Review: the double Advent system

[basite]

Review:
The double advent system.




After spending a lot of time listening to the stacked Advents, I’m finally going to review them.

Anyways:

Looks:

As you can see in the picture, them things are pretty big, that fact alone already adds a little bit of ‘magic’, when you sit down and listen, and you see a big speaker there. Then, for what was a $260 pair of speakers back then, they have a really good finish, solid wood bull-nose, and the rest of the cabinet is veneered, the veneer was in a good condition so there were no real difficulties refinishing them. The colour matches really good, they’re not too shiny, not too light, nor they are too dark. The other pair will be refinished this summer vacation, and will look exactly like the refinished ones.

The sounds.

I was expecting that my amp would have had troubles driving them, but it actually performs pretty well. A little more control would be nice, but I think the upcoming new amp will do something about that too.
I can only agree on what other reviews said (in magazines), the Advents are very neutral sounding speakers, they ‘add’ almost nothing to the sound. When using the single Advents, you could already notice this, the double Advent system, however, shows it much better.

Not only it becomes more neutral, it will also do other nice stuff:
Soundstage became huge, a much bigger sound now comes from the Advents, things sound more natural now, and you hear the music like you are there. There also is more detail, and I hear things now that I didn’t hear when I was using the single pair of Advents, small things that make the music complete. When listening to a big group of violins or so, you can actually hear that there is ‘a group of violins’ playing, where on the single pair, you hear one or two violins playing really really loud. This is especially useful with classical music and with jazz where there are a lot of instruments. The midrange comes out better too, it’s filling the gap you had when using a single pair. The highs are crisp, and the bass is strong, without becoming to much, however, since the speakers are super revealing, a bright-ish recording will sound really bright, but that’s no problem, because I don’t have that much bright recorded albums. The stacked pair also seems to go a little lower than the single pair does.

Listening to music.

I don’t have a gazillion of albums to review with, but I’ll try my best.

Let’s start with something fun:



Pink Floyd – Dark side of the moon: now this is fun indeed, the heartbeat at the beginning hits you in the chest (and everywhere else) and then the mighty opening ‘surrounds’ you with sound, the heartbeat starts it, the opening continues it, then it’s there for the rest of the cd, that WALL of sound coming at you, it’s just fantastic.
I did notice though that when I crank it, it sometimes tends to sound a little bright, but that’s because of the amp I think. But anyways, the music continues, when he starts singing, you also notice how good the Advents are with voices. It comes through nicely, with good detail; my dad’s B&W 604’s are no challenge for the Advents when it comes to voices and a lot of other stuff too.
On track 4 of this album (The great gig in the sky), the music (read as: WALL of sound) comes to you, and ‘walks’ over you, that’s how big it is…
Track 5 also is a nice example of how exiting the Advents can reproduce music, the guitar just hits you.

Then, other album…

How about some classical, shall we?



Shostakovich symphony no. 4

Great cd, great recording. A difficult piece to play, both for the musicians as for the speakers.
I’m sure dad’s 604’s will provide slightly more detail, but they can’t deliver the ‘big’ effect the Advents bring, there are a lot of ‘heavy’ parts in this piece, they need big speakers to do that, this piece is a good example of the ‘large group of violins’ part, since there are quite a lot violins in it, together with the instruments that provide bass (cello, contrabass, bass drums) you clearly hear that there is a large group of them, and where they are. Same for the Cellos there is a part where they play really fast here, and you can still clearly hear that they are cellos, not boomy or muddy at all.

And more classical:



Ophélie Gaillard – J. S. Bach, suites 1, 2, 6, 3, 4, 5
‘nuff said, this was recorded at Château du Corroy, and could just be the best recording I have. She’s there. You can hear every breath & move she makes. As well as some environmental sounds (between the pieces, you can sometimes hear a little bird singing outside) much more detailed as with the single pair of Advents, and much fuller, with a wider frequency range, her cello now sounds as a real Cello, not as an oversized violin, with wannabe low tones.

(more tests will come, but they are for the Marantz review)

Conclusion,
Quite a short one: I’m amazed & impressed by the impact of the double advent system, not just for the sound alone, their looks also add a little bit of magic (no really, they do).
Their sound completes the picture of course, and add the fact that they are 30 years old, and then you’ll be completely amazed. You’ll have to search hard to find a speaker as good as the double Advent system that’s payable for most of the people, especially on voices and presence.
That said, they will never leave. Not even when I’ve got 10k speakers next to them.


Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[basite]

ooh, nearly forgot to tell you all,
I am accepted for the vacation job (this july)
this will finance the upcoming poweramp

[Feanor]

Review:
The double advent system.
....
That said, they will never leave. Not even when I’ve got 10k speakers next to them.

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

Well done on the Advents and well done on the review.

But give yourself a break: bring on those 10k speakers before swearing undying devotion to the 2xAdvents. After all, they are .. ummm .. big.

[JohnMichael]

Nice review and congratulations on the summer job. I also will be looking into the Bach and Shostakovitch recordings you mentioned. I am most anxious for your review of the Marantz cd player.

[basite]

it's coming, don't worry... the marantz review will come this weekend.

@feanor, the 10k speakers will be the best, and the most used, and probably getting most of my attention. But since I have the double advents, I might as well keep them