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Help with Advents

Ok I can’t thank you all enough and I have lots to try tonight and will report back when @f0427ea showed the + and - symbols on the frame that mine definitely didn’t have that, but I DO remember seeing a (what I thought) random red dot! TBH I just thought is was a ‘quality control’ thing!! Never would have thought it was to do with the pos terminal!

I am praying this is the issue as I did just wire based on what direction seemed to be most ‘comfortable’ for the wiring when I could see no + and -.

@rmeade - To answer the other question on sealing between the speaker frame and cabinet, the seal that was there was pretty dry so I made my own from some sticky back material I had left over from doing a speaker job in a car years ago and it seemed like essentially the same stuff and feels to have made a good seal. There is no air escaping from around the frame.

Let me take a look at the wiring later and I will report back.

Thank you so much again all, your supportive words mean a lot!
 
drumbum said:
@Newbie01812

The NLA's are fairly "bright" from the factory. Wall to wall carpet and plush upholstery and draperies were popular at the time, which led to the redesign.

They need to be switched to the "decrease" setting for normal rooms.

The Poly caps are already low esr and in parallel lowers it even more, hence the overly bright tweeter.
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Very interestring, it seemed the general consensus from everything I read...including a feed I read with comments from Pete B, who I know is meant to be somewhat of a guru of these speakers was the Dayton polys (12+1 in parallel) were the best way to go. Fingers crossed its the woofer wiring or something else...although if I have to remove the polys and replace with a Unicon 13uf 50v, which is what it had originally, and I have actually now located a supplier of those...I don't mind.

But my guess is it is something else otherwise the recommendation from so many others wouldn't exist. I really don't mind the speakers being bright, and I am certainly not looking for thumping bass, but right now the mix is definitely off.
 
If it turns out that the speakers are just naturally too bright, you can increase the value of the resistors in the switch in the crossover to bring it down to manageable levels.
 
Newbie01812 said:
Very interestring, it seemed the general consensus from everything I read...including a feed I read with comments from Pete B, who I know is meant to be somewhat of a guru of these speakers was the Dayton polys (12+1 in parallel) were the best way to go. Fingers crossed its the woofer wiring or something else...although if I have to remove the polys and replace with a Unicon 13uf 50v, which is what it had originally, and I have actually now located a supplier of those...I don't mind.

But my guess is it is something else otherwise the recommendation from so many others wouldn't exist. I really don't mind the speakers being bright, and I am certainly not looking for thumping bass, but right now the mix is definitely off.
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I bought some 13 uf caps from a guy on ebay that supposedly had them specially made for audio. Who knows if they're actually good quality but we'll see when I install them this weekend.
 
For what it's worth, the 1 ohm resistor in each of mine was blown, rendering the switch inoperable except at the highest setting.
If yours are bad I can send you a couple... they came in packs of 10 and I doubt I'll ever use the other 8.
 
You did good with the Dayton caps, I have used them in my OLA recaps and have enjoyed them a lot. No worries with bass or treble.
 
kmagnuss said:
For what it's worth, the 1 ohm resistor in each of mine was blown, rendering the switch inoperable except at the highest setting.
If yours are bad I can send you a couple... they came in packs of 10 and I doubt I'll ever use the other 8.
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I am sure I saw the same 13uf's on eBay, yellow right!? I nearly went with those too but opted for going with what I read in a bunch of different places.

I 'think' the resistors are ok in mine, although the tone is too high on every setting so its almost hard to tell a huge difference. But once I figure out what is causing the lack of bass, I will hopefully get a better idea of the switch's integrity, and if I do need a 1-ohm resistor, I may call in that favor....thanks for the offer.
 
Newbie01812 said:
I am sure I saw the same 13uf's on eBay, yellow right!? I nearly went with those too but opted for going with what I read in a bunch of different places.

I 'think' the resistors are ok in mine, although the tone is too high on every setting so its almost hard to tell a huge difference. But once I figure out what is causing the lack of bass, I will hopefully get a better idea of the switch's integrity, and if I do need a 1-ohm resistor, I may call in that favor....thanks for the offer.
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Lol, yep... those are the ones. We'll see. I'm almost afraid to change them because I love the sound currently... but there's no way 45 year old caps are where they need to be. Two more days, I guess. I'll probably just do one at a time to try to see the differences.
 
Newbie01812 said:
I have to admit, I have never heard a pair of loudspeakers, but given their reputation…I can’t think this is right?
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Newbie - you might also try a listen of another set of Advent speakers. Try to locate one through your friends or through contacts here on AK.
 
@rmeade thats a great idea. Sadly I don’t know of anyone else personally with a pair. If anyone in central Florida on the group would be willing to let me check out their that would be awesome!!
 
Ok update, checked the polarity of the woofers and all was good, despite it being a pure accident I had the right wires ping to pos and neg. So that rules that out.

I also did check the switch and it seems everything there is working, do hear a change in tone from normal to decrease, to extended. Have them ‘decreased’ right now and still sound too bright. The music sounds beauty and clear, particularly vocals, but just miss some punch from the bass.
 
Hey Newbie... I live just south of Sarasota. If you're ever near me you're more than welcome to give mine a listen.
Heck, you can bring yours down and we can do the caps/resistors together if you want. I'm pretty new at this vintage audio stuff as well but have a decent background in car audio and basic low voltage electronics... My soldering is a couple steps above an infant monkey, but I get there eventually.
 
It's very important to do the push-in cone test. If the cone doesn't move fairly slowly back out after being (carefully) pushed in, you will never get the bass these speakers are capable of from them. It means there is a leak somewhere. In fact it will affect almost the entire frequency response because the woofer reproduces much of it up to 1000Hz which is, of course, well into the midrange.

It is important to keep in mind that speakers like the Advents may seem bass shy, at first, because they don't "boom" in the mid-bass frequencies. Play music with known low frequency output down around 30 - 50 Hz. Bass should be very obvious

Also, the capacitors and resistors have no bearing on bass output.

Doug
 
Dumb question but do you have another set of speakers handy to do an A-B comparison if you haven't already?

Checking bass response with L-R balance should have sorted out any phasing issues.

I'm not sure if a slight air leak in the enclosure is going to affect bass as much as the OP seems to indicate they are hearing but I've been wrong before. Sealing and stuffing will be things that optimize the speaker performance.

The woofer should be working below 4,000 Hz inconsequential of the switch position.

I've seen claims that some replacement surrounds aren't as flexible as others which would have an effect but as much as claimed?

The switch doesn't do a whole bunch - in the "decrease" position the 3db tweeter cutoff is around 1200 Hz while, in the "extended" it shifts to about 1500 Hz.

I have my OLA's apart right now and some 4002's with disintegrated surrounds (yes, new ones on order). Don't know if they used the same woofer or similar so maybe not too much help anyway.

Very interested in what the final prognosis is as there are so many possibilities.
 
Newbie01812 said:
@rmeade thats a great idea. Sadly I don’t know of anyone else personally with a pair. If anyone in central Florida on the group would be willing to let me check out their that would be awesome!!
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Where in central Florida are you? My Advents are at my other residence up north, but I've had several pairs over the years and may be able to help if you're close by. I'm in Lake Placid on US27.
 
@bikspk Only I can ask dumb questions and already have done throughout the feed I am sure!!

I do not have another set of Advents to A/B test with these ones, but I do have other speakers. The setup I have been using to test the speakers is my Pioneer SA-8500 amp, and I usually have that connected to a pair of JBL J216 PRO speakers. I know the JBL's are not the greatest speakers out there...but right now they sound better, or should I say more balanced (I know better is extremely subjective).

From what I understand, the 4002's do use the same woofer....or at least one that conforms to exactly the same specs...i know they may be 'round magnet' vs. 'square magnet' or whatever but essentially they should be the same.

I am also wondering about speaker positioning. The loudspeakers are called 'bookshelf' speakers but obviously, they are on the very large end of a speaker carrying that designation. I have simply swapped them out with my JBL's on to the stands so I don't have to completely un wire the whole system...so they are sitting about 3' off the floor. One thing I have noticed is when I am sitting on the floor, so essentially the speakers are obove my head...that IS an improvement. So maybe having the tweeters at 'ear hight' when stood up, may be funneling the mids and highs too directly? I know most have them on the floor so maybe that would make a difference? I mean I know it will, but a significant on?
 
I have mine on short stands on the ground, with about a 15 degree tilt upwards (total guess at the angle).
I would imagine you'd lose some bass with them 3' off the ground. Or you could be getting some phase cancellation from a dead spot in your room... I have a big spot in my family room where the home theater is that drives me nuts... literally a 10db drop at 40hz in this one spot... and it's a spot I like to sit, lol.
 
kmagnuss said:
I have mine on short stands on the ground, with about a 15 degree tilt upwards (total guess at the angle).
I would imagine you'd lose some bass with them 3' off the ground.
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I agree. I misread the earlier post. I thought he said 3 inches off the floor. I have mine on stands similar to yours.
 
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