Thrift store find.. Original Advents dated 1975 doing surrounds, what about Caps?

Darren James

Darren James

Active Member
K, I have them open and I ordered the surrounds...
While I have them open, .............
Should I just go ahead and do the caps????
 
Having recapped piles of speakers over the years, I am not one to always claim a "night and day" difference once it's done. With that said the OLA's and the EPI's I have recapped (original caps still in spec or not) I heard a significant improvement to my ears.

IMHO low risk and well worth the small investment.
 
Replacing capacitors is fairly cheap insurance. As others have stated, you may not hear much of a difference but the old caps are usually out of spec by now.

What I like to do when recapping is do one speaker at a time and compare the recapped speaker to the un-recapped speaker. Usually you can hear the differences, even slight ones when doing a side buy side comparison.
 
So I do the Surrounds, put them in, and "BAM", no tweeter works..... on either of them..... Glad I only paid $6.99 for the pair.. So I am in search of a good pair of fried egg.... Trouble is, these came with the green ones... made in 1975 I guess

jxXK3YC.jpg
 
if those have those little black "temple" caps, it might be worth following Fairlane's advice, or simply drop a very low level audio signal direct on the tweeters to see if the issue is the tweeters or the x-over caps.

I've never had them go completely dead, but I have had speakers sound really rolled off due to those old caps presumably having very high ESR.
 
Thank you all for the help. Unfortunately I have connected directly to both with nothing. Low volume sound, OHM reading, just nothing...

hogyq4d.jpg
 
I have OLA Advent also. Mine sound just like everyone say they do. Except the tweeters are week. I assume the caps are failing or the tweeters are stiff from age. I will recap them.
I don't assume that used replacement tweeters are going to be any less stiff. I hope you can get good tweeters that aren't stiff. And how would you know?
I'm going to consider new options.
 
quiet said:
I have OLA Advent also. Mine sound just like everyone say they do. Except the tweeters are week. I assume the caps are failing or the tweeters are stiff from age. I will recap them.
I don't assume that used replacement tweeters are going to be any less stiff. I hope you can get good tweeters that aren't stiff. And how would you know?
I'm going to consider new options.
Click to expand...

I ordered new caps. They just came in. I found a set of tweeters I like on Ebay, $30ea. So, hopefully this weekend I'll do the work.
I have never heard these.
I have a pair of Marantz Imperial 6 two ways from 1975, and they are very sweet. Probably the flattest I have ever heard... Just a pleasure to listen to...
I am looking forward to these.
I also just grabbed a pair of JBL L36's which someone had thrown a pair of JBL subwoofers off the shelf in to them.... shame! They didn't have the original ones
so I am on the lookout for some 125A woofers from that period...

Oh the life of a audio addict!! LOL
 
The OLA is an interesting speaker. Some say they were a standard to be judged by. I say they sound good in a small box for a price. If I heard a brand new pair I might say something else. I want to hear one with a cross change and new fancy tweeter that can go down to meet that woofer. I want to hear some sparkle to go with that bottom boom.
Love the look, the build ,the history..................
Mine do sound good as is, old tweeter and all. I don't think flat is part of the deal on these. There's no denying they justify their in use existence and place in history.
 
quiet said:
The OLA is an interesting speaker. Some say they were a standard to be judged by.
Click to expand...
Well, they were certainly good by 1972 standards. A friend reviewed them as doubles in the first issue of The Absolute Sound.

The New Advent introduced in 1979 made a number of changes to improve the sound quality. Among them:

-Ferrofluid cooled tweeter for enhanced power handling (Harry smoked a few of the originals driving them with a Phase Linear 700)
-Closer mounting of woofer and tweeter for more consistent directivity
-Moved crossover from 1 kHz to 1.5 kHz for better driver blending (as you noted, the tweeter struggled to reach the bottom of the original's range)
-Simplified crossover using fewer components
-Tonal balance change where "Normal" was previously "Extended"
-Simplified metal basket for woofer

I've made a couple of enhancements to my pair of New Advents. Replaced original electrolytics in xover with mix of 'lytic and film for improved transparency and added felt damping around tweeter to minimize diffraction.

As for range, I would classify them as a nine octave speaker - losing a half at either extreme. The tweeter was never known for its top end response. Other designs of that era like the Braun/ADS were superior. My first pair of Advents was purchased in '72. I moved to Braun LV1020s in '74. Purchased used New Advents for the garage about fifteen years ago.
 
I’m among the fans of OLAs. I restored a minty pair of walnut Advents about 8 years ago and they have been in use since. Do make sure woofer surround is proper size. I recommend using Dayton poly caps in crossover. I have 1974 vintage speakers and swapped to a 8/16 cap set up. Sounds wonderful on extended. I also replaced fiberglass with new and soldered all the leads internally. I dampened the woofer basket with thin rubber material. Lastly, I added a front to back 1” brace between the drivers. I would get them up approx 6” off the floor and very slightly tilt them back. I like them 12” from the wall in my room. I also tend to toe in the left speaker a tad more than right for improved imaging. People can say what they want, but I’ve burned through prob 20 pairs of speakers and always return to these. Love them!
 
Donkey Karma said:
Having recapped piles of speakers over the years, I am not one to always claim a "night and day" difference once it's done. With that said the OLA's and the EPI's I have recapped (original caps still in spec or not) I heard a significant improvement to my ears.

IMHO low risk and well worth the small investment.
Click to expand...

What type of caps do you use and where do I buy them? I am considering recapping my EPI speakers.
 
I see your moving right along. Are you going to show use the tweeters when you get them?
 
Did you order electrolytic or film types. Film is better, but since the ESR (effective series resistance) is lower, the result will be brighter sounding than the originals unless you add resistance.

I initially replaced the 13uF electrolytic in my New Advents with a 12 and 1 uF film. The result was intolerably bright.

I ended up using the 1uF film with a 12 uF ‘lytic which improved resolution and maintained tonal balance. In a perfect world, I would have rebuilt the xover using only film and appropriate resistor value.
 
The way I see it, if you have it open and it's not a PITA then why not do it just to not have to do it later if they suddenly fail after years of sitting idle and then being used all the time? you may not hear an improvement, but you won't have to worry about caps failing and ruining anything. Plus if you hear a weak tweeter, at least you know it's not the caps. While you are in there, test any resistors as well to make sure they are still within spec.

Good luck! Seems you are well on your way to getting these back in action.
 
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