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Vintage Advents too big for small room?

In my current house, where I'll be for at least another 5 years, my listening room is only 12' by 12'. I have New Advents, owned since new in 1978, tweeters replaced under warranty by the better ferrofluid ones, woofers replaced about 10 years ago with OEMs from Jensen, who owned Advent at the time. They're still beautiful and do everything they've always done, but they completely overwhelm this smaller room. I have no real choice but to place them in the corners. I've moved them out 6 inches, but that didn't help appreciably.

I've thought of two options: 1) buy some stands for the Advents in the hope of decoupling them from the room a little more, or 2) go with some much smaller monitors and stands that, just because of their size, would be farther from the corners of the room. Are there any other options?

Monitors would probably be something like Epos ELS-3, Ascend CBM-170, Triangle Titus - I would need to keep monitors+stands at $500 or less for now. Also, I've had trouble locating stands for the Advents - any reasonably priced suggestions?

David
armstrod
plato
1,543 posts
 
The Advents do have a fair amount of heft in the low bass. Your room will be less than ideal for ANY speaker with true low bass response. You get a double reinforcement at some low frequency point because the width and length of the room are the same, and then you basically quadruple the problem by putting the speakers in the room corners. I cannot imagine a good outcome without some serious equalization plus tube traps and other bass-absorbing furniture and devices.

You're stuck with a tough room, so I'd suggest either a nice headphone system, or smaller monitors that have a pronounced rolloff below 60Hz or so... Especially if you'll be putting them in the corners!!!
armstrod OP
602 posts
 
Plato,

I agree with you, and I wish I could get the speakers out of the corners, but in a room that size my options are limited. I do have a very absorbing futon couch opposite the speakers. I'm sure that most small monitors don't do much below 60hz, so that's probably the best solution. Any that you've heard and liked?
plato
1,543 posts
 
Hmmm, something like the VonSchweikert VR-1 or the Green Mountain Audio Europa's might be interesting and would probably work well with a little tweaking. Then there are the Paradigm Studio 20s, which could be had for a little less money. But, I'd still try to move them in from the corners.

Good luck to you; I believe you can find an agreeable solution.
rockvirgo
587 posts
 
When I had original big Advents I built short stands for them from spare shelving, 1" x 6"s or 1" x 8"s, in an H pattern, cheap and easy. Big cinder blocks work too - put some carpet remnants between the speakers and the blocks. Basically use whatever you can to get them off the floor. Forget all the ritualistic audio hoohah except getting some equilateral placement going. Place them sideways on top of a dresser or into a shelf; they'll sound great. Use books as elevators. Experiment with the tweeters on the insides or outsides. The Advents are fun so have fun with them.

Nowadays I'm running posh, high WAF, pampered ProAc 2000 Signatures on stylin' Target welded stands. The ProAcs are certainly sweet but some days I still miss the bulky, get the job done Advent magic.
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