Mystery Advent Speakers - Resolved?

[BilboBaggins]

The first thing I bought at a thrift store when they re-opened, is a pair of Advent Speakers. I didn't need any speakers, but these were in good condition aside from the normal failed foam surrounds. And my wife thought they were beautiful.

I brought them home, and stared researching to identify them. The tweeter is in the same form factor as in the Legacy. And they have a wide solid wood bottom front with the Advent tag on the right hand side, which is quite similar to the Legacy. But, Legacy's are 28 inches tall with 10 inch woofers where-as mine are 22 inches tall with an 8 inch woofer.

This came to a head yesterday when I received my replacement foam and it was the wrong size. Afer some back and forths, we identified them as potentially Prodigy II speakers. I still haven't found much information on them, so I am reaching out to the AK membership for your thoughts and knowledge. Here are some pictures that should help.

Does anyone know what these are and perhaps can tell me details such as specifications?

 

[LesE]

Here is the Advent Prodigy review in High Fidelity from April 1986.

Dimensions are 13-1/4" by 22" by 8-1/2" deep. 8" woofer 1" dome tweeter

 

[WillMeyer]

I've owned Prodigues (let's call them Prodigiy I's) and Prodigy II's. The only difference is the I's (which I still have) has the same pecan wood cap on the bottom as the top. This allows you to also lay the speaker on its side as the top and bottom are symetrical. The II's are the identical speaker wirh the exception it has a much smaller piece of pecan wood at the bottom - its in the form often called a kick panel.

The Advent Prodicy I, Prodigy II, Prodigy Tower, Graduate, and Heritage all use the same woofer - the Hertiage uses 2 of them in each cabinet. They're a great speaker and really benefit from crossover upgrades - film caps and inductor upgrades. After refoaming the woofer, add some addition sound insulation in the cabinet. It will really improve the bass response at little cost.

 

[Olden Boy]

If I could offer a correction to Will's post, the version descriptions are reversed.
You have the original Prodigy model. The Prodigy II (below) shared its cabinet design with the Graduate (Advent's smallest 8" 2-way speaker) and Baby.
I'm not aware of any hardware differences between (bookshelf) Prodigy generations.

 

[BilboBaggins]

So do I hae Prodigy's or not? That is the question. I have seen images of speakers similar to mine and the tweeters have advent underneath, and I have seen one or two with the Advent on the right hand side of the tweeter.

I just looked at the PDF LesE supplied above, and those are definitely mine. Thanks @LesE!

 

[Olden Boy]

Sorry BilboBaggins, I should have been clearer in directing my "correction" comment back to your original post. Yes, you have the original Prodigy.
It would have been helpful if Advent had been more consistent with their ID labels, as with v2...

 

[WillMeyer]

Olden Boy,
I looked into it and stand corrected.
You are right that the version BilboBaggins has is the original Prodigy (Prodigy I).
The Prodigy with matching top and bottom is the Prodigy II.

I've owned both - really the identical speaker. Currently I have a set of Prodigy Towers is the black factory finish, and Prodigy II (of which the label fell off long ago).

I'm a fan of these Jensen era Advents. I also have a set of Heritages, two pairs of Laurates, one pair of Baby IIs, and a set of Legacy I's that I'm restoring.

I also like JBL (I have several different sets). I actually perfer the bass from a properly setup Advent over the JBLs. My opinion is that the Prodigy is a very good speaker and just a few inexpensive tweeks make it a great speaker.

 

[BilboBaggins]

Thanks all! This helps a lot! I never expected I would have trouble identifying a pair of Advents, but here we are. Mind you, when you put Prodigy in a search, mainly the Tower images come up.

 

[BilboBaggins]

So I've finished work on these Advent Prodigy's. I'm quite happy with the results, and my wife thinks they look great! I'm driving them right now with a Sansui AU-9900, but I have also tried them with a McIntosh MA-6200 and a Sansui Model 6 receiver.

How do they sound? Quite good actually, for such diminutive speakers. The bass is a little too light for my tastes, but I could live with them and be quite content. They didn't sound like anything special with the Sansui 6, but I quite enjoyed them with both the AU-9900 and the MA-6200.

Here is what they look like now.



Thanks for the help identifying these speakers!

 

[PhooBar]

Neat little stands you've got them on, too!

 

[BilboBaggins]

Neat little stands you've got them on, too!

Thanks! I have two sets of these purchased at separate times. Very solid!

 

[paranormalOG]

The first thing I bought at a thrift store when they re-opened, is a pair of Advent Speakers. I didn't need any speakers, but these were in good condition aside from the normal failed foam surrounds. And my wife thought they were beautiful.

I brought them home, and stared researching to identify them. The tweeter is in the same form factor as in the Legacy. And they have a wide solid wood bottom front with the Advent tag on the right hand side, which is quite similar to the Legacy. But, Legacy's are 28 inches tall with 10 inch woofers where-as mine are 22 inches tall with an 8 inch woofer.

This came to a head yesterday when I received my replacement foam and it was the wrong size. Afer some back and forths, we identified them as potentially Prodigy II speakers. I still haven't found much information on them, so I am reaching out to the AK membership for your thoughts and knowledge. Here are some pictures that should help.

Does anyone know what these are and perhaps can tell me details such as specifications?

View attachment 1923355 View attachment 1923356

I too purchased a pair of Advent Prodigy from a thrift that I have been pulling my hair out trying to identify. At first I was convinced they were Legacy IIs. But the woofers were too small and I had the three screw tweeters at the top with the large wood trim at the bottom. Looking online also led me to believe that the regular Prodigy were all towers as well.

Now with this thread I have been able to finally come to a conclusion that I have the first Prodigy. And my labels are practically the same as yours on the back. The serial numbers on mine are quite close to yours. I can finally move on now with ordering the correct replacement foam surrounds from Rick Cobb. I'll probably end up ordering new electrolytic capacitors as well. These speakers do feel exceptionally well made even in comparison to my Cerwin Vega D2s and my KLHs. I'm kind of surprised after hearing all of the negative hubbub about Advent after Jensen bought them. Oh well, if they don't sound perfect, I've got a couple of other zones with different acoustics where I can put them in throughout the house that might make them sound better.

One thing that I find annoying about them though is that the Jensen people could not even get the Advent label on straight. Mine is cocked to a slight angle. I hate being OCD.

 

[BilboBaggins]

I too purchased a pair of Advent Prodigy from a thrift that I have been pulling my hair out trying to identify. At first I was convinced they were Legacy IIs. But the woofers were too small and I had the three screw tweeters at the top with the large wood trim at the bottom. Looking online also led me to believe that the regular Prodigy were all towers as well.

Now with this thread I have been able to finally come to a conclusion that I have the first Prodigy. And my labels are practically the same as yours on the back. The serial numbers on mine are quite close to yours. I can finally move on now with ordering the correct replacement foam surrounds from Rick Cobb. I'll probably end up ordering new electrolytic capacitors as well. These speakers do feel exceptionally well made even in comparison to my Cerwin Vega D2s and my KLHs. I'm kind of surprised after hearing all of the negative hubbub about Advent after Jensen bought them. Oh well, if they don't sound perfect, I've got a couple of other zones with different acoustics where I can put them in throughout the house that might make them sound better.

One thing that I find annoying about them though is that the Jensen people could not even get the Advent label on straight. Mine is cocked to a slight angle. I hate being OCD.

Too bad about the Advent label. Not an easy fix either. Those must have been factory seconds. But I'm glad you now know more about them. Mine have moved on, but they sounded pretty good while I had them.

 

[paranormalOG]

Mine sound nice and bright after the re-foam. Thanks again to Rick Cobb. Not a ton of bass but more than adequate for an 8 inch woofer. I run a sub anyway. The labels weren't so bad to fix. Just a really sharp Xacto knife and then softened the existing adhesive and reapplied. I think these pair up very well with that old Aiwa receiver that I have that I was going to give to my youngest son. He'll like that pairing. Especially with the old analog power meters. 16 year olds must learn to appreciate classic stuff early. The lack of overwhelming bass doesn't bother me too much for him since his bedroom is right above me LOL.