An Advent Guy

JBL L100 Century. Best Rock-N-Roll speaker ever made.

DCM Original Time Window. The speaker that started my journey into high-end.

I concur Jaybo. In the early 70's I really liked the Advents. They were very good at what they did. (putting a system together was much easier then)

The advents, then hearing the Quad ESL-57's was what got me interested in 'audio'.

I also have two pairs of vintage Advent but I enjoy listening more to my Spica TC-50 and TC-60.

Is this just about speakers or any 'Golden Oldie' gear? And can't there be a reason for it 'knocking you out'?

Their are parts of my current system that are 20yrs old, and still knock me out because I haven't heard anything that sounds substantially better: Goldmund, SME, MartinLogan, Nakamichi, Wadia. Yup, all 20years old (some older!)

True, I started about 30years before THAT (late 50's/early 60's) and I'd love to hear some of that stuff that I sold or (stooopidly let go ;-( I'll bet just hooked up using today's cable technology and power regenerators, it might blow a few minds (even the minds of the original designers!)

I had a pair of L-100's and agree with MoFi on that. But before that, I had a pair of AR-4a's. Wonder what those would sound like with a Levinson or Boulder amp!! Or those Infinity RS 4.5's. I gave my Crown 700 R2R to some f**ked up DJ in 1984! And I have no idea what happened to my Mitchell Cotter SUT. A friend of mine still has my Maggie Tympani 1-D's, won't listen to them, but won't sell them to someone who would! Just take me out back and shoot me!~
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I recently retrieved my New Large Advents from my parents' house that I bought new in '77 for my first decent system. I hooked them up and they sounded suprisingly good. One of the dpdt switches for the tweeter smoothing didn't work in two positions. As luck would have it, it only worked in the "extended" position.

I opened them up and decided to rebuild the crossovers. Not much to them really - a couple of caps, resister, inductor. Bought the parts from Parts Express and they arrived today. I'm looking forward to the hearing how they sound. But from what I heard the other day, wow, certainly a speaker that costs 10 times as much is not 10 times better.

I love my original large advents, wouldn't part with them...and their are some expensive speakers in this house...
had the woofers refoamed, and I'm in love all over again...

Don't forget the double stacked Advents. Sounded pretty good.
Still have my Mac 230 and 275. Rebuilt and still sound great.
Really miss my Marantz 7C, Mac 240s and Harbeth LS/35as, really engaging sound.

I owned the Original Advent speakers back in the day and thought they were okay, but not that special, and likewise for the smaller Advent.

I also bought the JBL L100's new... Initially, their "midrange presense" got my attention, but after owning them a while I realized how peaky they were. Traded them for AR 3A speakers and was much happier with those.

The DCM Time Windows impressed me although I never owned a pair.

Right now I have an old pair of Altec 3841 speakers that are very robust and sound extremely good in a vintage system with a '70's Onkyo receiver.

Magnepan's MG I Improved and MG-3 speakers made a very positive impression on me when I owned them (and were a lot of fun), but the speakers that impressed me the most (aside from the Infinity Servo-Static 1A's I couldn't afford), were the Acoustat X full-range electrostatic speakers with the original tube servo-charge amplifiers. Later, the Acoustat 2+2's would become my reference with some highly modified Acoustat servo-charge amps that used custom polystyrene coupling capacitors and 6LF6 tubes (wish I still had those).

I've moved on since then, but recall those days fondly.

my wife once refered to the look and sound of the large advents as 'handsome'.....an adjective she never used again in her three decades on my hifi merry-go-round.

picked up apair for 10.00.had woofers refoamed,60.00.i haved owned some very nice spkrs,up to vandy 5,s.the advents are amazing.makes me wonder how much advancement has truly been made in sound quality from spkrs.in general,and at such current high prices.

Still running the New Large Utility Advents in my secondary system. Got 'em new in 1978 as a High School graduation present. They're a little beat-up looking, but still sound great, with the *original* foam surrounds! (Although I am too scared to try the pencil eraser test).

In my main rig, my Thorens TD-166MkII is still running great after a quarter of a century. Bought that new when I thought turntables were going the way of the Dodo, and didn't want to be left with nothing to spin my vinyl on. Who knew there would be such a vinyl revival?

Other than higher resolution, which can also be defined as listening fatigue, there have been very few, if any, improvements in audio since about 1989.

Cheers,

cwlondon

These were my first "serious" speakers - I think my brother still is using them.

They are a classic.

I know it ain't perfect but I'm loving the sound coming out of my early 80's vintage Dual 1264 table with almost as ancient Goldring MM cartridge in in my second system more than ever with the equally vintage Yamaha cr-420 receiver I adapted off Ebay last summer.

OK the speakers are less dated Triangle Titus 202s, but don't hold that against me. Hey, even they are amazingly a good 9-10 years old already as well!

Cwlondon,

I hear what you're saying. In terms of possible sound quality, I might agree in general but there have been improvements to many individual component designs I'm pretty sure. How significant are they? That's largely debateable.

I do think Class D amps are one design that have broken considerable new ground at least in terms of efficiency if not ultimate sound quality, but I do think Class D makes a good high current high power amp affordable for many and that is significant.

the variety and scope of selling 'two drivers in a box' is unending. sometimes 'getting back to where you once belonged' helps to put the insanity in check. the last time i was in london i heard a very infamous 2 way (oversized bookshelf) type speaker selling for 7 thousand pounds....was it cool?...oh yeah...was it in a different league than my old buddy, the large advent?... not at all.....the cabinets were 'beautiful', but a weekend with the advents reminded me that the '20 year old me' wouldn't have spent 20 seconds pondering the worth of a 7k pair of anything.

My stacked walnut cased Large Advents powered by a pair of KT88 tube monoblock amplifiers. The crossover capacitors were inexpensively upgraded (Solen caps) and the stuffing was adjusted. I also put good wire inside. These speakers have been subjected to critical review by a group of audio builder/designers who found their musical presentation to be remarkably good and competetive with very high end systems. Soundstage breadth and depth is perhaps the most immediately impressive feature of the inverted stacks. Bass authority is hard to beat, even with a sub, and detail, transparency, and extension are all there. See Harry Pearson's review in The Absolute Sound archives for the stacked pair. Mine sound better due to the capacitor replacement. I am using a $4K pair of beautiful, superb modern speakers plus dual subs, but they do not match the Large Advents in some of the dimensions mentioned above. If my wife would relent, I would move them back to the living area and perform further tweeks.

See Harry Pearson's review in The Absolute Sound archives for the stacked pair. Mine sound better due to the capacitor replacement.

That I will do. In the meantime, here's J. Gordon Holt's review of a single pair of regular Advents from Jan. 1976.

I worked at an audio store at that very time. We carried Advent, ESS, JBL, Infinity, Dahlquist, and Ohm loudspeakers. Our upscale speakers--Dahlquist DQ10, Ohm F, ESS AMT-1b, etc. all cost around $800/pair and were in the dedicated high end room. When I asked our manager why we didn't have a display of double Advents in the high end room, he said, "Because then we wouldn't sell anything else.'

Check out the Stereophile measurements of the Smaller Advent. It is commendably linear from 200 to 15KHz, even for today, although treble response drops like a stone above 15KHz. The +5dB bass hump centering on 60 Hz is no worse than most small speakers today.

I worked at that store in SoCal in 1975 and 1976. We had so many people coming in wanting Marantz or Pioneer receivers powering JBL speakers, and we tried to show them the Yamaha/Advent combo as an alternative because we felt that the Yamaha's superior speed and lower distortion combined with the Advent's smoothness and linearity would provide more long term satisfaction.

I bought a pair of the original "smaller" Advents at a yard sale for $20 and I was extremely impressed. I loaned them out, however, and an amp failed and gave them pure DC. Since there was no sound the amp was left on until smoke started coming out of the cabinets. The heat from the woofers started the insulation on fire inside the cabinet and filled the room with smoke. Too bad because those speakers sounded really good.

Advent speakers (along with AR and KLH) really implemented the "acoustic suspension" principle, where the enclosed air provided the "spring" for the woofer. Hold one of those old drivers in your hand and see how the cone flops around when you move it. On one occasion I had reason to replace the woofer in a KLH12 system. The woofer free air resonance was individually measured and marked on the cone. 14 Hz. It's hard to find a woofer today at much less than 30Hz. You can still buy a speaker system with an "enclosed" cabinet, but I don't think any are truly "acoustic suspension". Some kind of hybrid I guess. The air spring is much more linear than any mechanical suspension, and leads to low distotion.

My main system is a golden oldie - Infinity RSIIb. Best sounding speaker (to me) that I have ever heard. I'm in the process of rebuilding them with external crossovers with Mundorf caps, Northcreek and Solen inductors, Cardas litz wire, cabinet bracing, etc. and I'm thinking they will be even better after that! Oh and very pretty,too:

[img]http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk22/magalettab/KEFandRSIIb006.jpg[\img]

I love my 4 L 100s. One pair has been completely reconed with all JBL parts and tricked out in the crossover which smoothed it out somewhat and actually made it even better sounding. Yes, they're "old school" but thats OK. It is what sounds good to you that counts and many people forget that basic truth.

Hi all ! My first system was a pair of the large advents (utility cabinets) a pioneer receiver and a PE turntable (a dual clone I think) I had those speakers (later added another pair ) for many , years eventually building a heathkit aa1640 power amp (200 wpc into 8 ohms and 400 wpc into the double advents ) I would crank those suckers up until the lights would dim on the heavy bass notes . I would have the front door open with the screen door closed when the weather was nice . Not one time did the neighbors complain , even at night . Eventually sold one pair because my girlfriend hated how they looked stacked .Blew the tweeters out of the pair I kept and replaced them with dyna audio d28af's . They were never the same .Wish the internet was around then , I would have found the correct tweeters . Bought a nice pair on ebay a few months ago , rotate the in the system with the thiels and maggies , no apologies necessary thank you !

My OHM Ls (which were designed to compete with the Advents but in a smaller box), although I have custom tweaked mine.

On my current system which far surpasses what I had when I bought the Ls in 1978 (I think), they sound a lot like what I believe a good pair of Harbeths sound like from the descriptions I have heard. Still hard to beat for rock and popular music....

Jaybo, I was surprised to find this interesting artifact online:

[url]http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/171advent/[/url]

Having sold these and others back in the day, the accounting here seems to be mostly consistent with my recollection of the Advents. The OHM Ls sounded very similar, perhaps just a touch brighter or more forward sounding, enough to capture your attention one way or the other in comparison to the Advents that they targeted.

I have four systems in play at the moment. My "vintage" system consists of a pair of large Advent speakers, Scott 299 integrated amplifier (tube) Scott 350B Tuner (tube) and a Thorens TD 125 MKII turntable with a Soundsmith cartridge. My other systems are all upscale, high end contemporary components with impeccable reputations. What do I listen to the most? The Advents! They are neutral, detailed and very responsive. Great bass and wonderful imaging. I'm on the verge of adding a second pair and stacking them as reported by the Absolute Sound in 1973. Can anyone who has done that give me advice on wiring them?

I was using two stacked pairs of large Advents from the early 70's with a new MCIntosh MA6300 at 100wpc and a Cambridge 640 Azur cd player. I replaced the original caps in the Advents with Soelens capacitors which really opened up the tweeters and gave more definition. I figured I had raised the bar for trying something new.

I continued to shop for speakers and auditioned several in my house that failed to impress IMHO - Snell J's - sterile, Sienna 1's - too small a sound, and B&W 683's - too clinical. I thought that Paridigm Studio 100's were too bright without enough definition, Klipsch RF 63's seemed thin, and Vandersteen 2ce sigs were a little too reserved.

Heard some Jamo monitors - musical with large sound - close.

Tried the Magneplaner 12's - LOVE THEM.

To me, the Maggies have a similar sort of sound or voice compared to the Advents. That being said, the Maggie's soundstage is deeper, the highs and mids are better, and the bass is good especially in the mid range. To me, of all the speakers I mentioned, the Maggies come closest to a "live" sound.

The McIntosh 100 wpc amp seems fine with them. The listening area is on one end of an 18 foot wide by 30 foot long by 8 foot high basement. The Maggies are currently about seven feet apart and I sit about 8 feet away. Placement is critical and the do much better at least four feet from the wall behind them.