The New Advent Loudspeaker Review (Vintage Speaker)

[MDRiggs]

Recently went with a relative to a guys house with some OLA (original large advent) for purchase, and turns out he had literally 5 models of Advent in his basement man cave, including THIS exact model!
(my cousin DID leave with the OLA speakers)

I sheepishly asked if we could maybe hear the other models to compare them, as I was into audio and speakers. He seemed excited, and started to talk about a test of the "New Advent" online, and I realized he was talking about ASR!!

He is NOT a member but read the test and allowed me and my cousin to hear the model Amir reviewed.

My assessment as I had not heard any of these in probably about 30 years, was yes, it was not really as good as I had remembered for sure, but...........

At the same time, I was still fairly impressed with the deep bass, and a relatively neutral sound. I did not frankly hear weak bass or boosted highs, OR even what I would call a lot of distortion. Guy said they were refoamed a few years ago.

So I am left truly pondering, what caused this huge variance in listening versus Amir's test or his test sample??

I have mostly agreed with speakers I have heard or owned that Amir tested, except for this ONE vintage model.

Looking back at measurements, have to wonder why it "sounded" more like the room reflections curve to me than the on axis?? I am NOT saying it sounded perfect, but just a much closer to neutral sound overall.

We did check the switch, and he actually had it on HIGH, and still the treble was relatively neutral.

On-axis response is relevant mainly in how it contributes to the total output. In a domestic room, we don't hear the on-axis response on its own, because we're always sitting in the reverberant field. Reflected sound is dominant. Smoothness of off-axis radiation is as important and smoothness of on-axis radiation. Anyway, the various Advent models were excellent speakers for their time.

 

[MDRiggs]

Hi thank you very much for your interesting post
i am not sure to understand how the distortion test has been carried out As i said above i have been quite shocked by the bad results
the woofer is quite big and was used also in the epic dq10

Advent Factory Replacement Speaker, Woofer, Large Advent, New Advent, P001-31858

now that i look better the magnet is a little small
a Qts of 0.71 is a little on the high side
AR loudspeakers magnets were much more substantial and the much lower Qts shows that quite clearly

View attachment 417186

imho a very telling test is the measurement of the response to a multitones signal
This is a standard test for electronics like the response to a square wave by the way
I really cannot understand why is so rare for speakers/drivers evaluation
the same signal passess through all the element of an audio chain I do not understand why some tests stop at the amps out
i am pretty sure that most speakers have a bad behaviour
What i mean is that it is imperative to keep an open mind
Of this would not mean to trust flat earthers Science is science Not voodoo

Advent made its own woofers. The cones weren't paper, actually. Some wool and cotton amalgam, I think. (All the old Boston-area manufacturers--AR, KLH, Advent, Allison, Boston Acoustics--made their own woofers and usually their own tweeters and midranges.) Anyhow, I can imagine someone selling a woofer as a replacement for both Advent and Dahlquist speakers, but Advent wasn't selling woofers to Dahlquist back in the day.

 

[rdenney]

Advent made its own woofers. The cones weren't paper, actually. Some wool and cotton amalgam, I think. (All the old Boston-area manufacturers--AR, KLH, Advent, Allison, Boston Acoustics--made their own woofers and usually their own tweeters and midranges.) Anyhow, I can imagine someone selling a woofer as a replacement for both Advent and Dahlquist speakers, but Advent wasn't selling woofers to Dahlquist back in the day.

Some of the folks that worked there at the time certainly thought Dahlquist bought woofers from Advent, at least after the first few thousand examples that used woofers from CTS, which changeover happened in about 1976 when the NLA was first in production.

I also recall stories of Henry Kloss experimenting with a range of different constituent raw materials before arriving at the cone material that was used.

Rick "doesn't know one way or the other, but noting conflicting first-hand stories" Denney

 

[MDRiggs]

Okay, I suppose it's a possibility but had never heard of it before. Advent woofer used essentially the same cone material as the KLH woofers. Got that from Andy Kotsatos just a few days ago. AR woofers had paper cones.

 

[rdenney]

Okay, I suppose it's a possibility but had never heard of it before. Advent woofer used essentially the same cone material as the KLH woofers. Got that from Andy Kotsatos just a few days ago. AR woofers had paper cones.

Well, he would know And it certainly may have been at KLH where Kloss did his experimenting--those stories often get blurred in the retelling.

I was thinking Dahlquist probably use the Jensen drivers that were used as service replacements in Advents, but the DQ10 was earlier than I remembered.

Rick "has a pair of those Jensens in the pile o'stuff" Denney

 

[Ken1951]

Well, he would know And it certainly may have been at KLH where Kloss did his experimenting--those stories often get blurred in the retelling.

I was thinking Dahlquist probably use the Jensen drivers that were used as service replacements in Advents, but the DQ10 was earlier than I remembered.

Rick "has a pair of those Jensens in the pile o'stuff" Denney

My memory, which has a high probability of being faulty, is that the DQ-10, at least initially, used the Advent woofer. The dealer I worked for was a very early carrier of the DQ-10. I even helped Saul Marantz unload the demo pair from his car and bring them into the showroom. I started there at the main store, which had their stockroom in the basement, in June 1973.

 

[EJ3]

My memory, which has a high probability of being faulty, is that the DQ-10, at least initially, used the Advent woofer. The dealer I worked for was a very early carrier of the DQ-10. I even helped Saul Marantz unload the demo pair from his car and bring them into the showroom. I started there at the main store, which had their stockroom in the basement, in June 1973.

I have a pair of the much later DQ M-905's that I bought new. The woofers in them are Vifa Polyvinyl-acetate-laminated 8-inch.

 

[MDRiggs]

Well, he would know And it certainly may have been at KLH where Kloss did his experimenting--those stories often get blurred in the retelling.

I was thinking Dahlquist probably use the Jensen drivers that were used as service replacements in Advents, but the DQ10 was earlier than I remembered.

Rick "has a pair of those Jensens in the pile o'stuff" Denney

I've known Andy for pretty much exactly 50 years, since shortly after I moved to Boston after college. (Moved away in 1981, so no longer there.) Anyhow, Andy was the presenter (via Zoom) at last Sunday's Boston Audio Society meeting, which despite being kinda long was very interesting, at least for the likes of me. You can watch it here:

.

 

[Second Opinion]

My set-up includes Advent Heritage speakers and a Marantz PM80 amplifier that I purchased in the early 90s along with a 1980s Denon DP1200 direct-drive turntable. A few other components have come and gone over the years, and the advents and Marantz have had a couple of visits for care and maintenance here and there. Recently added a Michael Fidler Spartan 15 MKII Phono Stage and WiiM Ultra Streamer. Here’s a pic of the Advent (with surface refinishing) and a link to a review I found. I’m very content with this set up.

Advent Heritage Speaker System Review price specs - Hi-Fi Classic

www.hifi-classic.net

 

[MDRiggs]

My memory, which has a high probability of being faulty, is that the DQ-10, at least initially, used the Advent woofer. The dealer I worked for was a very early carrier of the DQ-10. I even helped Saul Marantz unload the demo pair from his car and bring them into the showroom. I started there at the main store, which had their stockroom in the basement, in June 1973.

From Andy:
"Jon Dahlquist tested many different woofers and concluded the Advent was without equal so he called Henry and asked if could copy it for use in his DQ10. Henry said it's a free country but he couldn't use the same cone because Advent owned the tooling. John paid to tool his own cone, which is the same cone formulation but looks slightly different. Otherwise the performance is the same."

 

[beagleman]

My set-up includes Advent Heritage speakers and a Marantz PM80 amplifier that I purchased in the early 90s along with a 1980s Denon DP1200 direct-drive turntable. A few other components have come and gone over the years, and the advents and Marantz have had a couple of visits for care and maintenance here and there. Recently added a Michael Fidler Spartan 15 MKII Phono Stage and WiiM Ultra Streamer. Here’s a pic of the Advent (with surface refinishing) and a link to a review I found. I’m very content with this set up.

Advent Heritage Speaker System Review price specs - Hi-Fi Classic

www.hifi-classic.net

Very familiar with the Heritage and that entire line from the "Jensen" era of Advent speakers. (Mid 80s about)

Those and the Legacy were of course in our showroom at the time and when it was slow I would crank up Supertramp "Crime of the Century" on those, with a suitable H/K integrated amp and they could really put out some deep bass and overall volume.