Usless but interesting ....how many of you old timers started with original Large Advents?

I love some of the age prejudice comments.  With the aging of the Boomers it seems like age prejudice is the "in" prejudice.  But we have to remember that Boomers are the only segment of our population that will age...all others are exempt. 

My first real audio system was built around a pair of the original large walnut Advents. I later added a second pair to have "stacked Advents". They were $250/pr back in  74-75, and were "fair traded" meaning that dealers were prohibited by Advent with selling them for less than that.

@strindl8 Good reminder.  I sometimes mention "fair trade" in my posts here and I am not sure people understand that environment.

Basically, they "shopped" your store, and any discount on a fair trade item immediately lost you their line, period.

I had many arguments with customers back then over this.  Sorry, the line is worth more to me than your business.  Some came around, some did not.  The most stubborn were, of course, the ones with the most money.

One nameless famous person flew his plane over to my city and would not leave without a discount.  Sorry, he left without it.  I wanted to tell him that the gas for the plane was more than the few hundred dollars we were discussing, but discretion won out.

He finally called and bought the item.  He told me NO ONE in the country would discount them to him, so...fair trade was a powerful tool back then.

Cheers!

I had KLH....don't  remember the sound, but they bought me many hours of music discovery

I had several friends with the Advents which I remember to be warm and very listen-able.   I started with AR-11s, which were a little more powerful and had a good tight bottom end.

Speaking of RTR, first, in 1971, senior year in HS, my very first system apart from a little JVC console type thing for a young teenager, featured, actually, Marantz speakers, which were large stand-mount and two way. This was prior to the sale of the company. I just loved these speakers. Upstream were a legendary Marantz 1060 integrated and a Lenco manual giving a hitch to a Grado elliptical. I saw and heard Large Advents often, and did not feel that they bested my Marantz's by much as configured by me.  This system sounded impressive when I compared it to what I heard at frequent concerts. In the very early 70's, my hometown featured one of the nation's leading concert venues, where I was usually in attendance. But the next speakers, floor standers used with separate cabinets containing RTR electrostatic drivers, were breathtaking, mine had 6 RTR membranes, which one simply placed on the top of the floor mounted cabinet, which contained conventional drivers -- these were three-ways, called HPR 12s. With the RTR augmentation, they truly were glorious, it was was if one had very little Infinity Servo-Statik's. These came to university with me, where they were driven by Heathkit and the famous Philips table -- this is 1973 -- with the green-lit, touch-type, switch gear. When the audiophile journey genuinely took flight years later, Avalon Radians were the culmination of the speaker search, these were driven by ML 33H's, an ARC Ref 1, tubed ARC phono-stage, and an Aries with a JMW hosting an Urushi.  Sound always was OMG; cavernous soundstage, imperceptible distortion so deep black noise floor, owing to uber-expensive but virtually donated to me, tri-wire networked MIT speaker cable created for the Radians & Spectral amplification. One dearly loved demo album on this system that everyone should search for given the extraordinary sound and I'd argue fairly good songwriting in some instances, don't laugh, was Gino Vanelli's Storm at Sunup. This album sounds incredible, Graham Lear on the drums.     

I did, these were first real speakers sadly I lost them in transit when I moved for a job from New Jersey to London .U.K in the 70 ‘ 

Wow, that brings back memories!  Just got my commission in the Air Force and started my first assignment at Kelly AFB.  I went to a “Christmas In July”sale at the BX and there they were in glorious pecan.  My first good speakers.   Had them for many years until I moved overseas and faced a weight limit...

DQ10s were my first 

Double Advent stack were my second

Followed by Fuselier Model 3

All 3 highly enjoyable.

There have been many more since then, and I mean many.

Currently a pair of ATC SCM19v2. Excellent!

Yes indeed Large  Advents (utility cabinets) were my first real speakers.   Kept them for about 15 years!     

Indeed with Dual 1209 Turntable Shure M91E cart and Kenwood integrated amp replaced by Crown IC150 & D150 then 300A which brought them alive-Double Large Advents next then heard Magneplanar T-1A and made the switch to Manepan and never looked back-own MG 3.7i now with AVA electronics-thanks to The Stereo Shop in Iowa City, IA and Richard an astute gent there who i miss to this day.   Moved to Custom Electronics in Omaha...The Absolute Sound so it goes. At 69 still deep as can be into tunes...

I actually started with the original smaller Advents.  They were replaced by ADS L-710 in 1980, still in my bedroom system today.

They were my first real speakers in the mid 70s. Kept them through college and for several years beyond. Mine were mismatched cabinets. I want to channel or Hechinger and purchased kitchen cabinet refinishing swirl finish. Painted them both with that stuff and they looked like a beautiful matched pair.My college roommate also had a pair and we stacked them. Later on I added micro acoustic add-on tweeters to mine. In the late 80s I bought a pair of the 25th anniversary large advance. They did not have the fried egg tweeter. Wish I had kept them as well. A few years ago Bill Legall at Millersound told me that he knew I was looking for a pair. He had just gotten a beautiful pair from a customer. Bill did his “magic” to them. I was amazed at how good they sounded. When an audio friend was down on his luck I gave them to him. I will probably get another pair Someday..

My first real system in the early 70’s. Large Advents, Sherwood receiver, Dual 1229 with Shure M91ED cartridge. Saved for 6 months from my first factory job, and bought it all for around $500 or so. Kept them for several years and enjoyed them until bitten by the upgrade bug in the 80’s. When I started reading Stereophile magazine. 

First "high end" system had Large Advents driven by Crown preamp/amp in college.  Upgraded to stacked Advents shortly after graduation.  A few years later gutted them and converted into tri-amped speakers with all-new drivers. Young and stupid...

From 1975, Double Large Advents powered by Marantz 2270, fed by Dual 1229 and Stanton 681. Some fun rockin'.

My first "real" system had a pair of Dynaco A25 bookshelf speakers, driven by a modest Kenwood integrated amp.  That combination sounded pretty good...but not as good as my large Advents driven by a McIntosh MC225 with a Dynaco PAT4 preamp.
Both systems had a Dual 1219 with a Shure V15 Type 4 cartridge.

I started with a stack pair of smaller Advents with an array of 4 Philips some tweeters on top of the stack to increase power handling of that fried egg. Sold those off. Later built my own speakers using Philips 15", cone some miss and those dome tweeters... Was into loud instead of listening...
Eventually got a pair of Advent 2002 for many years.
I now have 2 sets of OLA (walnut and utility), a set of NLA bullnose, and a set of newer small Advent with the 2 cone tweeters mounted on a V shaped plate and 8" woofer. Also have a pair of A25. Would love to get a pair of original smaller Advents, but are rare and far between in decent shape or priced over anyone's budget.
The OLA with green tweeters (recapped) are in use everyday powered by a H/K 930 twin power. The others are in use in my tech room powered by a Yamaha C6 / M4 combo. Always liked the relaxed sound. It was the first speaker I heard where the FM announcer sounded like he was talking right in front of me.

I started out with AR-11's great bass, good midrange, weak tweeters that blew at the drop of a hat.

Darn auto corrector on these smart phones...

...some tweeters = dome tweeters
... cone some miss = cone midrange

This story all started in the early '70s right before disco, that explains the deviation to LOUD... Regret getting rid of my smaller Advents because of this.

Like you offered in the subject line Interesting but useless! . Brings back a ton of fine memories . Although I went with the JBL 26's my best friend in the music world choose the large Advents . The 100' were to pricey even though they were my first choice . Heck I didn't even go for the L-36's . it was probably 1974 and we were 16 . We listened and listened to the differences in the speakers. We both voted for the ones we owned but acknowledged the others was every bit as fun to listen to. They both made it through 4 years of college unscathed and until we had real jobs and real money to play with. 

My first speakers were Acoustic Research 3A’s. Then I went to Large Advents, then B&W 802s ($1700 at the time).  My last three pairs of speakers have been successively larger Maggie’s. I love the 3.7i’s the most. 

My first loudspeakers were Realistic Nova 7’s from Radio Shack.  Within a few years, I was able to replace them with walnut large Advents.  That was definitely an improvement, though it seemed that the Advents didn’t have some of the highs (or was it brightness?) of some of my friends’ speakers.  I played them via a Pioneer SX-626, which only put out about 27 wpc, which wasn’t bad in my bedroom.  When I moved to an apt., I took them with me and they got stolen along with the rest of my equipment.  

Just found a review of my Advent Legacy speakers.   Looks like they can still be found on eBay.    Temptation🥺
http://www.hifi-classic.net/review/advent-legacy-171.html

Yeah, me too. I was broke and did not have a TV but managed to scrape together enough to buy the Advents. Powered with a amp and pre-amp I made. I've never regretted any money I spent on stereos and enjoyed listening to the Advents for years.


Scott

Began my journey with AR 4x speakers which were quickly replaced with the original Advents. There were no Small Advents yet so I don't think the moniker "Large Advents" existed at that point. Those were driven by a McIntosh MA 5100 integrated amp and the source was a Thorens TT. Replaced the Advents with McIntosh ML-1's and an Advent "Frequency Balance Control" equalizer which was used in place of the McIntosh equalizer which was made for their speakers. This was in the early 70's, and was the initiation of my decent into audio madness...


 

Wow, this takes me back! My speaker journey:
large advents 1974-1978
dahlquist DQ-10s 1978-1985
b&w DM-3000s 1985-1997
b&w 603S2 as part of a home theater 1997-2012
goldenear  triton 2s 2012-2016
goldenear  triton 1s 2016-now

i also bought large advents and recreated my original system about five years ago, sold that off 2 years ago, and last year bought and restored Dahlquist DQ-10s and built another throwback system with a NAD preamp and Luxman DD turntable.  Revisiting my wayward audio youth, I guess.

1976, first real job and spent weeks listening to two local dealers and their gear. I was taken with the large Advents in walnut for their solid, non-boomy bass and adjustable treble in a furniture-grade cabinet. Paired with a Marantz 2230 receiver and AR-something manual turntable with Shure cartridge. About $700 at the time (roughly $4300 in so in today’s dollars). I had gotten into classical music a couple of years earlier and liked the Advent’s heft with orchestral and organ works and its light touch on the piano. They did OK with rock, too, but better with acoustic/folk.

The woofers have been refoamed  twice and my brother has them in his living room at the moment with an old Sherwood receiver.  The Marantz, after a refurb about 20 years ago, is also still going strong but I only use the tuner these days. If you told me I had to chuck my Magnepans I’d miss them but I could live with the Advents still.

First high end speakers were Rectlinear 3s.
Advents from 1977-1994. Used a Marantz 2270 to power them.
have owned a few pairs since, just for fun

Never owned a pair of advents but this post piqued my interest. Checking these out online I was amused by this paragraph from a Stereophile post by dalethorn-
"The Advent was my first serious speaker system, inspired by the Stereophile review and embellished by the literature supplied by Mr Henry Kloss, containing such classic phrases as "Hoffman’s Iron Law" and "The shortest distance between two points is a straight line or the line that’s the straightest under the circumstances."
Great doubletalk

Yup my first pair of speakers (after I cobbled some together using TV and console stereo throw-aways) were the Large Advents.  Love those speakers, got 'em in the early 70's had them until just ~5 years ago.  Replaced the drivers at least twice due to foam rot.  I paid $100 each.  My old man almost had a heart attack, but I had earned the $.  How much did you pay?

Advents were best for Rock , AR's a bit better on Acoustic music.Best buy was the KLH _17  which still sounds good on Classical music .
I sold all three of them .

I certainly did.  Powered by a Harman Kardon receiver.   
Heard a pair recently at an event.  Thought they sounded muddy by modern standards.  

Started with Dynaco A25 love them still.

Great title!I remember Tech Hifi doing Presidents Day sales circa 1978 for various things, but always two pairs of Large Advents for $100. People would get in line at 6 am. 1980 I finally got up early and went down the line asking what people were in line to get. Of course the Advents were gone by the time I hit the fifth person in a twenty person line  ;-)  They had got in line at 3 am, which was not really heard of then.

I finally found a nice pair in early aughts at a flea market for $40. Was ecstatic at finally acquiring that holy grail. Blew the crossover within a week. Got it repaired at a speaker dealer. Fired it up again, and blew the foam on the woofers. Finally refoamed them a few years later, and had the idea of getting some sparkling high end in them to go with the legendary bass and Frankenstein together something all purpose high end. I had some Pinnacle tweeters installed and had it bench tested at the lab for two days until tweaked to the technicians exacting standards of perfection.

I did have a question for the group. I encountered this site searching around for info on the advisability of pairing these large Advents with a refurbed Marantz 2230 receiver. I'd just done an upgrade on turntable (since stereo time is now expanded during the day), and put in a Fluance rt84 with an Ortofon 2m blue and it was light years beyond my B&O Beogram. So I thought the phono preamp in the marantz, despite its 30 or more wpc would be an improvement on a Pioneer 604s, which I just realized was 130 wpc. The sound is different with the Marantz, still great, but I wonder: is the trade off worth losing the significant power boost with the Pioneer? The bass is close, but the extra power seemed to really bring the Advents to life.
My first post, thanks in advance for any and all opinions. (running  90/10 ratio of vinyl to cd if that matters)

I had a Pr. of Advents back in the early 80s bought at a Audio Show in Giants Stadium in Jersey. I cant remember the model but I think they were fitted with 6.5" woofers, sound was good 3way, oak cherry in color. Geez that's all my folder has in it. Lol

Out of my budget back then.  Had Dynaco A-25s then JR 149s.

Large Advents since 1974, stacked with the 25th Anniversary version.  Pulled them out last year for Jimmy Smith’s Hammond B-3 and massive pipe organ music.  I’m giving my ZU DRUIDs a rest because these are a lot of FUN.  The electronics upstream are tube.

+1 large Advents and blown tweeter. I did like all Henry Kloss speakers even though they weren't efficient. 

Another fun thread renewed!

Always wanted a pair since the late ‘70s.

Didn’t end up with an Original Large Advent pair until about 8 years ago. Still love what they do! Musical as all get out. Worked really well on my lowboy 9” angled ADS L810 stands driven by a Sony TA-A1ES & matching HAP-Z1ES as an office system, usually streaming Radio Paradise 🎶

My pair responded well to an Audience capacitor & wire upgrade. OLA’s definitely sound their best with the grill baffles installed to prevent midrange suckout from their raised tweeter. Removing the 2 layers of fabric and rattle-can painting the grill boards a satin black was a nice sonic improvement too.

Have a matching second pair with the good factory x-over inductors along with a matching set of upgrade parts for yet another elusive project - Double Stack system . . .