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Polk Audio Versus Advent

Plitron

Plitron

Well-Known Member
Banned
I bit the bullet and bought some vintage large Advent Legacy's today. I had decided that I never gave the brand a fair shake. I hooked them up, and my little Polk Audio speakers 5JR's blow the doors off of the large advents. "Legacy's"

Polk Audio:

Cleaner bass

Crisper highs

Nice to listen to.

Large Advent:

Muddy bass

Whizzer cone highs

Dirty sound.

I am not a big Polk Audio fan, but these little Polks blow the Advents away!
I never was a big Advent fan, but I like them even less now. If you listen to Advent speakers now and you are not too attached to them. I encourage you to borrow speakers from one of your audiophile friends and do a comparison. Now I have to ditch these Advents.:twak:
 
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To be fair, I will recap the Advents tomorrow using mylar caps.

As it stands, the Polks are faster, richer, and more detailed in the bass/midrange.

B&W and Kef sound better than the Polks, but they blow the Advents away.

We'll see how it goes after the recap tomorrow.

Polk :twak: Advent
 
:scratch2: What are you powering the Advents with? Are the drivers all original? Do they (and the entire cabinet) have a good tight seal? I really can't believe that they would suck that bad. :no: A crossover rebuild should do them good.
 
Jailtime said:
:scratch2: What are you powering the Advents with? Are the drivers all original? Do they (and the entire cabinet) have a good tight seal? I really can't believe that they would suck that bad. :no: A crossover rebuild should do them good.
Click to expand...

I have been powering them with both a Denon AVR-600
and an Optonica SA-4141.

I just opened the Advent cabinet, the driver looks like it should stomp all over the little Polk Audio 5JR. There are 2 caps, a 6mfd and a 32mfd that will get replaced in the morning. Advents, bigger box, stuffed full of insulation, crossover with inductor and caps. Should sound better right? The baby Polks stomp all over them. Maybe I didn't realize how good Polks are?:scratch2:
 
Whether they be a working pair of OLA's or NLA's, they should not not be so easily "stomped on", especially the NLA...... leading me to believe something is amiss with your Advents.
 
Interesting, I sold my Polk Monitor 10s, SDA-2s, 5jrs and bi-wired B&W DM602s and kept the Large Advents. I guess it comes down to personal preference.
 
tubed said:
Whether they be a working pair of OLA's or NLA's, they should not not be so easily "stomped on", especially the NLA...... leading me to believe something is amiss with your Advents.
Click to expand...

What he described is the typical "east coast" sound which the Large Advents are clearly designed to be with the exception of the "Dirty sound." But compared to the polks, that is almost the best description of the midrange that I've heard. :stick-poke:

Like One Pixel said, it comes down to personal preference. Not which one is better than the other.
 
It is all personal preference. Nothing wrong with that. I have some small Polk RTi4's. My Large Advents and my Smaller Advent Loudspeakers walk all over them. No biggie, I think the Polks sound good:thmbsp:
 
those x-over values aren't right at all if that is an original large advent. the OLA's had either a 16uf and an 8uf caps, or 2 16's, depending on time-frame. The NLA's were different. While many folks don't care for the fried-egg tweeter, I've not read much negative criticism of the woofer. While this still could simply be a matter of personal taste, these 2 items (x-over values, and poor bass response) lead me to believe there may be something up with your units. Are you certain they are ola's? What does the woofer look like? The tweeter? are they both mounted on masonite? or is just the tweeter? or is neither? is the tweet green or orange? does it have a metal-mesh grill? what are the cabinet dimensions?
 
I have been interested in Polk sound as of lately.I have never heard a pair and they are not a commonly referred to speaker here.I have two pair of NLAs but no Polk.Any other Polk fans?
 
back in the day when I was looking for some speakers it came down to Polk SDA-PLUS the one with the big cross over cable or Dahlquist DQ-12's and the only reason I wound up with the Dahlquist is I found some used ones cheap. Polk make some nice affordable speakers and I wish I had the SDA'a now.
 
After rereading the x-over portion of the "identify your advents" thread, it apears you are listening to a pair of jensen era Advent 5002's (or 5012, if they have real wood veneer.) I've not heard any of these, so I can not comment on now they should sound compared to OLA's or NLA's. If they aren't 5002/5012's, then someone has been monkeying with the x-over.
 
Thank you for your responses so far, I will try to answer all of your questions.
The model of the Advents: Legacy.

black with oak tops and small oak panel bottom front.
Crossovers look to be right, as they are soldered and hot glued over the solder joints. Not many home guys do that, but it is possible.

I called Radio Shack this morning and asked for 2 mylar caps, values 6mfd and 32 mfd, and 60 volts. They said that they would call me right back. That was 6 hours ago.

I'll call them again.

Right now in fact.

As it stands, the Polks rock and the Advents fizzle.
Polk:pistols::lazer: Advent
 
hmmmm., . . . .

I have mucho respect for Polk . . every pair I've heard, even the 'Crutchfield' line, I've liked . . .

I'd be very interested to hear a comparison between the Advent 'Legacy' and the Original Large Advents.

as a matter of fact, I have a pair of Legacys in need of a refoam . . . won't be the next project, but I should definitely refoam them so I can compare them to my recapped OLA's :scratch2:
 
No idea on the Legacy.....have a set but in line to get new surrounds.
As far as the OLA vs Polk, I have Monitor 7b and 12c. IMO the 7b sounds better than the 12 at normal house volumes. The Advents sound wonderful to me also, but location and positioning is key. I had 2 pairs stacked on the floor and loved them, put them on a shelf and not so good.
But it's all what you like best.
 
I just called Radio Snack and they didn't even have the caps in the cheap line. you can't get anything there anymore. I suppose I'll have to drive over the bridge to Portland now, and during rush hour. A friend told me that were I comparing the old Advents with the fried egg tweeters, that my opinion would be much different. Maybe so, these Legacy's do look El-Cheapo, "White-Van' ish".:scratch2:
 
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