Advent Prodigy Tower Crossovers

[S klein]

I appreciate your response. I have a chance to get some tweeters and cross overs (not sure they are exact match per images on ebay on the cross overs, the tweeters are and appear brand new/unused) for around $65 but again, I only paid $20 for the speakers so you are probably right, i might just enjoy them and keep the $ powder dry . I know it's not a lot of money we are talking about here.

Granted these aren't top shelf speakers anyways but I have been enjoying them and they are very nice looking to me and a really nice size for an office.

Will definitely follow your advice on the Old English. Need to check that out. These look like they were re-stained when renovated.

Any other Advent speakers you have enjoyed besides the Prodigy?

 

[WillMeyer]

I have:

One pair: Advent Legacy I (enhanced - see below)
One pair: Advent Heritage (perfect cabinets, enhanced crossover)
Two pair: Advent Laureate (1 stock, 1 enhanced - poor cabinets)
One pair: Advent Prodigy (perfect cabinets - enhanced)
One pair: Advent Baby (perfect - enhanced)

I've listed them from my most liked (Legacy) to less (key word is less - not dislike).

My hobby is restoring speakers and I have a soft spot for Advents.
I have 30 pairs of speakers (varous makes) at home, all are restored except for a set of KEF 103/3 which are in work, and Laureates which while mechanically are restored, need work cabinet work which I'll do in the garage once the weather improves. I've done enhancements on all, except one pair of Laureates. While mechanically restored, I left the crossover and sound insulation is stock configuration (the other has poly caps, better inductors, and additional poly fill) and I use both pairs to A/B demo what a crossover can do for a speaker.


I actually like the Legacy the best of the Advent.
It has a sound that is very easy to listen to; I run that in my bedroom.
I drive it with an Adcom GTP-450 preamp tuner and a Carver TFM-6cb Power Amp.
These were in poor shape when I got them.
I refinished the wood with a Tung Oil finish; upgraded the crossover with poly caps, added 5 way binging posts, set it up for Bi-Amping, and as a final touch, put a set of Maestro Trim rings on the woofer replacing the laminated paper trim.

The Legacies replaced a set of Advent Prodigy Towers. I really didn't want to part with the Prodigy Towers; they were the rare black finished and in perfect condition, but a buddy was building his system and really wanted them, so I let them move on and rebuilt the Legacies.

One excellent point of vintage Advents is they age well. For an older speaker, the do well and often, like yours, are mechanically sound. The woofers are easy to reform when they do need them. The real wood accents are can be refinished easier than chipped vener, laminate, or streched vinyl over mdf, but they need some minor maintenance (oiling) to maintain them looking good. When the wood dries out they split. Coffee rings and potted plants leaving rings are common faults.

My word of advice, much of the HiFi world is smoke and mirrors. There is a lot of opinion out there - strong biased opinion. Listen to the speakers and go with what you like since that's all that really matters.

 

[S klein]

That's amazing! I have 3 other setups but they are more modest setups. Nothing fancy, Polk RtiA7 setup, Infinity Reference setup, and JBL 590530 setup.

This office was an addon using all items I had around the house plus $20 Advents which I'm finding work great in here.

can you tell if these crossovers would work on a Prodigy? They are advertised as such but don’t look exactly like the stock crossovers I see pictures of

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pair-Adven...-/143598688660?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

I now know who to go to ask Advent questions !!!

On my prodigies, you mention woofers easy to refoam. Those seem solid. Anything I should be aware on tweeters or are those fairly bulletproof absent sending massive power at them (realize anything can fail at any time)

Have you ever tried the Advent Maestro by chance? Set for sale here but a few imperfections on the grill

 

[WillMeyer]

Actually, the Maestros are on my wish list.
I bought a set of Maestro woofers off eBay that needed refoaming - I really bought them for the trim ring. I refoamed them, kept the trim ring, and resold them for what I had in them.
What I found out was that although the Legacy and Meastro are 10 inch woofers, they are different. The Legacy uses a 4 inch diameter voice coil, while the Maestro uses a significantly larger 4.5 inch diameter. I thought about using the Maestro woofers, but since I really like how the Legacy was voiced, I kept what I had. Attached are a couple of pics of my Legacies.

Your Prodigies were probably refoamed in the recent past before you aquired them. If you have to do them, they are real easy, but nothing you need to worry about for a few years. I'm currently working on another thread on AK, helping someone with their first refoam - they're doing a set of Advent Babies. 6.5 inch woofer, not nearly as good of a tweeter as the Prodigy, but very similar in crossover, design, and build quality to the Prodigy. In many respects, the Baby is a scaled down Prodigy.

Nothing you need to worry about on the speakers you have. Sounds like you have a real nice system.

Enjoy!

 

[NewVision250]

I have:

One pair: Advent Legacy I (enhanced - see below)
One pair: Advent Heritage (perfect cabinets, enhanced crossover)
Two pair: Advent Laureate (1 stock, 1 enhanced - poor cabinets)
One pair: Advent Prodigy (perfect cabinets - enhanced)
One pair: Advent Baby (perfect - enhanced)

I've listed them from my most liked (Legacy) to less (key word is less - not dislike).

My hobby is restoring speakers and I have a soft spot for Advents.
I have 30 pairs of speakers (varous makes) at home, all are restored except for a set of KEF 103/3 which are in work, and Laureates which while mechanically are restored, need work cabinet work which I'll do in the garage once the weather improves. I've done enhancements on all, except one pair of Laureates. While mechanically restored, I left the crossover and sound insulation is stock configuration (the other has poly caps, better inductors, and additional poly fill) and I use both pairs to A/B demo what a crossover can do for a speaker.


I actually like the Legacy the best of the Advent.
It has a sound that is very easy to listen to; I run that in my bedroom.
I drive it with an Adcom GTP-450 preamp tuner and a Carver TFM-6cb Power Amp.
These were in poor shape when I got them.
I refinished the wood with a Tung Oil finish; upgraded the crossover with poly caps, added 5 way binging posts, set it up for Bi-Amping, and as a final touch, put a set of Maestro Trim rings on the woofer replacing the laminated paper trim.

The Legacies replaced a set of Advent Prodigy Towers. I really didn't want to part with the Prodigy Towers; they were the rare black finished and in perfect condition, but a buddy was building his system and really wanted them, so I let them move on and rebuilt the Legacies.

One excellent point of vintage Advents is they age well. For an older speaker, the do well and often, like yours, are mechanically sound. The woofers are easy to reform when they do need them. The real wood accents are can be refinished easier than chipped vener, laminate, or streched vinyl over mdf, but they need some minor maintenance (oiling) to maintain them looking good. When the wood dries out they split. Coffee rings and potted plants leaving rings are common faults.

My word of advice, much of the HiFi world is smoke and mirrors. There is a lot of opinion out there - strong biased opinion. Listen to the speakers and go with what you like since that's all that really matters.

Your are not the only one that is into Advents.
Rebuilt two pair of Myriad's for the back HT surrounds. Myriads are the newer version of the Mini's.
Rebuilt three pairs of the bookshelf New Vision 250.
Finished restomod a pair of Prodigy towers.
Currently working on the second pair of the Prodigy towers. I will comment on the Prodigy towers a little later.

 

[NewVision250]

I appreciate your response. I have a chance to get some tweeters and cross overs (not sure they are exact match per images on ebay on the cross overs, the tweeters are and appear brand new/unused) for around $65 but again, I only paid $20 for the speakers so you are probably right, i might just enjoy them and keep the $ powder dry . I know it's not a lot of money we are talking about here.

Granted these aren't top shelf speakers anyways but I have been enjoying them and they are very nice looking to me and a really nice size for an office.

Will definitely follow your advice on the Old English. Need to check that out. These look like they were re-stained when renovated.

Any other Advent speakers you have enjoyed besides the Prodigy?

A word of caution when purchasing the prodigy tower crossover or tweeters on the flea bay.
I purchased five sets of so called good working tweeters on the flea.
When measuring the freq. response impedance curve of the tweeters I keep finding two bell shape curves on the impedance curves which indicate that the smaller bell shape curve represents that the cooling ferro fluid has dried in the magnet gap. Yes it still works but the sound or pitch of the sound will be off I ended up sending all five sets of the tweeters back.
Now the crossover, the caps are +/- 10% which means that the set crossover at 3k hz will be different from tower to tower. Plus adding the old age to the electronics means that the crossover freq. range will be wider.
Mine were at 3510hz, 3450hz and upto 3723hz and 3711hz.
So leave the crossover circuit alone unless you want to add $$$ to the cost the the restore.

 

[RTally]

can you tell if these crossovers would work on a Prodigy? They are advertised as such but don’t look exactly like the stock crossovers I see pictures of

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pair-Adven...-/143598688660?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

Save your money and don't buy them. Even if they fit exactly on your speakers, those capacitors are original and need to be replaced. As long as your crossovers are complete and undamaged, all you need to do is replace your original electrolytic caps with new caps.

Even though your speakers sound good, I would pull the crossover out and see if you have the original caps in there. If so, replace them. Every Advent I've owned, including two of the Jensen Advents, sounded much better after recapping. The replacement caps should have the same capacitance value and the voltage rating should be the same or higher compared to the originals. I would use poly film caps, such as the low cost Daytons and Audyn, or you can opt to spend more, a whole lot more. There is lots of info on recapping speakers.

 

[NewVision250]

That's amazing! I have 3 other setups but they are more modest setups. Nothing fancy, Polk RtiA7 setup, Infinity Reference setup, and JBL 590530 setup.

This office was an addon using all items I had around the house plus $20 Advents which I'm finding work great in here.

can you tell if these crossovers would work on a Prodigy? They are advertised as such but don’t look exactly like the stock crossovers I see pictures of

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pair-Adven...-/143598688660?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

I now know who to go to ask Advent questions !!!

On my prodigies, you mention woofers easy to refoam. Those seem solid. Anything I should be aware on tweeters or are those fairly bulletproof absent sending massive power at them (realize anything can fail at any time)

Have you ever tried the Advent Maestro by chance? Set for sale here but a few imperfections on the grill

"rare black finished"
Those are not rare, they are as follows
Video Shield Prodigy Tower with the bucking magnet on the woofer
MSRP=$438/pair
Model: A1065
Tweeter=3/4” ferrofluid filled parabolic soft dome (Prodigy II=PPTA high performance)
Woofer=8” high extrusion, magnetically shielded aluminum coil form
Cabinet Size (HxWxD)=28-1/2”x 10” x 8-7/8”
Weight=25.5 lbs./ea
Finish=Black strained solid oak wood top and base, black textured vinyl over dense fiberboard
Information from the archives I wrote years ago.

 

[S klein]

Save your money and don't buy them. Even if they fit exactly on your speakers, those capacitors are original and need to be replaced. As long as your crossovers are complete and undamaged, all you need to do is replace your original electrolytic caps with new caps.

Even though your speakers sound good, I would pull the crossover out and see if you have the original caps in there. If so, replace them. Every Advent I've owned, including two of the Jensen Advents, sounded much better after recapping. The replacement caps should have the same capacitance value and the voltage rating should be the same or higher compared to the originals. I would use poly film caps, such as the low cost Daytons and Audyn, or you can opt to spend more, a whole lot more. There is lots of info on recapping speakers.

Thanks, I wouldn't know how to replace the caps. I'd have to research that a bit. Probably not too hard. So it sounds like that could be done easily and improved upon whether it be by me or someone I pay to do it.

With regards to tweeters, it sound like some might be great or have dried fluid and we just won't know till they are purchased. Is a better way to have someone freshen up the fluid in mine if it's deemed necessary? Honestly, I can't presently tell if that is needed in mine although they sound reasonably ok. Granted, I have better sounding speakers and whether that's the age of the caps and tweeters I don't know or if it's the quality of the speaker in general. These work so well for my office because of the in between size and the wood matches the wood of my furniture. So they are valuable in that my wife likes them and that's rare

 

[WillMeyer]

"rare black finished"
Those are not rare, they are as follows
Video Shield Prodigy Tower with the bucking magnet on the woofer
MSRP=$438/pair

I used the term rare since in the 2 years I've had them, I only found two other sets for sale (and they were trashed which is besides the point). Cedtainly they are not nearly as common as the brown finished. A current search of ebay shows 12 pairs of Prodigies, and while there is one set in black, from the scratches on top it looks like it was painted.

I'm sure you will agree that they are nearly as common as the brown Prodigy Towers.

 

[NewVision250]

Correct painted black oak top and painted black oak base, they came that way. I have one pair of them.
Changed the caps in that one to Clarity caps and Solen inductors.

 

[Ed240]

I inherited a near perfect pair of Maestros in the original bags and boxes. They sound great! Better than the Legacy, though voiced to be part of the Advent family. I'm going to sell them because I don't have enough room for all these speakers in my retirement condo. Rebuilding a pair of Prodigys right now; a worthy little speaker.

Actually, the Maestros are on my wish list.
I bought a set of Maestro woofers off eBay that needed refoaming - I really bought them for the trim ring. I refoamed them, kept the trim ring, and resold them for what I had in them.
What I found out was that although the Legacy and Meastro are 10 inch woofers, they are different. The Legacy uses a 4 inch diameter voice coil, while the Maestro uses a significantly larger 4.5 inch diameter. I thought about using the Maestro woofers, but since I really like how the Legacy was voiced, I kept what I had. Attached are a couple of pics of my Legacies.

Your Prodigies were probably refoamed in the recent past before you aquired them. If you have to do them, they are real easy, but nothing you need to worry about for a few years. I'm currently working on another thread on AK, helping someone with their first refoam - they're doing a set of Advent Babies. 6.5 inch woofer, not nearly as good of a tweeter as the Prodigy, but very similar in crossover, design, and build quality to the Prodigy. In many respects, the Baby is a scaled down Prodigy.

Nothing you need to worry about on the speakers you have. Sounds like you have a real nice system.

Enjoy!

 

[vintagerocks]

A word of caution when purchasing the prodigy tower crossover or tweeters on the flea bay.
I purchased five sets of so called good working tweeters on the flea.
When measuring the freq. response impedance curve of the tweeters I keep finding two bell shape curves on the impedance curves which indicate that the smaller bell shape curve represents that the cooling ferro fluid has dried in the magnet gap. Yes it still works but the sound or pitch of the sound will be off I ended up sending all five sets of the tweeters back.
Now the crossover, the caps are +/- 10% which means that the set crossover at 3k hz will be different from tower to tower. Plus adding the old age to the electronics means that the crossover freq. range will be wider.
Mine were at 3510hz, 3450hz and upto 3723hz and 3711hz.
So leave the crossover circuit alone unless you want to add $$$ to the cost the the restore.

Couldn't you clean out the old ferrofluid and add new ferrofluid to make the tweeters sound like new?

 

[vintagerocks]

Couldn't you clean out the old ferrofluid and add new ferrofluid to make the tweeters sound like new?

Word of caution on taking the Advent prodigy tweeters apart to check the ferrofluid. I practiced with an extra one I have and the glue over the tweeter lead wires is very sticky and it caused the tweeter leads to snap when I pulled the plastic front off. Now I get to to try to solder them back!

 

[NewVision250]

Word of caution on taking the Advent prodigy tweeters apart to check the ferrofluid. I practiced with an extra one I have and the glue over the tweeter lead wires is very sticky and it caused the tweeter leads to snap when I pulled the plastic front off. Now I get to to try to solder them back!

You could not said it any better. I had to carefully solder back the lead wires back together. Then check my soldering effort with a DMM to check the resistance.
Lesson learned....
Do not mess with this tweeter.

 

[Seventy7]

I have one set of each of the legacy/prodigy/baby, and 2 sets of minis. the minis are the last in need of surrounds and now I am looking into upgrading crossover components. I glad this thread got revived! I am also refreshing the crossover on my newly acquired Dahlquist DQM-5's and the big project is the NS-690II yamaha's. I am really reeling thinking about brands of components and have really just stalled on making a choice.

 

[Seventy7]

Check this out for prodigy upgrades... I am super curious!

https://www.humanspeakers.com/o/advent-prodigy.htm

 

[S klein]

I'm back, old thread. I had posted about obtaining some Prodigies and I am still enjoying them in my office. They fit well and I had some extra subs that are working with them. Have a chance to get a set of Legacy's for $100 that are in good shape and have been refoamed. Spacewise, I would have to maybe lose the subs though. Not sure. Any strong opinions on whether that upgrade is worth the trouble?

Or hold out for something bigger and bigger.

 

[WillMeyer]

I have a series I set of Legacies. These are keepers for me. I find them a very easy speaker to listen to with a nice bass response.

Interestingly enough is that the series I and II have the woofer direct wired to the speaker terminals. There are no crossover components in the low frequency circuit. The HF circuit includes a very high quality inductor and a capacitor (from memory I don't recall a resistor in the circuit). Changing out the cap to a metalized polypropylene cap is a very inexpensive upgrade.

Mind you, its been a while since I worked on my Legacies. I don't recall the uF value of the capacitor.

A series III Legacy is on my wish list though. The woofer has a dual voice coil and is switch selectable between 8 and 6 ohms.

 

[S klein]

Th

I have a series I set of Legacies. These are keepers for me. I find them a very easy speaker to listen to with a nice bass response.

Interestingly enough is that the series I and II have the woofer direct wired to the speaker terminals. There are no crossover components in the low frequency circuit. The HF circuit includes a very high quality inductor and a capacitor (from memory I don't recall a resistor in the circuit). Changing out the cap to a metalized polypropylene cap is a very inexpensive upgrade.

Mind you, its been a while since I worked on my Legacies. I don't recall the uF value of the capacitor.

A series III Legacy is on my wish list though. The woofer has a dual voice coil and is switch selectable between 8 and 6 ohms.

Thanks, I don't know if it's just mine (maybe they weren't refoamed right) but there is very little bass on the prodigies. They sound ok. And I'm getting my lower bass from my sub so it's fine. I just don't know what to compare them to. In your experience was the bass much deeper on the Legacy vs the Prodigy?

Thanks for your experiences on the Legacy. If the guys meets my price I'll buy them but I'm not positive I want to pay his price even though it's a good one. (I might change my mind )