point. I have read that the 50-60 wpc is the best range but my stuff seems to be on the either side of that number. My integrated amps Kenwood TK-250 and Sansui AU-505 are in the 20-25 wpc range. My Kenwood M-1D,KM-209 and KM-106 are in the 100-125 wpc range. I use Basic C-2 and C-1 pre-amp respectively with the KM amps.

Any thoughts out there on what would work best?

[emaidel]

I hope this is of some use. I've never followed the evolution of the various "Large" Advent speakers, but as I recall, the woofer in most (all?) of them had a masonite ring around it, much like the smaller piece of masonite surrounding the tweeter. From the pictures in the initial post, it would appear that the woofers are either "second/third/fourth" generations, or replacement woofers, which would make the purchase an even better deal. Foam rot ruined most of the original Large Advent woofers (as it did countless other speakers), and it would appear that these are new enough so that foam rot won't appear for quite some time. Overall, a pretty good deal!

[audio amateur]

Very nice, hopefully they will sound as good as they look!

Either you're being ironic or we don't have the same definition of 'good looking'

[thekid]

I hope this is of some use. I've never followed the evolution of the various "Large" Advent speakers, but as I recall, the woofer in most (all?) of them had a masonite ring around it, much like the smaller piece of masonite surrounding the tweeter. From the pictures in the initial post, it would appear that the woofers are either "second/third/fourth" generations, or replacement woofers, which would make the purchase an even better deal. Foam rot ruined most of the original Large Advent woofers (as it did countless other speakers), and it would appear that these are new enough so that foam rot won't appear for quite some time. Overall, a pretty good deal!

E

You are correct that the originals did have a masonite ring. These appear to have had the woofer replaced with a newer Advent woofer but I am trying to pin that down. These are also not "Bullnose" as I thought but they are not the standard "utility cabinets" either as they have a nice beveled edge.

The quality of the woofer replacement is excellent so I am thinking based on the overall condition that these were one owner speakers that at some point went to a shop for the woofer replacement. Here is a pic of the woofer out of the cabinet. The numbers on it are lost on a noob like me but the round magnet is a sign of a Advent woofer. I think I got the best of both worlds here in that I have a original Large Advent cabinet and tweeter with a second generation woofer which was (from what I have read) an upgrade over the original in some ways but sonically the same.

[02audionoob]

I have played them so far with some classical aand accoustic music and they sound great. Very similar to the KLH-17's as you might expect. I might have to A/B them to see which ones have the edge but I think I am a winner either way with these puppies on board. I am not sure which amp to hook them up with at this point. I have read that the 50-60 wpc is the best range but my stuff seems to be on the either side of that number. My integrated amps Kenwood TK-250 and Sansui AU-505 are in the 20-25 wpc range. My Kenwood M-1D,KM-209 and KM-106 are in the 100-125 wpc range. I use Basic C-2 and C-1 pre-amp respectively with the KM amps.

Any thoughts out there on what would work best?

One thing I like about the Basic M1D is the variable level controls on the front. You could set those to around 11:00 and then have a good range within which to operate the volume knob on the C1 or C2 without over-driving the speakers.

[thekid]

One thing I like about the Basic M1D is the variable level controls on the front. You could set those to around 11:00 and then have a good range within which to operate the volume knob on the C1 or C2 without over-driving the speakers.

02

If I understand what you are saying I could use the variable level to restrict the power to the speakers and make sure I don't crank the volume using the volume control on the C2.
If that is the case that might be the best solution. The room size is not very large and I almost never take the volume beyond 2 (don't have to with these older amps) so I am not sure I need much power anyway but researching these speakers there has just been several references about SQ being best in the 50-60 wpc range.

[E-Stat]

These appear to have had the woofer replaced with a newer Advent woofer but I am trying to pin that down.

That appears to be the case. I initially thought they were New Advents based upon the woofers, but upon looking at the grill openings, they are clearly from the first generation. Electrically, however, the woofers are identical. Here's an original pair of New Advents:

New Advent

Not only does it have the steel framed woofers, they are mounted further up. The ferro fluid tweeters are mounted flush. The grill opening for the tweeter is no longer a small circle but a very large rectangle. As I mentioned earlier, the crossover is simpler. Speaking of which, fifteen dollars worth of new capacitors can make a nice improvement to the high end. Power wise, they do quite well with a few good watts. My 400 watt Threshold amp is a bit of overkill, but a rarely need to run them beyond -20 db (4 watts) albeit I am running doubles that offer 3db more output for a given power level.

While they are somewhat veiled and have no response above 15 kHz, they nevertheless remain very natural sounding speakers that are capable of revealing fine differences upstream in the signal chain. There is a retired engineer over at AA who has fine tuned his pair to a great degree. He built custom cabinets that are internally braced, completely reworked the crossover, mirror imaged the tweeters, replaced the connector block and changed the grill cloth material. I visited him once when business took me to Ohio. They are the best examples of the Advent I've heard.

As for me, there is also a feeling of nostalgia for them since they were the first real speaker I owned back in '72.

rw

[thekid]

E

Thanks for the info!

I think I am going to hold off on the caps until I have done it a few times on other speakers. (I think I have a few around here that are candidates...). I am leaning towards just setting it up these up at first with the Sansui AU-505 and see what it sounds like. Plus it is an easier hook-up to main system while the Basic M1D/C2 are being used to help convert some vinyl to CD.

Based on the link in your reply I really did very well for my $25....

[02audionoob]

02

If I understand what you are saying I could use the variable level to restrict the power to the speakers and make sure I don't crank the volume using the volume control on the C2.
If that is the case that might be the best solution. The room size is not very large and I almost never take the volume beyond 2 (don't have to with these older amps) so I am not sure I need much power anyway but researching these speakers there has just been several references about SQ being best in the 50-60 wpc range.

Yes...you interpreted correctly on what I'm saying. I think the C2 is going to sound its best if you can run its attenuator (volume) up to levels like 4 and 5, rather than 2.

[basite]

E

Thanks for the info!

I think I am going to hold off on the caps until I have done it a few times on other speakers. (I think I have a few around here that are candidates...). I am leaning towards just setting it up these up at first with the Sansui AU-505 and see what it sounds like. Plus it is an easier hook-up to main system while the Basic M1D/C2 are being used to help convert some vinyl to CD.

Based on the link in your reply I really did very well for my $25....

again, congrats...

the steel frame woofer you have is a new made advent woofer. They're sold by www.simplyspeakers.com, they also sell refoam kits, and new tweeters. The woofers are an exact replacement, with an improved motor design, making slightly higher power handling possible. (a 400 watt treshold amp is still overkill though )
these woofers sell new for $129 each, just to give you an idea...


and as E-Stat mentioned, recapping improves the high end, and not just a little. there were 2 different crossovers in the advent design, you should check the cap values in yours to find out...

the 'New large advent' (the model with the bullnose), used a 13 µF cap in the crossover. you could replace that with a 12 µF + a 1 µF cap. Definately not hard, basic soldering skills are all that are required...

Great improvement.

take good care of those speakers, they're little wonders.

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[thekid]

Okay they are temporarily set-up here with my other speakers in my vintage 2-channel set-up. I need to rearrange these eventually but I am short on time at the moment so this will do.

One pic is of the Advents next to one of its KLH-17 "cousins".

Thanks to everyone here for the responses and contributions to this thread.

[02audionoob]

It all looks great to me, but I'd have a seriously low WAF with that setup.

[thekid]

It all looks great to me, but I'd have a seriously low WAF with that setup.

There probably will be.......she's at work and has not seen it yet.
I will tell her it is only temporary and 3 months from now I will get around to changing it.....