"Stacked" Advents hookup

I want to thank all who responded to the "Stacked Advent" post. Yes, they are 8 ohms and I glad to hear they can be wired in parallel. You may have seen some of my earlier posts; I have one pair of the New Advent Loudspeaker, because I am still looking for a new "hi-end" speaker to replace my B&W's. This has turned into a quest, and in the meantime, I am on this nostalgic binge (Yes, Oh my!!! says it all) I submited the post because(and everyone should find this interesting) one pair of Advents can be impressive. They have a remarkable openness, and to a degree, low coloration. Of course, even the new improved mylar tweeter, Kloss began to use in 1980, is limited in its range;also, you can somewhat hear the crossover notch coloration. The bass is deep, but also slow. Despite driving them with an Aragon 4004 Mk2, I am using some inexpensive speaker wire for hookup. I did not plan to go out and buy Nordost Blue Heaven speaker cable for a $200 speaker. But, I am curious if say Analysis Plus Oval Copper might push their performance a bit.... I got the room for a "stacked setup" but they may not pass the WAF. As some of you suggested, they can provide a wall of sound which is interesting, but how much better are they going to sound, that is, better soundstage, more neutral, and more extended highs?? I would want the sound to be just louder.... In the 70's when I first used them stacked, some folks used a set of MicroAcoustic tweeters that were in a small semi-circular box to supplement the Advents. I never did because I did not have the money. Nevertheless, I have seen some posts on the web about modifying "vintage" equipment----both pro and cons. Some even suggested,replacing the Advent tweeter with that of the JBL L-166, also replacing the woofer with the Dalhqist DQ-10 woofer. But... then is the original Kloss design going to be preserved, and is the speaker really the same??? Finally,it is a shame Kloss did not bring this design a little further in the late 80's. Though, while reading the original lit that came with the used pair I bought, I recalled the "powered" large Advents which became available early 80's. They had large refrigerator-like cabs and each had its own amp!!! I have yet to see a used pair of them on the web. Regards and thanks to all, Sunnyjim

How about two JBL L166's set up like this? anybody ever try that? I know, I know, it wouldn't sound anything like these 2K$ plus five-inch mid woofer speakers on $800 stands, but it sure would be fun to hear some Robin Trower on them!

Oh my! (that's what us old farts say a lot). A very pleasant trip down memory lane. Helped a friend of mine in the 70's set up a pair of stacked Advents. We ran them in parallel with no problem with his HK 930 receiver. Based upon what I did with my EPI 100s, we stacked them on their sides with the tweeters inboard, and the whole array plopped on top of concrete blocks to get them up a couple of feet off the floor. This got rid of a lot of the tubbiness. We then towed them in a few inches. This resulted in a wall to wall, floor to ceiling soundstage that could play loud as hell with slam. We then went over the top and hooked up MY HK 930 for true dual(actually quad) mono operation. Oh my!!

I had stacked Advents in the mid/late seventies and YES you do invert the Advents so tweeters are close together in the fashion of Dunlavy SCIVa etc. I ran them with a Dynaco 400 which, for their day, was a nice combo for a person in their early 20s.

They were(and in this case are)8 ohms, so parallel is fine.
Do invert the top one(tweeter to tweeter) and given the amount of money invested, still do sound pretty good today, but frap is right, a little thick is the term. But for the money, not bad. Hard to put on tilted stands though.

Hi Sunnyjim, The parallel hookup was the way I did it when I had them. I did not invert the top pair. The bass of the setup was pretty good and the overall impression was positive of the setup from memory. How they would sound to me today is another matter. My guess is they would be somewhat "thickish" sounding. To answer your question, stacking Advents was a pretty large difference (for the better)over a single pair.......Frank

I was speaking with a friend about stacked Advents the other day. I was curious to know if he had tried them with the top speaker upside-down, so the tweeters would be together in the center and he said he had not. I thought it would have been interesting to do that and see how it compared to the bottom-to-top configuration that he used. Now you can try it and see. It may help to put them on short stands to get them off the ground a bit and to put a vibration-absorbing maretial between the cabinets for isolation.

I don't remember if the Advents were 4 or 8 ohm speakers, but if they were 8 ohms nominal, then most amps would do fine with a simple parallel hookup. If they were 4 ohms nominal (I believe the small Advents were, not the large) then you would need to consult the amp's manufacturer because a parallel hookup would result in less than 2 ohms impedance at some frequencies and not all amps can handle that. In that case you could always try a series hookup, but then you'd likely need more amp power.

Happy experimenting and let us know how you fare.

This is a good one. Holy flashback. Let's see it was twenty....seven years ago and I remember you had to invert the top pair (turn them upside down so the tweeters were close together) and then you needed jumpers to wire the positive on the top pair to the positive on the lower pair and then the same for the two negative terminals. I think that's right. I know someone else here had this setup too. I remember it was a kickin combo. I was a teenager so you know I loved it. I used a Dynaco stereo 150 amp that I built from a kit. Help me out guys... my memory isn't what it used to be.