The New Advent Loudspeaker Review (Vintage Speaker)

[Chrispy]

I guess that's because it says "Power Requirement" and not "max power rating"

And not as silly as some "minimum" power recommendations go (mostly are silly, tho).

 

[redshift]

I was just a boy in the 70s, but I vividly remember speakers owned by parents of my friends in the neighborhood where I grew up.

They were all placed on the floor, against the wall behind them, or in a bookshelf and again up against the wall behind them.

At what point did "bookshelf" speakers (or home speakers in general) start getting designed for full BSC and no longer relying on placement against the wall to reinforce bass?

My baseless hypothesis:

Shifting music consumption habits for the masses. The Walkman became a staple and out went the boxes.

Then specialty by the ungainly hit the far field Hifi enthusiasts shopping list and it sort of stuck there ever since.

 

[komhst]

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.

I've heard almost every Advent model back then. They never sounded bright to me. On the contrary I would say that they all had a well balanced sound, with deep and tight bass.

 

[roog]

@amirm I like the idea of the occasional item of vintage gear for testing, gives a great insight into what was being praised up at that time.
I suppose condition is key to testing again now.

 

[beagleman]

I've heard almost every Advent model back then. They never sounded bright to me. On the contrary I would say that they all had a well balanced sound, with deep and tight bass.

I have to agree. I think I have heard literally Every Advent speaker from the 70s and 80s and none were bright. None were "Lacking" in bass either.

 

[iraweiss]

Stereo Review weighs in on the original Advent speaker, page 40:

HiFi-Stereo-Review-1970-03.pdf (worldradiohistory.com)

Thank you for pointing out this web site. I can find reviews of all the equipment I have owned since 1965 (and that I looked at as a preteen even earlier).

 

[restorer-john]

@amirm That old Advent isn't magnetically shielded up near your open reel deck...

 

[KxDx]

Genesis (this Genesis, that is -- Genesis Physics) is, of course, the Winslow Burhoe branch of the AR family tree. Nice loudspeakers to my ears and taste still today.
Concave "airspring" tweeter and purpose-built woofers to have smooth enough HF roll-of as to not require any crossover on the woofer. I.e., the entire system XO in most of the EPI and Genesis products, AFAIK, was just first order (a capacitor) on the tweeter. They were, consequently, very easy to drive and surprisingly efficient for acoustic suspension speakers.

I guess the 20 has a passive radiator, too, per Huy Powell: https://www.humanspeakers.com/genesis/genmodel.htm
The only pair of Genesis speakers I've had were Genesis 1 (sans the PR) -- and not that I can find a photo of them at the moment

Back in the spring I bought an amp from a guy who was an EPI/Epicure collector. He had over a dozen pairs of speakers... he would rotate them into and out of the storage room into the garage/workshop. I liked the sound, and the first order XO and inverted dome were intriguing, but a garage isn't the best place for subjectivity. If I can get these 20's, it'll be a small pittance for a great opportunity.

 

[KxDx]

If you lived around Boston in the '60s, you could watch the Boston Symphony Orchestra on WGBH on your TV while listening to it in stereo on WGBH on your FM receiver. Henry Kloss had a vision, and he started Advent to build giant TVs. Call him the Godfather of Home Theater.

The speaker company was just a front. Henry was smart, and he learned from the best, and designing two-way loudspeakers was not a challenge for him. Building a state of the art factory that could crank out speakers at a low cost didn't take him that long, either. All the money was funnelled upstairs to the attic where the full-color projection TV was being developed. Another bright young man ahead of his time.

I got hold of a pair of Cambridge bipolar Towers earlier this year. I think those were the last speakers he designed commercially. Their only real flaw is being a bit "throaty" in the lower midrange, most likely due to having two midrange drivers. I wish they had a toggle which could swap between the active rear driver and a load resistor.

I also have a pair of Allison CD-9's, which I bought, restored, sold, regretted, then bought back 6 months later when the new owner lost the WAF battle. I will never, EVER let those go again. Anyone who hasn't actually heard Allison's cannot truly understand how unique and amazing they are.

 

[mhardy6647]

Back in the spring I bought an amp from a guy who was an EPI/Epicure collector. He had over a dozen pairs of speakers... he would rotate them into and out of the storage room into the garage/workshop. I liked the sound, and the first order XO and inverted dome were intriguing, but a garage isn't the best place for subjectivity. If I can get these 20's, it'll be a small pittance for a great opportunity.

I have kept very few -- in fact, I think at this point I only have a pair of EPI 100V, which are a) small and b) emblematic of the "Burhoe Module" loudspeakers.

102 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

As a not-entirely-related aside, I had a chance to acquire an extremely nice pair of the monstrous EPI1000s some years back -- I really, really wanted to grab them, but I literally couldn't rationalize them taking up the space they'd require (even for storage) given that they wouldn't be 'daily drivers' here.

I do have a pair of Roy Allison's Allison Ones -- very nice loudspeakers, designed for real-world placement (i.e., to work in a typical room) accoding to the tools and techniques of their era (late 1970s). To actually drag this post back on-topic I'd send them to @amirm for measurement, but they're a tad bulky -- and their grilles are kind of fragile at this late date.

DSC_5795a by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

source: http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/...ies_brochure_2/allison_one_series_brochure_2/

 

[KxDx]

I missed out on a chance to get a fully restored pair of Ones for $500. I just had nowhere to put them at the time. I hope they didn't wind up with someone who would strip the drivers for a quick buck on ebay.

 

[eardiggler]

One the one hand, I think my ADS 400 speakers would be a great test subject. On the other hand, I'm not about to let them go.

ADS speaker always sounded great to my ears but I could never afford them back in the day. I recently lucked out and found a cheap set of ADS L400 bookshelf speakers (the miniature ones with metal grills) at GW. They are the best sounding bookshelves I've heard. I definitely would be interested in how any of those 'heyday' ADS speakers measure.

 

[audio2design]

Looking at the woofer response it looks like it is missing a zobel. Does anyone who knows the crossover know if that is the case? It is hard to tell from pictures on the web what is original and what may be upgraded. It looks like there was a single inductor.

I remember my brother having these speakers with an early NAD3020. They were a step up from a lot of the crap on the market at that time.

 

[Remlab]

For anyone who hasn't seen the Advent "Fried egg tweeter" up close and in person. It looks like the screen was cut away to replace the central dome on this one. The dome was originally the same color as the surround.

 

[audio2design]

I've heard almost every Advent model back then. They never sounded bright to me. On the contrary I would say that they all had a well balanced sound, with deep and tight bass.

Back then almost everyone had plush carpets and fabric furniture. Now its hardwood floors and leather/leatherette. Looking at the graphs, I would not say the bass extension is awful at least with the typical speakers near the walls for reinforcement. Not a ton of sub 40Hz bass in recordings back then either.

 

[ta240]

.... The woofer has been professionally reconed. ...

How standardized were the speaker materials back then? I know they didn't use the exotic materials like some now; but could there be weight and rigidness differences that might affect the output of the speaker?

And for the listening test, I think it requires a turntable and vintage receiver
All joking aside it would be interesting to do a comparison of it on a modern amp and a vintage one. The shortcomings of both could add up to an even worse sound or they mask problems and sound better.

 

[Labjr]

In 1978 I bought a set of Advent 2 speakers along with an Onkyo receiver and a BIC turntable. I considered that my first real hi-fi system.

 

[mhardy6647]

I missed out on a chance to get a fully restored pair of Ones for $500. I just had nowhere to put them at the time. I hope they didn't wind up with someone who would strip the drivers for a quick buck on ebay.

Found mine on the swap pile at our erstwhile town's "dump" (actually a "transfer station"; i.e., no landfill).
I did have to replace one woofer -- some kid, I suspect, had kicked in the cone.
Otherwise, they were in good shape.

 

[mhardy6647]

Looking at the woofer response it looks like it is missing a zobel. Does anyone who knows the crossover know if that is the case? It is hard to tell from pictures on the web what is original and what may be upgraded. It looks like there was a single inductor.

I remember my brother having these speakers with an early NAD3020. They were a step up from a lot of the crap on the market at that time.

http://baselaudiolab.com/ADVENT_LA_XO.html

 

[Deleted member 28042]

I think this model was referred to as the Baby Advent as there was a larger version that I owned in the early 1970s. At the time, the hot speakers were the Acoustic Research AR3, which seemed to be loved by the east coast and classical recording crowd, and the JBL L100 which was definitely a west coast rock speaker. These both sold for around $300 and I couldn't afford either of them at the time.