Avant loudspeakers

[youngbuck]

After an extensive search, i can't find any info on Avant speakers (circa 1974ish?) other that a single, small post on this forum, but it doesn't say much. Is anyone familiar with them? My parents have a pair of 3-ways, i just found a pair of 4-ways at a garage sale, 15" woofer...huge cabs! Does anyone know what happened to the company? Anyone have any experience with them? I think my parents' sound great, can't wait to refoam these ones and have a listen...
Thanks!!

 

[FredC]

Avant's are manufactured by Mordaunt-Short in the UK:

http://www.mordauntshort.com/default.php?TID=27

Are you sure you don't mean Advent? Can you post a picture or two?

 

[Sir.Byrd]

Avant's are manufactured by Mordaunt-Short in the UK:

http://www.mordauntshort.com/default.php?TID=27

Are you sure you don't mean Advent? Can you post a picture or two?

The description doesn't sound like Advent...

 

[drknstrmyknight]

Good to know! If I had seen an Avant badge before reading this I would have been thinking White-Van-Soundalike-Ripoff.

 

[FredC]

Rogers made some pretty "huge" cabinets called the Avanti

Here's a pic of the Avanti C628:

Close?

 

[youngbuck]

hi guys, me again.
thank you for the replies, but i know that these aren't the avants manufactured my mordaunt-short. avant was the name of a company, not a particular model of speaker. i haven't seen any of these that are new...my parents bought theirs in 1974 and mine look about the same vintage. i will post pictures this evening when i get home, so keep checking!! thanks again for the help

 

[youngbuck]

okay here we go, as requested, a picture. they seems to have a mid, tweeter, supertweeter, 15" woofer, adjustable crossover. the terminals are on the underside. i believe the cabinets are solid walnut, they weigh a ton. thanks for any help in advance!

 

[youngbuck]

oh come on. i have no idea how to post a picture, obviously. here is a link to the picture:

http://bp0.blogger.com/_cbq8-2kzLt0/SDs5Sqf1DEI/AAAAAAAAADk/CjWG41V2GwE/s1600-h/Image007.jpg

again, thank you so much!

 

[noway]

I used to have a pair of a different model...I think it was a 4ax, back in 1980 or so. They had a reset switch on the front that I could press if they went quiet, since they had self protection at 105 dB. Sounded quite good...better than some of the PSB, Advent, AR stuff I was also listening to. I expect there is a Canadian connection here...I got mine in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada at Wesseling (sp?) Audio...after trying about 5 other makes, George finally let me have these...they were the only ones I couldn't blow apart at the time. They helped me thru many late psychedelic nights.

 

[62vauxhall]

Avant 2AX

Although this thread is mega old, I thought I'd throw this on the pile in case someone else like myself is Google searching Avant speakers.

The consensus of what I've read so far on this forum and elsewhere, is that Avant was a house brand. I would disagree because in my experience, house brands speakers were cheaply made. I just took a look inside an Avant 2AX and was impressed at how the boxes were constructed and that both woofer and tweeter were SEAS.

The first series of Boston Acoustics A150''s used what appears to be the same SEAS 1" soft dome that these have. Subsequent A150 versions had "in house" tweeters which I understand were cheaper and inferior to the SEAS.

Crossovers are at least on par with other mid 70's speakers. More complex in fact than some of the "big names".

Internally, the boxes have a 1" thick brace behind the woofer. I think it doubtful a "house brand" manufacturer would go to that expense plus use premium drivers. House brands I've seen had cabinet material so thin it would flex when pushed inwards and woofer magnets so small they were laughable.

Not sure why the name is so close to Advent, maybe a marketing strategy low on morals, but from close examination, these Avants are better built than other vintage speakers - Advent included. Would be intersting to read somewhere a review from when they were current.

 

[Audio Fan]

Can you post some pics for future reference? Seems the pics attached in 2008 have since been lost.

 

[Nat]

The Audio Shop (I think that is/was its name) just off the circle at the head of Main Street in Keene NH used to have a line of speakers that I thought were Arant, but might have been Avant (since arant isn't a word as far as I can tell, and sounds very much like a rant, or arrant, as in arrant nonsense, neither of which seem like they'd do well in a focus group). Well made, decent quality components. The guy who ran the store is/was a colorful character who had very deep roots in the audio business and tended to sell high quality, if not always high name recognition equipment.

 

[62vauxhall]

Pictures - Avant A2X speakers

As suggested, these are photos of the Avant 2AX speakers I had the opportunity to examine.

I noticed the crossovers don't have electrolytic capacitors and the wiring is a heavier gauge than I've seen in better known speakers. To me, sound is East Coast - Boston / Advent - ish.

 

[S_A_S]

I can verify the company was Avant. Not Advent which was a popular brand at the time.

I had a pair of 4A's. 3-way speakers with I think 12" woofers and huge cherry finish cabinets. They did have the red reset 'button' (actually more of a peg) because they were protected from overload. I had them hooked up to my Marantz 2270 at 70W RMS and they sounded great. When a party was hopping and we cranked it up too loud (60 W is too loud in a normal size room) the speakers would eventually trip on heavy bass but a quick reset and we were back in business. Note it took almost the full volume from the Marantz and a heavy sound track for 5 min or so before they would trip.

They were rock style speakers. We did a lot of hauling our stereo stuff back and forth to do comparisons all the time and if you know the sound of Cerwin-Vega the Avants were like the opposite. Totally lively and bright. A buddy of mine bought a pair for his DJ business and they were awesome in even a large hall. To my taste they were better than Boston Acoustic or Advent. JBL had a similar sound and in those days sounded slightly better. C-V sounded 'as good' but as I said with a smoother sound suited for jazz/blues.

I loved the speakers. I had to replace the pots eventually as they got noisy and contact cleaner stopped doing the job. Eventually the foam surround on the woofers deteriorated and I sold them (I really didn't need speakers that loud and by then was married and the speakers were not appreciated....you know what I mean). I bought Paradigm and was not disappointed.

Mine were bought from the infamous Fairview Electronics in Toronto. While I don't think they were exactly a house brand, they were not well known and the sales guy really had to hustle to get me to buy them. I suspect they made more profit on those.

Also should mention it drove me nuts that everyone wanted to call them Advents......

 

[nfafan]

Great history on these obscure speakers!

 

[Furburger]

Insert Zombie here...

Obscure is correct, can't find another pic. Here are the Avant 4 A speakers S_A_S was pushing with his 2270
I like em so far and doubt they are a house brand....they weigh in at 40 lbs each.

 

[Bdbras84]

Those are really nice! Certainly with quality components too.

 

[memoire101]

**Obscure is correct, can't find another pic. Here are the Avant 4 A speakers S_A_S was pushing with his 2270
I like em so far and doubt they are a house brand....they weigh in at 40 lbs each.**
..
..

I own a pair of these speakers in almost pristine state with grills. A 3 ways speakers. Don't know the model . With the grills too. No xover inside of them according to me , But the controls of High and Medium can be a xover maybe cause these controls are big with lot of gears attached to them. I don't kwow ?

 

[jamiecantar]

I think this was a small company that supplied speakers to some Electronic shops mainly in Canada...Made them for Electrohome as well, I think, and others...in Toronto they use to sell these as a house brand speaker for Fairview Electronics. They seemed well built, solid cab's, real wood veneer, and they used some good drivers like, Audax, Seas. Many woofers had rubber surrounds and yes they sounded not bad.

In my opinion, I think they were a start out that didnt get much traction (could be wrong) they tried to copy Brand name speakers of the day, such as Marantz, AR etc and offered them as lower priced alternatives to break into the market...The company fizzled out, or maybe got bought over...Not much info on the company...If you picked them up for $10-50 okay, but there are better speakers out there...just my opinion...but their not the worst i've heard thats for sure....

 

[544man]

Old thread, but here is what I know. I believe Avant speakers were at one time made in Florida. As to the Canada connection, ie: Fairview Electronics in Toronto, that makes sense. Fairview had a lot of good brands that they sold. SOMA speakers, made in Scarborough ON, were also a brand that they promoted. I just took on a pair of Avants, not sure of the model yet, 3-ways, and the woofers needing surrounds appear to be Philips, 10", heavy magnets on these. Cabinets are going to need lots of love on the walnut veneer.

What amazes me, and also causes confusion in our circle, is the number of speakers beginning with 'A'! I have had Advent, Avid, (Reynolds) Advance, Avanti (Canadian Audio-Logic), just saw a pair of French Avance, as well as 3A (Art & Audio Applique?). Then we have Acoustic Research, Audiosphere Research (Canadian, many variations), Accusound, Accuphase, Acoustech Labs (Pro Linear from Vancouver, BC), and many, many others.

I will play with the Avant speakers I just got and try to get them back to their glory, including sanding and oiling the cabinets, and get back to everyone on their performance (so far, on low volume, very good!).