An Advent Guy

Advent speakers (along with AR and KLH) really implemented the "acoustic suspension" principle, where the enclosed air provided the "spring" for the woofer. Hold one of those old drivers in your hand and see how the cone flops around when you move it. On one occasion I had reason to replace the woofer in a KLH12 system. The woofer free air resonance was individually measured and marked on the cone. 14 Hz. It's hard to find a woofer today at much less than 30Hz. You can still buy a speaker system with an "enclosed" cabinet, but I don't think any are truly "acoustic suspension". Some kind of hybrid I guess. The air spring is much more linear than any mechanical suspension, and leads to low distotion.

My main system is a golden oldie - Infinity RSIIb. Best sounding speaker (to me) that I have ever heard. I'm in the process of rebuilding them with external crossovers with Mundorf caps, Northcreek and Solen inductors, Cardas litz wire, cabinet bracing, etc. and I'm thinking they will be even better after that! Oh and very pretty,too:

[img]http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk22/magalettab/KEFandRSIIb006.jpg[\img]

I love my 4 L 100s. One pair has been completely reconed with all JBL parts and tricked out in the crossover which smoothed it out somewhat and actually made it even better sounding. Yes, they're "old school" but thats OK. It is what sounds good to you that counts and many people forget that basic truth.

Hi all ! My first system was a pair of the large advents (utility cabinets) a pioneer receiver and a PE turntable (a dual clone I think) I had those speakers (later added another pair ) for many , years eventually building a heathkit aa1640 power amp (200 wpc into 8 ohms and 400 wpc into the double advents ) I would crank those suckers up until the lights would dim on the heavy bass notes . I would have the front door open with the screen door closed when the weather was nice . Not one time did the neighbors complain , even at night . Eventually sold one pair because my girlfriend hated how they looked stacked .Blew the tweeters out of the pair I kept and replaced them with dyna audio d28af's . They were never the same .Wish the internet was around then , I would have found the correct tweeters . Bought a nice pair on ebay a few months ago , rotate the in the system with the thiels and maggies , no apologies necessary thank you !

My OHM Ls (which were designed to compete with the Advents but in a smaller box), although I have custom tweaked mine.

On my current system which far surpasses what I had when I bought the Ls in 1978 (I think), they sound a lot like what I believe a good pair of Harbeths sound like from the descriptions I have heard. Still hard to beat for rock and popular music....

Jaybo, I was surprised to find this interesting artifact online:

[url]http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/171advent/[/url]

Having sold these and others back in the day, the accounting here seems to be mostly consistent with my recollection of the Advents. The OHM Ls sounded very similar, perhaps just a touch brighter or more forward sounding, enough to capture your attention one way or the other in comparison to the Advents that they targeted.