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Large Advent Fried Egg Tweeters

Being a poor student and tinkerer, I tend to deal in vintage audio for my hifi and recently picked up a pair of Large Advents. I refoamed the woofers and resealed the boxes and am now listening to then to decide if they stand to replace my EPI 200s. At first I wasnt impressed with their sound in my livingroom but when I moved them up to my bedroom and sat much closer, they sound completely different. The clarity is quite nice in this smaller environment, especially the bass being much tighter than my 200s (passive radiator). However, it seems that I am missing the high end of cymbals and sibilants dont have the same presence as I am used to. Do the fried egg tweeters age and lose their upper frequencies or is this how the speaker was designed? Another possibility is that I am just used to the EPI inverted dome tweeters that push extreme upper frequencies so well. Has anybody else come across dull sounding Advents and found a cure?
antistrange
8 responses Add your response
jingles's avatar
jingles
25 posts
 
BINGO! that's how they sound. But no doubt there is some aging invloved. They're great speakers (if you like their sonic signautre) but not the "last word" in high end. Maybe even in mid fi. Enjoy them for the nostagia...
armstrod
602 posts
 
I owned the Advents for 27 years. I think it's mostly how the speaker was designed rather than the age of the tweeter. The soft dome that Kloss used didn't have the edge of some tweeters of that vintage, and is certainly more rolled off than most tweeters in modern speakers. I never found the Advents dull, but they never had the high frequency extension my current VR-1s have, even when they were new.

I've read of folks having success replacing the Advent tweets. You might do a little searching on the Web, or contact someone like Madisound.

I bought my Advents when I was also a poor student, and they travelled all over the country with me. Even though they're not to everyone's taste, they're definitely classics.

David
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
check with www.humanspeakers.com for advise on thoese fried eggs. the large advents still rock.
snofun3
601 posts
 
Advents are good, but EPI's always sounded better.
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,306 posts
 
I agree the Advents are not the last word in high end extension but have beautiful midrange tone and is a nicely balanced speaker.

I owned a pair of EPI 100s and they are good but a little thin in the high end for my taste and would take large Advents over them.
cleaneduphippy
323 posts
 
Antistrange.

You might want to check out this link.

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=5

The guys there are really into the old "New England" sounding speakers such as Advents, EPI, AR, ect and could probably answer your questions about your Advents "fried egg tweeter" and how to get better high frequency extention out of them.

Good luck in your quest.
ausjoe
98 posts
 
I hear the cymbals quite clearly on my advents. The electrolytics probably need replacing. If you get the tweeter at ear level that helps. For a larger room you can get a second pair and stack them tweeter to tweeter which seems to bring out the midrange a bit. It also depends on if you run them with the switch in extended position. The late model 80's advents (5002) used soft domes. You could pick up a pair on fleabay and try them but I bet changing caps will satisfy ya.

Good luck
dannylw's avatar
dannylw
172 posts
 
I owned the Large Advents and the EPI 180's one right after the other. I would try the caps before giving up on them. They are different but not that different. The Advents usually have a whole in the middle effect. The EPI's don't sound great unless you have gobs of power. On a whole I prefer the Advents. The choice is yours.
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