1. My name is Andy Kotsatos. I collaborated with Henry Kloss on the Original Large Advent (OLA). Henry designed the drivers, the unique woofer and tweeter, and I did the voicing of the speaker. On the models that followed, Henry continued to determine the drivers, and I did the voicing of the Smaller Advent, the Advent 2, and Advent 3. The New Advent (NLA) and Advent/1 were completely my designs. More on those below.
In the OLA Henry chose a standard 12 inch basket frame because he wanted the woofer cone deeper than could be accommodated in a standard 10 inch frame, which required the use of the masonite ring spacer to the edge of the basket. He recessed the front baffle to provide sufficient space for large woofer excursions and projected the tweeter forward from the woofer mounting surface to minimize reflections from the front edge of the cabinet. To properly baffle the tweeter he added the square masonite panel that in conjunction with the grill panel provides a continuous mounting surface for the tweeter. If you listen to the OLA (and the Smaller Advent) without the grill panel, they sound brighter because of destructive and constructive reflections for the main baffle board. Both the OLA and Smaller Advent sound best with the grill panels installed.
2. The New Advent Loudspeaker (NLA) and Advent/1 were my designs, which is why Henry's name is not on the back of the speakers. I wanted to move the front baffle forward to eliminate reflections from the cabinet "frame" around the drivers, and to improve the baffling of the tweeter so that the speaker would sound the same with the grill panel on or off. To do that required totally new new basket designs.
The new woofer basket recessed the cone so that it would not hit the grill panel on large excursions and eliminated the need for the masonite ring. The new tweeter basket enabled mounting the tweeter flush with the cabinet baffle so that the speaker would sound the same with or without the grill panel. Being shallower, the new basket permitted shortening the voice coil former thereby lowering mass and increasing efficiency. And the New Advent tweeter was the first to ever use ferrofluid cooling.
The moving parts of woofer remained the same as in the OLA. The surround is inverted so that it projects forward. Otherwise all the moving parts are identical to the Original Advent woofer that Henry designed. The OLA and the NLA use exactly the same voice coil, a bifilar 4 layer coil of high temperature wire on a phosphor bronze former, the same cone, dust cap, and spider. The tweeter voice coil did change, and so did the crossover. I re-voiced the speaker to provide flatter on axis and flatter power response. My only regret is the 3 position switch on the back. It stayed because we wanted to be free from the possible perception that we were cheapening the speaker in any way. The speaker is flattest and in my opinion sounds the best with the switch in NORMAL, and that is how the Advent/1 is voiced. In the INCREASE position the woofer inductor is bypassed and the very top end of the tweeter is lifted so that the speaker sounds a little weightier, perhaps a better sound for rock music? The DECREASE position slightly lowers the tweeter level. April 30, 2021
I
