Advent Model 300 Vintage Receiver Review

[Mosquito]

hi end

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.


Mind You, n the late seventies-early 80's the phono input of this unit was reported by The Audio Critic to be superior to various hi end units of the era. (as stand alone phono, bypassing the tone and volume controls, and taking the signal from the tape output) (The Audio Critic Vol.1 Number 1, January-February 1977).

 

[EJ3]

Mind You, n the late seventies-early 80's the phono input of this unit was reported by The Audio Critic to be superior to various hi end units of the era. (as stand alone phono, bypassing the tone and volume controls, and taking the signal from the tape output) (The Audio Critic Vol.1 Number 1, January-February 1977).

My use case is a bit different, I do NOT use the built in amp at all. I use the pre-amp out to either a NAD 2100, 2 NAD 2100's (bridged mono for each channel), a NAD 2200, 2 NAD 2200's (bridged mono) or 3 NAD 2200's (one in stereo for the pair of 4 Ohm subs & 2 NAD 2200's (bridged mono) for the stereo channels. All with the resto-mod work having been done by Peter Williams at QuirkAudio. I don't have any complaints with this usage (although it all sounds better when I use my APT/Homan Preamps & my NAD 4300 tuner)

 

[EJ3]

"I love the tuner knob on the 300, reminding me of what you would find in a HAM radio"
You wouldn't if you had to live with it, the signal tended to drift.

The drift was an easy fix: (from David Eaton)
Excessive tuner warm up drift: This is a tricky problem. My definition of excessive drift: with the receiver cold, you tune in a station. Upon warm up, the station tuning lights have changed from equal brightness to one completely off. If one light has dimmed but is not off, this is not excessive drift. To fix excessive drift, you can replace C510. This is a 20 pf ceramic unit, and the temperature coefficient is critical. The capacitance must change with temperature to compensate for drift in the tuning coils as they heat up. Typical temp coefficient codes are N330, N470 and N750. For example, N330 = 330 ppm drift per ° C. If you have a 20 pf N750 installed, replace it with 20 pf N470. I’ve found that excessive drift is improved by swapping the N750 cap with an N470 cap. These caps may be hard to find. Tuner drift is difficult to fix, but swapping these caps will get you close. All drift problems I’ve seen involve the N750 cap. If your model 300 doesn’t use the N750 cap, switching to the N470 cap won’t help.

 

[Robin L]

The drift was an easy fix: (from David Eaton)
Excessive tuner warm up drift: This is a tricky problem. My definition of excessive drift: with the receiver cold, you tune in a station. Upon warm up, the station tuning lights have changed from equal brightness to one completely off. If one light has dimmed but is not off, this is not excessive drift. To fix excessive drift, you can replace C510. This is a 20 pf ceramic unit, and the temperature coefficient is critical. The capacitance must change with temperature to compensate for drift in the tuning coils as they heat up. Typical temp coefficient codes are N330, N470 and N750. For example, N330 = 330 ppm drift per ° C. If you have a 20 pf N750 installed, replace it with 20 pf N470. I’ve found that excessive drift is improved by swapping the N750 cap with an N470 cap. These caps may be hard to find. Tuner drift is difficult to fix, but swapping these caps will get you close. All drift problems I’ve seen involve the N750 cap. If your model 300 doesn’t use the N750 cap, switching to the N470 cap won’t help.

Easy fix for me: I stopped using the Advent 300. If I want to hear a radio station, I'll use the internet. Broadcast FM is just too dodgy.

 

[EJ3]

Easy fix for me: I stopped using the Advent 300. If I want to hear a radio station, I'll use the internet. Broadcast FM is just too dodgy.

Being as internet is a very difficult option in at least one place that I spend time at BUT at that location I do get 36 stations of 1080 TV & a number of great sounding (as opposed to terrible sounding) FM stations within 75 miles. It happens to be that location is on a river in a wild area and the population is a wonderful 64 people per square mile (which I like, as opposed to another place that I own a condo & has almost any amenity you can think of but a horrid [to me] 910 people per square mile). But that is what my wife likes.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Easy fix for me: I stopped using the Advent 300. If I want to hear a radio station, I'll use the internet. Broadcast FM is just too dodgy.

If I quit listening to broadcast FM, I’d have to stop playing with one of my favorite toys!

 

[EJ3]

If I quit listening to broadcast FM, I’d have to stop playing with one of my favorite toys!

View attachment 177325

Sweet!