Lavane
Lunatic Member
Thanks Wayner. I'll have to pop one open and see what's what.
Advent Love or no Love?
Doug G.
Lunatic Member
The change in crossover didn't correspond to when the metal plate/Masonite plate change was made. The 16/16 capacitor version continued into 1975 which was well after the plate change. Then, Advent went to the 16/8 capacitor version.
As far as how well Advents are liked, anytime anything becomes very popular in the population, there are those who will denigrate the product simply because they want to appear smarter and independent, not following the crowd. I am, of course, not intimating that this is occurring on this board.
Also, after reading some of the comments, I am convinced that some users are buying these speakers and not being absolutely sure they are restored to original condition. Some of the complaints just seem so unlike what I hear from them. Lack of bass? No way. Either the cabinet is not sealed correctly or the source is at fault. Advents can shake the room with the right content.
Doug
As far as how well Advents are liked, anytime anything becomes very popular in the population, there are those who will denigrate the product simply because they want to appear smarter and independent, not following the crowd. I am, of course, not intimating that this is occurring on this board.
Also, after reading some of the comments, I am convinced that some users are buying these speakers and not being absolutely sure they are restored to original condition. Some of the complaints just seem so unlike what I hear from them. Lack of bass? No way. Either the cabinet is not sealed correctly or the source is at fault. Advents can shake the room with the right content.
Doug
WaynerN
Addicted Member
Just look at the speaker wire connection panel in the back. If its aluminum with silk-screened black lettering, its revision 1. If its the brown fiber-board panel, its revision 2.
WaynerN
Addicted Member
Doug, Henry Kloss changed things when ever he wanted to. There were no revision letters and he used all the parts of whatever until the inventory was gone. That makes it pretty hard to date. However, things would settle down for a period and one could formulate a revision to a vague time period. I have done lots of research on this topic and have a nice file on it.
I have really good bass on mine. I suspect that thru the years, there have been fiddling hands inside the OLAs and those fiddlers (not knowing what they are doing) may have destroyed the integrity of these speakers.
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Lavane
Lunatic Member
It looks like revision 2 is what I have then.
Doug G.
Lunatic Member
Yes, Advent changes were vague and there was never any indication on the outside of the speaker as to what was inside. You have to work up a history with clues and serial number references. It's just I have seen many Masonite panel Advents with two 16uf caps. inside. It's not a big deal, though. The change didn't make that big a difference in the sound. It was more of a tweeter protection thing as the damage to tweeters continued in the field even after several measures by Advent.
Doug
Doug
I have NLA's and Ones. Ran them stacked. They sound very nice. But, my recapped NLA's vs BA A100's series one with Seas tweeters, prefer the A100's. I think the Seas tweeter is superior. I compare to the A100 because they have many design similarities.
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bobins08
Celebrating Life
I think the OLA, the Smaller Advent, and the NLA should be all in the speaker hall of fame.
In high school in the 70’s lots us had them and we mostly had minimum wage paperboy, bus boy and dishwasher part time jobs. Great balance between sound quality and cost. College dorms were loaded with Advent. There were better then, and certainly now too but these speakers were iconic. The sales numbers don’t lie, you can find them on Craigslist almost anywhere in North America.
In high school in the 70’s lots us had them and we mostly had minimum wage paperboy, bus boy and dishwasher part time jobs. Great balance between sound quality and cost. College dorms were loaded with Advent. There were better then, and certainly now too but these speakers were iconic. The sales numbers don’t lie, you can find them on Craigslist almost anywhere in North America.
stereoguy70
Well-Known Member
The only Advents I have experience with are the three that I've owned/own....the Advent/3, the Smaller Advent, and the OLA. All sound great to me and the ones that stayed are the OLA. The 3 sounds way better than it should for its diminutive size, and this is the charm of it. The smaller is very close in sound to its big brother the OLA, but the OLA just wins it for me.
There is some confusion here.
I am the author of this page, the confusion is due to the fact that the Figure numbers
are below the Figures and I never put in pictures for Rev 0 because I never found any
so it is just a placeholder. I never drew a schematic for Rev 0 but believe it is the same
as Rev 1:
http://baselaudiolab.com/ADVENT_LA_XO.html
I used the component values to identify the revisions of the OLA, these are only OLA NOT
NLA or 5002:
Rev 0 16/8/4 which is 16uF, 8uF, 4 ohms This was very early and rare they have the
aluminum metal plate on the back and no grille over the tweeter. These are the only
revision with a metal plate in the back.
Rev 1 16/16/3 These are the very common early run with painted "dot" inductors
Rev 2 16/8/3 Also very common but later run with bar style shunt inductor
Advents sound amazingly good with BSC:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/in...p-compensation-bsc-build-instructions.647441/
I am the author of this page, the confusion is due to the fact that the Figure numbers
are below the Figures and I never put in pictures for Rev 0 because I never found any
so it is just a placeholder. I never drew a schematic for Rev 0 but believe it is the same
as Rev 1:
http://baselaudiolab.com/ADVENT_LA_XO.html
I used the component values to identify the revisions of the OLA, these are only OLA NOT
NLA or 5002:
Rev 0 16/8/4 which is 16uF, 8uF, 4 ohms This was very early and rare they have the
aluminum metal plate on the back and no grille over the tweeter. These are the only
revision with a metal plate in the back.
Rev 1 16/16/3 These are the very common early run with painted "dot" inductors
Rev 2 16/8/3 Also very common but later run with bar style shunt inductor
Advents sound amazingly good with BSC:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/in...p-compensation-bsc-build-instructions.647441/
WaynerN
Addicted Member
My post (post 20) is in my OLAs. It is identical to the schematic and photo (rev. 2) from your web page. Where do you think there is confusion?
I'm sure rev. "0" had a change (or why would they have a rev. 1), but it might be minor (like an inductor or something like that). I've also studied Ebay sales for some time and the way I have things in my mind seem to correspond. At any rate, it is obvious that Mr. Kloss was a loose canon and changed things on a whim. I know someone else just like that........(Frank)
I'm the one who named the Rev numbers, there is a Rev 0 because a friend
of mine who worked at Advent said that he had notes from probably the
earliest revision that had 16/8/4. He actually ran the measurement curves
on the early prototypes.
Considering the number made I don't think 3 revisions is a lot, there may be
more. They probably thought Rev 1 made it sound better and was a cost
reduction with the cheap inductors, then they found out that the inductors
failed, probably under party conditions. Rev 2 used a much more robust
inductor - done for the OLA. They reduced the "Increase" cap because it
was too much with the larger cap making Increase not very useful.
of mine who worked at Advent said that he had notes from probably the
earliest revision that had 16/8/4. He actually ran the measurement curves
on the early prototypes.
Considering the number made I don't think 3 revisions is a lot, there may be
more. They probably thought Rev 1 made it sound better and was a cost
reduction with the cheap inductors, then they found out that the inductors
failed, probably under party conditions. Rev 2 used a much more robust
inductor - done for the OLA. They reduced the "Increase" cap because it
was too much with the larger cap making Increase not very useful.
I had OLA and Dahlquist DQ-10s at the same time and wish I had the skills needed to make a 3 way out of the Advent using the Philips 5060ad out of the Dahlquist. The Infinity Qb would be a good starting point as an example. Even the double OLA had a less than clear midrange that the 5060ad or modern equivalent might be able to solve...paging Pete Basel! Please.
Which would defeat Henry's concept behind the design - a simple, inexpensive speaker that works pretty well across the range just shy of half an octave missing from either end. I find that the New Advent with the simpler, revised crossover improved the overall balance. I did, however, update the crossover components with mine, soldered the leads and put wool diffusers around the tweeters to minimize diffraction.
I run them in the garage system today driven by a 300 watt / channel Ncore amplifier.
bigaltx24
Super Member
I rebuilt a pair of OLAs for a friend a couple of years ago. Not the greatest sounding speaker in the world, but I could live with them. My friend had got them for free from his in laws, with new surrounds and caps he had about $40 total in them. It's not an easy task to find a better sounding pair of speakers for $40. My friend really likes them and uses them as monitors in his recording studio.
btomjvc
Active Member
I've had 3 or 4 sets of both the first series and the second. Liked them both for many of the reason you speak of. Good bass plus clean sounding across the different frequencies. I like the styling also.
Lavane
Lunatic Member
So, I may have found the problems with mine. Toed in, tilted back a little and they sound better. I was listening to David Bowie's Black Star album and these speakers sounded totally different. After playing verious other music repositioning them has helped. I'll have to get or make some stands to get the tweeters at ear level next.
The low end still isn't where I like it, but it is better. I guess I really am just used to ported speakers. I'm not a bass head, but these so far are the most relaxed set of speakers I've had when it comes to bass. I'm happy with the midrange and high end though.
The low end still isn't where I like it, but it is better. I guess I really am just used to ported speakers. I'm not a bass head, but these so far are the most relaxed set of speakers I've had when it comes to bass. I'm happy with the midrange and high end though.