The New Advent Loudspeaker Review (Vintage Speaker)

[Remlab]

These are the first speakers I ever owned. Got them second hand back in 1985(I was 23). They were placed on the carpeted floor, up against the wall and 8 ft apart. Sounded very good in that position. Later, after I learned that I needed to lift them up on stands and get them away from the front wall, they sounded terrible. Back into the old positions they went

 

[Robin L]

I had the Large Advents a couple of times, the Smaller Advent once. The original Advent had plenty of bass as I recall. I think some of Advent's brain trust left over time. The "New Advent" is from the late 1970s, the other, original Advents were from about a decade earlier. I also had the original AR 3 speakers, my first "serious" speakers. They went way down, but had a hole in the upper mid/treble range that filtered out surface noise at the expense of everything else. I recall that the Advents did similar things, no doubt for similar reasons. And yeah, stacked Advents did sound better.

 

[MaxBuck]

I had the Large Advents a couple of times, the Smaller Advent once. The original Advent had plenty of bass as I recall. I think some of Advent's brain trust left over time. The "New Advent" is from the late 1970s, the other, original Advents were from about a decade earlier. I also had the original AR 3 speakers, my first "serious" speakers. The went way down, but had a hole in the upper mid/treble range that filtered out surface noise at the expense of everything else. I recall that the Advents did similar things, no doubt for similar reasons. And yeah, stacked Advents did sound better.

Believe it or not, I thought stacking the Smallers on top of the Larges gave the best sound.

SAE MkIIIC provided plenty of oomph to drive them, too.

 

[martin900]

Would be amazing if you could get your hands on a pair of Yamaha NS1000(M) to measure.

 

[Sonny1]

Wow! Thanks for the review. I had a pair of these back in the late 70’s or early 80’s (it’s a blur) and “upgraded” to some KLH speakers my cousin was getting rid of. I thought they sounded pretty good in the pre digital era with my big Pioneer receiver. I owned a bunch of popular speakers as the years progressed including some AR’s and Dahlquist DQ-10’s and Klipsch Forte speakers in the following years. None of these speakers sound as good as modern designs but they were good enough to make me fall in love with this hobby and listen to a lot of music.

My current system is much better but those old speakers got much more play because I had way more free time. I expected these Advent speakers to measure much worse than they did. Interesting to see speakers measure this “good” (not technically good by modern standards) when they were probably designed using primitive equipment, and they used cheap drivers. It didn’t matter to me at the time because my job at McDonalds didn’t pay enough for me to afford expensive speakers after paying for all of my necessities (gas money, beer, girls, etc.). Fun times!

Thanks Amir as usual!

 

[diddley]

Nice to read you use Miss Nina Simone as test track, she is my heroine, and thanks for introducing me to Acoustic Live from Nils Lofgren it's great material.

 

[amirm]

Would be amazing if you could get your hands on a pair of Yamaha NS1000(M) to measure.

I see a few on ebay for less than $300 shipping from Japan. If you all put the money together, I will buy and test it.

 

[amirm]

Nice to read you use Miss Nina Simone as test track, she is my heroine, and thanks for introducing me to Acoustic Live from Nils Lofgren it's great material.

I listen to her all the time. She was so far ahead of her time. Some of her music sounds like something that would get composed and produced today!

 

[Dennis Murphy]

Thanks Amir. Your measurements pretty much confirm mine, albeit with a good bit more resolution. Sorry--I didn't mean for you to keep the grill in place. It was just there for a little extra protection in transit. It's only secured by Velcro. A couple of comments about the crossover. It consists of a .3 mH inductor on the woofer and a 10 uF cap on the tweeter. The original Advent had a shunt coil on the tweeter (2nd order electrical) and around a 1.0 mH coil on the woofer. So there is more overlap on the "New" Advent. I frankly was quite surprised when I listened for the first time. I owned the original large Advent and never found it bright. Its overall signature was a fairly balanced sound with a veiled midrange. The bass extension was very deep for its time and price. Only the AR3 gave it competition in that department.

The first Advent got some push back for being a little subdued in the highs. Henry Kloss made some adjustments in the tweeter to increase its sensitivity, and that apparently was not a good thing. This "New" version was introduced in the early '70's and sold in the bajillions. I can only speculate that the brightness that hit Amir and me in the ears was less of an issue with LP's of the era, or a lot of people just liked that sound. It's certainly not for me. However, I didn't find the bass all that depressed, and I'm pretty sure Amir and I just have different tastes in bass voicing. It is a little lean, which is inevitable given that a .3 mH coils can't possibly provide enough baffle step compensation even for the large cabinet the Advent used.

One question--I'm not sure what the first graph represents--the one showing the 3 tweeter levels and distortion. Why doesn't the response track the other measurements? Thanks again Amir. The Advent didn't turn out to be quite what I expected, but I guess that's really what all those people were listening to back in the day.

 

[Selah Audio]

Wonder how it would sound with tube connectors?

 

[enricoclaudio]

I used to own a pair back in the 80s. They sounded pretty well with my Technics SU-7300 + SL-3300 turntable

 

[Ron Texas]

This is a very useful investigation as it compares then and now. Thank you @amirm

 

[eddantes]

Would expected amplification equipment (pre and power) at the time be rolled off in the highs? So would a speaker like this compensate for that and the two match to make a more conventional slope?

BTW - I love this. Thanks for measuring an oldie like this. There's other vintage speakers that probably desrve a spin (AR3a, maybe A25s...)

 

[Helicopter]

Thanks Amir and Dennis.

Amir, the $300 ones on eBay are the 'MM.' The 'M' is priced much higher like $2k.

 

[Neddy]

Ms. Simone: I was front row at her amazing concert in Philly in 1969(70?), just prior to the big shows in NYC - she was just amazing (and very polite to me and my date).
Disgusting that some of the same social issues are still relevant today.
Weirdly, I also had just purchased original Advents about the same time...kind of the beginnings of this hobby, I guess. When I 'moved west' for college and had the opportunity to drag the Advents into a JBL store to compare, it was like a veil had been removed.
JBL ever since:>

 

[Matias]

Thanks Amir. Your measurements pretty much confirm mine, albeit with a good bit more resolution. Sorry--I didn't mean for you to keep the grill in place. It was just there for a little extra protection in transit. It's only secured by Velcro. A couple of comments about the crossover. It consists of a .3 mH inductor on the woofer and a 10 uF cap on the tweeter. The original Advent had a shunt coil on the tweeter (2nd order electrical) and around a 1.0 mH coil on the woofer. So there is more overlap on the "New" Advent. I frankly was quite surprised when I listened for the first time. I owned the original large Advent and never found it bright. Its overall signature was a fairly balanced sound with a veiled midrange. The bass extension was very deep for its time and price. Only the AR3 gave it competition in that department.

The first Advent got some push back for being a little subdued in the highs. Henry Kloss made some adjustments in the tweeter to increase its sensitivity, and that apparently was not a good thing. This "New" version was introduced in the early '70's and sold in the bajillions. I can only speculate that the brightness that hit Amir and me in the ears was less of an issue with LP's of the era, or a lot of people just liked that sound. It's certainly not for me. However, I didn't find the bass all that depressed, and I'm pretty sure Amir and I just have different tastes in bass voicing. It is a little lean, which is inevitable given that a .3 mH coils can't possibly provide enough baffle step compensation even for the large cabinet the Advent used.

One question--I'm not sure what the first graph represents--the one showing the 3 tweeter levels and distortion. Why doesn't the response track the other measurements? Thanks again Amir. The Advent didn't turn out to be quite what I expected, but I guess that's really what all those people were listening to back in the day.

I suppose the 3 tweeter levels are the results of the switch on the back.

 

[Plcamp]

There was also the Advent 5002, very similar with a soft dome tweeter (I still have the tweeters). Woofers in that were unimpressive looking cheap stamped steel with thick paper cone.

 

[Inner Space]

Would expected amplification equipent (pre and power) at the time be rolled off in the highs? So would a speaker like this compensate for that and the two match to make a more conventional slope?

I'm sure that was the case in most situations. This speaker was on the drawing board right at the end of an era when 50 - 15k was often quoted, even 100 - 10k. Extension either way was not a thing in the mass market. We remember the good amps, and the best of them are rightly famous, but most stuff was junk.

I'm sure all loudspeaker designers listen as part of the process, but with what? I think in this case the "New" Advent was auditioned with "Old" amps.

 

[Plcamp]

I'm sure that was the case in most situations. This speaker was on the drawing board right at the end of an era when 50 - 15k was often quoted, even 100 - 10k. Extension either way was not a thing in the mass market. We remember the good amps, and the best of them are rightly famous, but most stuff was junk.

I'm sure all loudspeaker designers listen as part of the process, but with what? I think in this case the "New" Advent was auditioned with "Old" amps.

Everybody in my town bought Marantz receivers to go with them. No idea why Marantz was preferred.

 

[temps]

I mean this speaker clearly has some limitations... but it still hugely exceeded my expectations. Simple cabinetry, simple old drivers, and not bad at all! I'm sure they sold by the palette because they were excellent in their day.