I'm talking about measurements...I have a Fisher 500C that'll smoke that thing.
I'm talking about measurements...I have a Fisher 500C that'll smoke that thing.
Ya ever own one? The Fisher 500C receiver is one of those "measurements, shemeasurements" pieces of gear. It'll make for a more consistantly pleasant listening experience than an Advent 300. I've used both. Yes, the 500C has mush on top and bottom, old tube gear is not so good at frequency extremes. Probably measured higher for low-order distortion than the Advent 300. But everything else was better.I'm talking about measurements...
Yeah, a fair point me thinks.Too bad there isn't someone nearby that could replace the power supply capacitors so we could see if it is a design issue or just worn out parts causing the ripple. If new capacitors fixed that it would land near the middle of the chart.
At nearly 50 years it really needs a recap job. It is a shame that the vintage equipment that gets tested here tends to be untouched and worn out or modified beyond just a basic capacitor replacement.
It seems a bit pointless to test and judge equipment that is in need of work. I know vintage amps get recommended quite often as a bargain way to get into hifi so I could see doing a comparison of before and after having all the electrolytic capacitors replaced to show people that they need to have the vintage amps serviced. However, just testing ones where they have definitely exceeded their components lifespan doesn't make sense.
The phono preamp was the killer feature. It was specifically designed (by Tom Holman, no less) to not interact with the particular phono cartridge being used, which could cause frequency response coloration. I used mine as a preamp (with the trusty modified Dyna ST70 as the amp). My Shure V15 cartridge sounded smoother - nice! The low end filter also helped with turntable rumble. A sweet phono section.This is a review and detailed measurements of the Advent Model 300 Vintage Receiver. It is on kind loan from a member. I believe it came out in 1970s. The original cost was US $270. That would be $1,300 if adjusted for inflation.
I love the tuner knob on the 300, reminding me of what you would find in a HAM radio:
View attachment 75329
There is no detent on various tone adjustments and balance. The slide switches are par for the era but don't feel nearly as nice of Japanese gear of the time.
The back side is decidedly cheap:
View attachment 75330
Those tiny speaker screw terminals were on the cheapest 8-track tape/receivers, not on serious hi-fi. The RCA terminals all look tired but work.
Receiver Audio Measurements
I opted to use the Aux input for my testing. I used an RCA cable to feed the pre-amp to power amp. Not sure if they came with a special shorting connector or not. Let's feed a 1 kHz tone to the 300 and see what comes out:
View attachment 75332
Distortion is below 80 dB but because we have a lot of power supply harmonics, it degrades SIAND to just 68 dB which places the unit pretty low in our amplifier rankings:
View attachment 75333
Signal to noise ratio is poor due to aforementioned power supply noise:
View attachment 75334
These are yesterday's amplifiers so don't look for hundreds of watts into 4 ohm load:
View attachment 75335
Yes, just 23 watts! No wonder the unit runs so cool in use. If we allow distortion to peak higher, we still don't get much output:
View attachment 75336
Switching to 8 ohm load reduces available power even more as it normally does:
View attachment 75337
Ironic though that it has less noise than a modern AVR, albeit, not a very good one (NAD T758).
Pre-amplifier Performance
I disconnected the power amp and measured the output of the preamplifier using our 1 kHz tone and got this:
View attachment 75338
Distortion is similar to when we were driving the power amp but noise is much lower so SINAD improves 10 dB.
Conclusions
The inefficient speakers of today won't be kind to the Model 300 due to lack of power. With non-competitive noise and distortion, there is not much of a reason to use this amplifier. It does have a vintage look though so perhaps someone would be interested in that aspect of it.
And yes, it is possible that the power supply noise is higher due to age. I can only test what I am given.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
if I had a day job, I could just do this review and get paid. But no, this being the Internet age, I have to be measuring a speaker while I am doing this test. Surely this qualifies for overtime. So please donate what you can using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Too bad there isn't someone nearby that could replace the power supply capacitors so we could see if it is a design issue or just worn out parts causing the ripple.
I have a Fisher 500C that'll smoke that thing.
I've owned multiple Harman Kardon 330C receivers, agree that they're better than the Advent.The cachet of the Advent 300 was (is) the Thomlinson Holman designed phono preamp.
The tuner section was held in moderate regard, too, and is obviously part of the Henry Kloss lineage from his first, vacuum tube KLH table radio to his last Tivoli Audio products.
Interestingly, although the 300 was/is held in remarkably high esteem in certain circles, the Boston Audio Society kind of sniffed haughtily at it when they tested it.
http://www.bostonaudiosociety.org/pdf/bass/BASS-05-10-7707.pdf
From Audio Critic 1977: "...we discovered in the lab that when the tone controls were set for dead-flat response on the right channel, there was a 2 dB bass boost on the left channel. Furthermore, the dead flat position of the treble control was a few minutes past the 12 o'clock position. (Of course we mustn't forget that we're dealing with a $260 stereo receiver here... next thing you know, we'll complain that the controls didn't have that expensive feel. They don't..."
FWIW, I was a little surprised to see it assembled in Mexico. I didn't think outsourcing was common back then, but I didn't notice those things back then, either.
The hk 330C is a nice little receiver -- with (IMO, of course) timeless and elegant aesthetics. They were quite popular when & where I came of age (mid-Atlantic).I've owned multiple Harman Kardon 330C receivers, agree that they're better than the Advent.