Advent Heritage Speaker replacement

[rbengraff]

I have a 17 year old pair of advent towers. They are beautiful and easily one of the best speakers I have ever owned. I realized this past weekend that the foam surrounding the speakers (8 inch) have just disintegrated. I desperately what to replace them with the same speaker if posible. Does anyone have any idea if they even still make that speaker or where I might find a comparable pair?

Thanks,

Robert

[harley .guy07]

unless you look around the vintage used market and happen to luck into finding that exact driver it will probably be hard to replace with the exact driver from Advent. Now if your cones and motor structures in these speakers are in good shape then you could opt to order a refoam kit from a company like parts express or mcm electronics and you could refoam the 8 " speaker themselves and posibly have them back in perfect working order with out costing you too much money to do it. If you are not the do it yourself type or you do not the time to do it then are are places out there you can send your drivers to to have the foam surround replaced but at a much higher cost to you since they are doing the work for you. About the only other option you have is to look at madisound or parts express and find you a 8" woofer that will work in the size of inclosure and will blend well with the crossover and tweeter that these speakers use and replace both woofers. i have worked on speakers in the past and many times you can find such a driver from these companies and most often it is of better quality and supperior sounding to what the speaker origionally had in them. good luck

[rbengraff]

Wow. Lots of good information here. Much appreciated. I had no idea that one could refoam themselves. I think I might give it a whirl. I can always by new speakers when I screw it up

Again thanks,

--R

[E-Stat]

I realized this past weekend that the foam surrounding the speakers (8 inch) have just disintegrated.

Refoaming kits are easy to come by on ebay. I have thirty year old New Advents that have been refoamed.

rw

[Father Time]

I liked the heritage towers so much that I found another mint set now I have 4 towers in my avr set up. I was so surprised when I heard them, they blew away everything that I had! I haven't had time to compare them to my B&W dm 580's, as they are pretty bad assed.... I have them on all my tube stuff. I'm going to bring out the towers and hook my tube stuff into it and see how it sounds this weekend. I actually got 3 re-foam's included when I got my first set so I'm good when they need it.

[TheHills44060]

My uncle has a pair of Large Advents and he was able to refoam them a couple years ago. The process wasn't too difficult. He just followed the directions and took his time and now they are back in perfect working order. I definitely recommend the refoaming kits.

[Geoffcin]

My uncle has a pair of Large Advents and he was able to refoam them a couple years ago. The process wasn't too difficult. He just followed the directions and took his time and now they are back in perfect working order. I definitely recommend the refoaming kits.

Good advice here. Refoaming is pretty easy for anyone who's handy with simple tools. I would say that if your speakers are more than 20 years old you also might want to change out the caps in the crossover. It's a little more involved with some soldering, but it can make a big differerence in how well the speaker performs.

[luvtolisten]

Here is one 'how to" link on re-foaming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uao7wSRU8ms

Do a google search and you'll see more. It's not hard, just takes patience.

I used these guys for my first refoam, they give you a step by step DVD to go along with the kit.

http://www.wooferrepair.com/advent.html

As Geoff said, replacing the caps would really improve the sound, make them almost new again. Just stay away from the electrolytic caps. The poly caps are well worth the extra $, for the sound and length of service.

http://www.parts-express.com/crossov...TOKEN=42219436

[Poultrygeist]

Some sites and videos say you can re-foam without removing the dust cap but that is bad advise. You can't access the voice coil to shim it without partially lifting the dust cap (cover) out of the way. If you don't shim the voice coil you can't be sure of properly aligning the new foam surround. This may sound complicated but it's really not. There are some poor quality foam surrounds on ebay so I'd stick with a known source.

I would advise cutting the base of the dust cap with an exacto blade and tiny manicure scissors just enough to fold it back to access the voice coil. It's much easier to use the original cap and re-glue it than to fit the replacement that comes with most kits. Most times the replacement dust cap is the wrong size anyway. The glue that comes with the kit is nothing more than Elmer's white glue which dries clear.

I re-foamed some big Advent Legacy II's not long ago and they came out great. Beware, the large Advents use different foam surrounds. Look at the pictures of each driver and compare them to yours before you buy. I bought the Legacy's for $10 as the owner thought they were shot. Sold them for over $100 after I re-foamed them. They sounded nice with just a $30 T-amp.

[Poultrygeist]

I see that in the youtube video the dust cap is not removed. It can certainly be done that way and come out fine most of the time but it's still risky as you can't assure proper alignment. Dang if I'd invest $30 in a re-foam kit and chance a scraping voice coil.

[luvtolisten]

I see that in the youtube video the dust cap is not removed. It can certainly be done that way and come out fine most of the time but it's still risky as you can't assure proper alignment. Dang if I'd invest $30 in a re-foam kit and chance a scraping voice coil.

That's why I would recommend wooferrepair.com. if it's your first time. They have the video, to show how to remove the dust cap, shim it etc.and they also supply the shims. You will need an exacto knife, and isopropyl alcohol (91% works best, any drugstore will have it). You'll also have to measure your dustcap when you order and pick the right one. It may be a little larger than the original,but not by much, that's just to cover the remains of the old dustcap.

[luvtolisten]

Hey Poultrygeist, I see you have the Athena F2's (me too, I love 'em). How do they compare to the ADS L710's?

[Poultrygeist]

The F2's have deeper bass and are so easy to drive. What a great buy they were when BB closed them out for peanuts. Use them as front mains in an all Athena 5.1. The 710's are fine old classics for two channel but their size has always been perplexing - too big for stands and too small for the floor.