I know this is an old thread but can't help replying:
Were Advents "respectable"? MORE than that; in their time, they were considered bold in some of their approaches and beautiful in terms of their physicality and design.
I hope you still have these somewhere, even if you've upgraded. My story:
I bought a pair of New Advent Loudspeakers in 1979, the year I graduated high school. I STILL HAVE THEM at this writing in 2011. They serve as the front speakers on my bedroom surround system. No, they're really not strong enough for my main A/V system, but for the secondary, BR surround setup, they work fine. I obviously don't listen to them as much as I used to, but after 32 years, I'm still delighted to hear these speakers now and then.
Advent persuasively made the argument that the more drivers a manufacturer put into an enclosure, the more problems there could be. The company stressed simplicity with a two-speaker, single crossover design at a time when the industry standard was a three-speaker, dual crossover. Advent's idea was to cover the sound spectrum using a tweeter and a mid/woofer, when nearly everyone else was doing it with a tweeter, midrange and woofer.
I remember being ridiculed when I would show people my speakers without the grilles -- but the comments generally stopped when the music started.
Were there problems? Yes. For one thing, the original orange tweeters were notorious for their lack of durability. I ended up having to replace both of mine. The mid-woofers, for that matter, are not made from the materials available today, obviously; I've heard stories of people having to get them re-foamed, for example. My own experience: A pet (God rest his soul now) decided one of the cones looked tasty, having managed to pry off the grille of the speaker while I was at work. I was horrified to arrive home and find pieces of the woofer cone all over the room. Replaced it and moved on. So: 32 years in, I do have a set of New Advent Loudspeakers still in service, though three of the four drivers have been replaced. Also, I probably should replace the crossovers -- I even went so far as to order the parts -- but I'm just too lazy to do it, and the fact is, the sound of these speakers still pleases me.
I wouldn't put them into service on a large, modern system, but they work fine for my application. Also note: The Advents were sealed-enclosure speakers, which is something of a rarity today -- most speakers have ports now to increase their efficiency. Back then, ported speakers were often very poorly designed and, in general, frowned upon by a lot of audiophiles I knew; such speakers were considered "boomy." Music itself has changed tremendously since then, as has technology.
Bottom line: They're antiques, I know, but these are great old speakers. Related subject: I also still have in use a pair of Polk Audio's Monitor 10 speakers from 1989. They use a single tweeter, two 6 1/2 inch mid/bass drivers, and a large "passive bass radiator" in each enclosure that is simply a cone hooked up to ... nothing. The action of the entire (sealed) enclosure drives the bass radiator, a design that worked very well, I must say. Those speakers are hooked up to my 2-channel system, which includes an Adcom power amp and some other separates from the mid-1980s to very early 1990s. Thank God my wife is understanding about all this stuff!
Were Advents "respectable"? MORE than that; in their time, they were considered bold in some of their approaches and beautiful in terms of their physicality and design.
I hope you still have these somewhere, even if you've upgraded. My story:
I bought a pair of New Advent Loudspeakers in 1979, the year I graduated high school. I STILL HAVE THEM at this writing in 2011. They serve as the front speakers on my bedroom surround system. No, they're really not strong enough for my main A/V system, but for the secondary, BR surround setup, they work fine. I obviously don't listen to them as much as I used to, but after 32 years, I'm still delighted to hear these speakers now and then.
Advent persuasively made the argument that the more drivers a manufacturer put into an enclosure, the more problems there could be. The company stressed simplicity with a two-speaker, single crossover design at a time when the industry standard was a three-speaker, dual crossover. Advent's idea was to cover the sound spectrum using a tweeter and a mid/woofer, when nearly everyone else was doing it with a tweeter, midrange and woofer.
I remember being ridiculed when I would show people my speakers without the grilles -- but the comments generally stopped when the music started.
Were there problems? Yes. For one thing, the original orange tweeters were notorious for their lack of durability. I ended up having to replace both of mine. The mid-woofers, for that matter, are not made from the materials available today, obviously; I've heard stories of people having to get them re-foamed, for example. My own experience: A pet (God rest his soul now) decided one of the cones looked tasty, having managed to pry off the grille of the speaker while I was at work. I was horrified to arrive home and find pieces of the woofer cone all over the room. Replaced it and moved on. So: 32 years in, I do have a set of New Advent Loudspeakers still in service, though three of the four drivers have been replaced. Also, I probably should replace the crossovers -- I even went so far as to order the parts -- but I'm just too lazy to do it, and the fact is, the sound of these speakers still pleases me.
I wouldn't put them into service on a large, modern system, but they work fine for my application. Also note: The Advents were sealed-enclosure speakers, which is something of a rarity today -- most speakers have ports now to increase their efficiency. Back then, ported speakers were often very poorly designed and, in general, frowned upon by a lot of audiophiles I knew; such speakers were considered "boomy." Music itself has changed tremendously since then, as has technology.
Bottom line: They're antiques, I know, but these are great old speakers. Related subject: I also still have in use a pair of Polk Audio's Monitor 10 speakers from 1989. They use a single tweeter, two 6 1/2 inch mid/bass drivers, and a large "passive bass radiator" in each enclosure that is simply a cone hooked up to ... nothing. The action of the entire (sealed) enclosure drives the bass radiator, a design that worked very well, I must say. Those speakers are hooked up to my 2-channel system, which includes an Adcom power amp and some other separates from the mid-1980s to very early 1990s. Thank God my wife is understanding about all this stuff!
