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Advent 420s receiver


alkermes

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I picked up an Advent 420s receiver and the matching grey plastic 402 speakers recently - the best info I found was here on a thread started by JKent. Fred Pinkerton was kind enough to supply information about this model and some others he worked on. I am very impressed by this little guy. It's quite a useful multi-purpose box. Nowadays you could rechristen the Aux port the I-port and I bet it would sell - the phono input makes it truly hipster worthy. A little deoxit took care of some minor scratciness with the controls. I took this on vacation with a CD player and some Paradigm mini-atoms and it was delightful.

The FM tuning is very cool - there are arrows on each side of the dial pointer which light up to help you 'dial-in' the station - then disappear when you are centered.

Here are a few photos of the receiver for the record.

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Nice! I have the 410M, which is the same radio but mono. Also the fairly rare 450S (photo below). All 3 of these used the same Model 402 two-way speakers.

The original Model 400 remains a great radio. The only flaw is the white styrene cabinet, which turns yellow with age. I'm restoring one now and coating it with black pebbly truck bed liner. Not "authentic" but looks better than yellow plastic.

Kent

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Kent, those are the same speakers I have. I haven't managed to get the grills off to check the surrounds, but they still seem to be intact.

I've seen photos of the yellowed 400's. It seems some people have bleached them? Good luck with the paint job, I hope it turns out well. Are you doing any restore work on the insides - any recapping?

-Rick

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In my experience all of the 402 speakers need to be refoamed.

Bleach won't work on the 400. The only options are to sand them down and polish the plastic (very tedious)* or paint them (I don't like that look). The truck bed liner looks very cool IMHO but it's not authentic. Here's a photo of the speaker.

Also used the bed liner on some csw speakers: http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=7315#entry93392

Have not gotten around to any electronic work on the 400s etc. Too tied up with other projects right now.

Good luck with your radio!

Kent

*edit, 2020: Live and learn. A better option for restoring white cabinets is "retrobrighting". Google it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

There is a rubber strip, like window screen spline, that runs around the perimeter of the metal grille. Look for the end at one corner and gently pull it out. If you do happen to ruin it, take it to a good hardware store or glass shop that does re-screening and get a new piece. The screen spline comes in different sizes and colors so you need to have the original when you shop.

Kent

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