The New Advent Loudspeaker Review (Vintage Speaker)

[ed308]

I bought the utility versions because I was a poor college student.

Same here. The Advents I bought back in the mid 70’s were my first HF speakers. I loved the sound they produced with a Kenwood receiver. Had them refoamed a couple of times. Got tired of moving them so gave them away. Same as a pair of if JBL L100 speakers. Regret getting rid of them, especially the L100s.

 

[Chrispy]

Same here. The Advents I bought back in the mid 70’s were my first HF speakers. I loved the sound they produced with a Kenwood receiver. Had them reformed a couple of times. Got tired of moving them so gave them away. Same as a pair of if JBL L100 speakers. Regret getting rid of them, especially the L100s.

My first speaker choice was between Original Advents and the L100s....really preferred the L100s but they were a bit more and as it was budget limited, went for the Advents....never really sorry and in recent years fulfilled that itch with a pair of 4311Bs....

 

[ed308]

My first speaker choice was between Original Advents and the L100s....really preferred the L100s but they were a bit more and as it was budget limited, went for the Advents....never really sorry and in recent years fulfilled that itch with a pair of 4311Bs....

My L100 came after the Advents, when I got out of college and had some extra money in my pocket. Those L100 speakers hold a special place in my heart. They are probably the reason my hearing is so bad. They played really loud LOL.

I recently considered buying the new L100 but bought a pair of Revel F206 plus a C208 instead for about the same price. No complaints about my Revel F206, M106 and C208 speakers. Love their clarity and how neutral they sound. But the desire to own a pair of L100 will probably follow me to my grave. Hotel California and Go Your Own Way sounded so good on the L100s!

 

[mhardy6647]

I don't think you'd want to see @amirm's measurements of an original L100 family member.
I was never much of a fan, FWIW -- way too aggressive sound for me. Then again, I've never thought much of the OLAs, either -- overdamped and rolled off treble, just kind of distant.

L100/4310

 

[gino1961]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the "The New Advent Loudspeaker" vintage speaker, circa 1977. The sample under test was kindly provided by our own @Dennis Murphy. He has looked it over and replaced a crossover capacitor to make sure it has the value it originally had. The woofer has been professionally reconed. Dennis can add more information here.

This speaker is in reasonably good shape seeing how it is made out of fragile particle board:

View attachment 141358

I didn't take a picture of the back side but there is a 3-way switch to adjust the high frequencies. Story is that this was to adjust for lack of uniformity of the recordings of the era and not to tune the speaker. I measured the difference as you will see later.

There is a site with a copy of the manual which I highly recommend to check out: https://www.theprojectasylum.com/el...adventspkrbrochure/adventspkrbrochurepg1.html

The manual is not just a manual. It is written as if it is an article for a hi-fi magazine! It is very boastful of its design approach without appearing too arrogant. There is also this bit of advertising about it:

View attachment 141361

As a woodworker, I detest particle board. It is horrible material and seemingly falls apart by just looking at it. Interesting that it didn't have this negative stigma then.

Fascinating that its max power rating was just 15 watts! I fed it a lot more than that.

Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.

I performed over 1000 measurement which resulted in error rate of about 1%.

Reference axis was the tweeter center or as best I could determine through the grill. I think I was a bit to the right of the tweeter. The grill was left on.

I picked the middle position (red below) in the switch that is marked as "decrease" for high frequencies based on my setup measurements (and later confirmed by Dennis):

View attachment 141363

The New Advent Loudspeaker Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:

View attachment 141362

Bass response is deficient and we have good bit of variations but not as bad as I had expected. Near-field response shows a very slow response for the woofer in crossover region:

View attachment 141364

That then screws up some of the tweeter response.

I was pleasantly surprised how smooth the early reflections are:

View attachment 141365

This almost magically transforms the overall response to a flat one in-room:

View attachment 141366

Alas, we know that such a response subjectively sounds bright. Still, one wonders if this is an accident or by design.

Beamwidth shows lack of directivity control as the large woofer becomes directional before tweeter takes over with its wide response:

View attachment 141368

View attachment 141369

Vertical directivity is quite tricky. Stay at or below tweeter axis:

View attachment 141370

There are two minima in impedance graph:

View attachment 141371

Distortion was reasonable at 86 dBSPL but then went to hell at 96:

View attachment 141372

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This is to be expected of the drivers of the era. The large woofer doesn't have to move much at lower amplitudes so does well. But when asked to moved, it can't do so with the precision of current drivers. Tweeter also falls apart.

The New Advent Loudspeaker Listening Tests
Oh gosh. I always start my listening tests with female vocals and these were unlistenable with the Advent pointed at me. The sound would be Ok and then one part of the vocal would hit a resonant peak (or something like it) and the sound would be so sharp as to attempt to go through you! I had to stop after a couple of tracks. Thinking older music may do better, I played a few Nina Simone tracks. They sounded terrible as well. Lack of bass is a major problem as it accentuates the highs so much.

As a quick experiment, I pointed the speaker straight out and this helped some but by then my mind was so corrupted that I stopped and started to type up this review.

Conclusions
I don't have a lot to offer you. The Advent is not as bad as I thought it would measure. Subjectively it is horrid in my quick l listening tests. Progress in speaker design is real and I am spoiled by that. I let you all discuss the rest.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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Hi Dr Amir thank you for the very valuable lab report
That high distortion is a end of the game imho of course
I am very surprised by such a weak performance

 

[gino1961]

I don't think you'd want to see @amirm's measurements of an original L100 family member.
I was never much of a fan, FWIW -- way too aggressive sound for me. Then again, I've never thought much of the OLAs, either -- overdamped and rolled off treble, just kind of distant.

L100/4310

HI i would love to see measurements of these speakers
They have a woofer that is outstanding If i look at its structure i am sincerely amazed It is almost impossible to find one of the same level even on speakers costing some thousands
Some shortcomings in the xover can be easily cured with a completely redesigned one Not a big deal with a mic a soundcard and a pc
Or even multiamplify it for world class performance
Instead i was shocked by the distortion of the Advent Deeply shocked

 

[Dennis Murphy]

HI i would love to see measurements of these speakers

Be careful what you ask for. I'm not seeing any problems, are you?

 

[EJ3]

Be careful what you ask for. I'm not seeing any problems, are you?

View attachment 260674

Reminds me of the European Alps: peaks, valleys & plateaus.

 

[gino1961]

Be careful what you ask for. I'm not seeing any problems, are you?

View attachment 260674

hi i can't believe that this is the FR of the L100
the123a is an amazing driver
there must be something wrong with the bass reflex
i have never seen a woofer with that response from 50 to 200 never

 

[mhardy6647]

Be careful what you ask for. I'm not seeing any problems, are you?

View attachment 260674

That explains so much!
The woofer response looks (to me) like too big a driver in too small a box a la the Japanese "Kabuki" loudspeakers of the late-'60s and well into the '70s.
... which were, to some extent, modeled after the L100.

Do you happen to have the impedance curve?

 

[Dennis Murphy]

hi i can't believe that this is the FR of the L100
the123a is an amazing driver
there must be something wrong with the bass reflex
i have never seen a woofer with that response from 50 to 200 never

I don't think you're used to seeing how a stand mount measures in a room. The peak at around 70 Hz is a room mode typical of medium-sized rooms. The sharp dip above 100 Hz is floor bounce cancellation. Any stand mount will measure like that, and most towers unless the woofer is mounted just above floor level. In this case, however, the 70Hz peak is higher than normal because, as mhardy has guessed, the box that isn't big enough for the woofer. That was part of the West Coast Sound. The other part was searing highs.

 

[gino1961]

I don't think you're used to seeing how a stand mount measures in a room. The peak at around 70 Hz is a room mode typical of medium-sized rooms. The sharp dip above 100 Hz is floor bounce cancellation. Any stand mount will measure like that, and most towers unless the woofer is mounted just above floor level. In this case, however, the 70Hz peak is higher than normal because, as mhardy has guessed, the box that isn't big enough for the woofer. That was part of the West Coast Sound. The other part was searing highs.

hi thanks a lot i see
wrong room and wrong design very interesting
anyway to be more precise i have only direct experience of the l166 Horizon and I was shocked by their powerful sound
maybe even those have this up and down response If so i guess my ear is not a great tool for measurements
for now the l166 are the best bookshelf i have ever heard
my friend has also a pair of ar pi greek
i prefer the jbl sound
another friend had the advent and i remember a great sound back then

 

[mhardy6647]

i prefer the jbl sound

I'd encourage you to spend some time listening to some of Altec's offerings from roughly the same era.

 

[gino1961]

I'd encourage you to spend some time listening to some of Altec's offerings from roughly the same era.

thank you very much for the valuable advice
but I have space constraints so i have to look at bookshelf speakers
i don't like towers very much
i was used to little 2 ways then i listened to the l166 and loved them
another friend has a pair of ess amt bookshelf that he could sell to me
however speakers of that size it's what I am looking at with decent bass low distortion and decent 3d soundstage

 

[Mr. Widget]

Be careful what you ask for. I'm not seeing any problems, are you?

View attachment 260674

Years ago I measured a JBL L100 Century in a large space and while it was far from perfect, it wasn't as bad as this plot. The DI was outrageously bad, but if you measured it on axis with the tweeter it measured OK.

I think that is how they were typically used in studios on the meter bridge with the tweeters at ear level.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

I don't think you're used to seeing how a stand mount measures in a room. The peak at around 70 Hz is a room mode typical of medium-sized rooms. The sharp dip above 100 Hz is floor bounce cancellation. Any stand mount will measure like that, and most towers unless the woofer is mounted just above floor level. In this case, however, the 70Hz peak is higher than normal because, as mhardy has guessed, the box that isn't big enough for the woofer. That was part of the West Coast Sound. The other part was searing highs.

Years ago I measured a JBL L100 Century in a large space and while it was far from perfect, it wasn't as bad as this plot. The DI was outrageously bad, but if you measured it on axis with the tweeter it measured OK.

I think that is how they were typically used in studios on the meter bridge with the tweeters at ear level.

This sample was measured on the tweeter axis. Perhaps yours was a room measurement? Mine is anechoic starting around 250 Hz and up, and room below that point.

 

[Mr. Widget]

This sample was measured on the tweeter axis. Perhaps yours was a room measurement? Mine is anechoic starting around 250 Hz and up, and room below that point.

I used CLIO and performed a gated measurement at the first reflection. I wish I had kept the old hard drive with that info. It has been decades so I don't really remember the details, but I know it was better than the sample you measured.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

Both of the 100's were in good condition and measured alike. I redid the crossover and ended up with a whole lotta components, a very smooth midrange and treble, and horrible bass bloat. I moved on.

 

[gino1961]

Hi could a bad designed reflex be the reason of that bass response?
Maybe closing the reflex pipe with some foam can flatten the curve

 

[Mr. Widget]

Both of the 100's were in good condition and measured alike. I redid the crossover and ended up with a whole lotta components, a very smooth midrange and treble, and horrible bass bloat. I moved on.

You mean you tried a lot of compoents? The original JBL crossovers only consist of two caps and two L-pads.

As it turned out L100s are not my idea of high fidelity either. My L100s have been on permanent loan at a buddy's workshop for years.