Advent made only two versions of the Large speaker: a fancy version with a beveled-edge front. And a "utility" version with a plain front. You have the fancy version. Not rare! Advent sold a lot of them. About $219/pair in 1970. |
Advent made only two versions of the Large speaker: a fancy version with a beveled-edge front. And a "utility" version with a plain front. You have the fancy version. Not rare! Advent sold a lot of them. About $219/pair in 1970. |
John Dahlquist later used those woofers in his DQ10s. I have a pair of DQ10s! |
Advent actually made several iterations of the Large Advent Loudspeaker.
The version you purchased, with the beveled (front) cabinet are the first
version with a walnut cabinet. The earliest produced had no protective grill over
the “fried egg” tweeter. The version with the rounded (front) cabinet came
later. Now, if you want “rare”, Advent made a powered version of the Large
Advent Loudspeaker. Boy do I wish I had kept those…
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Thanks for the responses....the model of the speakers may not be rare, but their condition certainly is. You guys really know your stuff and your shared knowledge is appreciated. Hard to believe, but I haven't even bothered to check out the drivers (the woofers had been refoamed and the cross-overs updated). Other than that, they are original from the ground up. |
I owned the version that you bought. Wish I hadn't sold them. Kept mine minty too. |
Congrats on your score!!! Enjoy the music :-) |
Not to be a name dropper, but many years ago I was in, if memory serves, what I believe was a Cambridge Soundworks store in Watertown, MA. Wait, it gets better, lo and behold there was Mr. Kloss talking with some of his peeps. Just a memory, he advanced the state of audio and visual leaps and bounds.
I can still remember how silky smooth turning the FM tuner dial on my KLH model 24 was. Perhaps the smoothest of all.
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I did not particularly like the Large Advents back when they came out. But, the Powered Advent was a different matter--it had a much more lively sound. It was so much better than the Large Advent, even though the driver complement was the same. That said a lot about the value of bi-amping with an active crossover. |
To find them in such well-cared for condition is rare indeed. Now to sweeten the nostalgia, find a well-cared for Advent 300 receiver to drive them with. If you are not into head banging or trying to fill a stadium with sound you’ll be very pleasantly surprised how much the combo will satisfy. Enjoy!
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Damn you, tubegb! Went to flea-bay and found a respectable-looking 300 receiver at a very reasonable price (but made a lower offer since they charge tax now). I couldn't resist since this looks like a really cool piece of audio history, and is packed with features. A no-nonsense prodigy from the mind of Henry Kloss! I'll use it to build a small system around a pair of Minimus 7s (the wooden ones made in Japan). |
Nice! I'm good at spending other people's money. :)
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I'm really surprised you found a pair in mint condition as the woofer's foam surround was subject to deterioration. |
discnik, I have an Advent 300 that I got in a trade from a friend and it's now in the house of another friend driving a pair of Minimus 7s. She loves it and I really like seeing it having a second life. |
Never had the Large Advents - a buddy does, sound great- but had the 300 receiver. It had preamp out. Used it to feed a Dynaco ST 70 played thru to Rogers Ls35as, DQ 10s and Klipsch LaScalas. And the FM section was super nice. Amp section put out 15-20 watts. Never used it. |
Original Large: $116.00 per pair
Original Utility: $102.00 per pair
As a college fool, I bought the utilities!
On cinder blocks for stands, with a Rabco ST-4, ADC XLM, Quad 33/303, and 16ga. lamp cord fitted with bananas for the amp and bare twisted question marks for the threaded posts, plenty of Mexican reefer... Jimi, Rod Stewart, Van, and The G-Dead sounded pretty fine! Life B4 high end!
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@crustycoot....*sigh*soft L*
Yeah, the 'Good Old Daze'.....the MexMerch was the outstanding 'component' at the time....
....at least, what I remember..'old hippies' don't die....they just vagggguuueee awayyyy....;)
It was 'high end', in it's way.....*L*
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...we've just moved on to 'stronger stuff'....
....just like we were warned about.....*LOL* |
@crustycoot -- Sounds like you got high just fine without Hi-Fi. It was special, high times in the '70's when Brown Columbian with buds no bigger than a penny (and loaded with seeds) hit town to replace the Ditchweed Mexican. Don't know how many concert tour T-Shirts were baptized with burn holes. |
Henry Kloss, who was with AR, KLH (he was the "K") and Advent, later co-founded Cambridge Soundworks. I used to frequent its factory store in Newton, MA. I acquired a dozen Cambridge Soundworkds speakers two 12" amplified subwoofers and 3 of their radio/CD players (which sounded much better than the Bose Wave radio at half the price), One pair of speakers was a copy of the famous KLH 6 that I have to this day. The man had an amazing career and designed some innovative speakers, including the AR 3A, the KLH 6 and the Large Advents. |
Stock Advents sounded great. If you ever have the opportunity to hear a pair that has been given the “magic” treatment by Bill Legall at Millersound you will not believe your ears! |
The Large Advent speaker was an outstanding value performer in its day. Some music lovers even added a second pair and used them is a "Stacked Advents" configuration. The second pair would sit directly on top of the first, wired in series, but inverted so the tweeters would be in close proximity. The problem with older speakers of this vintage is the flexing surround material around the outside edge of the woofer tends to deteriorate. There is a business in Tulsa Oklahoma that does an outstanding job of rebuilding woofers for very reasonable rates. Let me know and I'll supply you with the details. |
Thanks for all the responses and suggestions on the Large Advents. I
regret waiting so long to pick up a pair, but thought anything priced so cheaply originally couldn't be anything special. We owe a debt of gratitude to the pioneers of audio who had the foresight and integrity to build products that not only performed great, but were built to last.
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I may be wrong but... Were not the beveled edge the first edition, called OLA by the community. They came with a green or orange "fried egg" tweeter mounted up off the baffle and a 12" basket, Masonite edge, inverted foam surround woofer mounted low in the box? The bull nose are the second edition with a tweeter mounted directly on the baffle and a non Masonite ring woofer mounted higher up from the bottom, better suited for placing directly on the floor. Hey, what do I know, I can be wrong. |
From everything I've seen/learned so far, I think you are correct, Lone Rider. The beveled-edge front version was the first iteration of the Large Advents, the bullnose edition came later, from what I've been able to glean. I did not realize the material around the woofer is Masonite....no wonder it deteriorates over time (or warps, or whatever the issue was).
I still have not removed the grills on the speakers...they sound great and the seller assured me the woofers were re-foamed and crossovers reworked. It amazes me how 'right' these speakers sound with a wide variety of music. I am in the process of picking up a pair of the bullnose
from Atlanta....the seller has to come to NC in July for a wedding and will bring them with him. Good karma there.
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