OLAs and Vinyl Veneer?

[LorneG]

QQ to the Advent crew - I'm looking at picking up a pair of OLAs that look by the listing to be in excellent shape and all original.  They are a couple of hours away.  These look to be newer models, but I'm waiting for the seller to provide serial numbers.  The seller said they are in Utility cabinets.  I know some of the NLA Utilities were vinyl veneer, but did the OLAs ever get vinyl?  I am not interested in the plastic.  Please advise.

[JKent]

Those are vinyl 

 

[RoyC]

14 hours ago, LorneG said:

The seller said they are in Utility cabinets.  I know some of the NLA Utilities were vinyl veneer, but did the OLAs ever get vinyl?  I am not interested in the plastic.  Please advise.

The "Utility" version of the Original Large Advent Loudspeaker always had a vinyl-veneered basic cabinet, as shown in your photo. The "Walnut" OLA always had wood veneer and decorative front trim.

[Doug G.]

Both the original Advents and New Advents were available in wood veneer and vinyl "utility" versions. The original Advent wood veneer cabinets had beveled trim on the front and the New Advent wood veneer cabinets had rounded trim, called "bullnose" trim on the front. The vinyl cabinets were pretty much identical between the two models with minor dimension variation. The grille cloth on the new Advents was a slightly "browner" color. The ones in your picture are original Advent Utility versions.

BTW, it's hard to tell from the picture whether the tweeter cones are orange or green. If they are green, they are from sometime in later 1975. On closer viewing, they appear that they are probably orange but still not really clear. The shades of orange varied from a rather bright, reddish orange to an almost brownish orange. In any case, that pair is from 1975 or later because the black tape across the front of the Masonite on the tweeters only goes part way across.

Doug

[frankmarsi]

8/25/2023

First bought a pair of Advent vinyls for my gal in 1978. Hooked them up to a Kenwood 4070 sweet little receiver of 40WPC. These Advents sounded very good in a small Manhattan apartment. They went with from apartment to apartment as they fit in smallish apartments wonderfully.

By 1996 they were in need of a re-foam job. Of course I foam my own, though I found mine had no Masonite ring and the foams were mounted differently. I had to glue the foam to the bottom lip of the woofer, a first for me as I was only familiar with installing AR front/top mounted foam replacements. I installed as they came, with foam on the bottom lip. A little messy at first until you get the hang of it.

After I was done, they sounded as good as they did in 1978 almost 20 years earlier. The tweeters were orange in color with their own little metal front grill-cute.

I still have them in my den on top of the fireplace and they’re a perfect size in that application. The Kenwood was used so much during the 1980's thru 1999 at which point was it stored. I attempted to use it a year later and beyond all the lights being burnt out from so much use, the thing had no sound at all. Yet, another project waiting for investigation and repair.

FM

 

 

 

 

 

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[LorneG]

Glad I asked.  Thanks guys for all the help!

[Doug G.]

Frank, did/do your Advents look like the picture in this thread, other than the woofers being all-metal ones - no Masonite? In other words, are they original Advents and not New Advents?

I ask because, if you bought them in 1978 and they are original Advents and have all metal woofers, that reinforces the theory that Advent used the all-metal woofers on the very late original Advents, since 1977-78 is when they started selling the new Advents.

Original Advents have tweeters like those in the picture, whereas New Advents have tweeters that have no Masonite square and mount flush to the speaker board (baffle).

Doug

[frankmarsi]

I would describe them as RoyC did.

The stamped frame woofers in mine did not have the Masonite ring residing in front of the surround though I assume earlier versions did. My tweeters don't have the metal plate behind them. The cones have the reversed surrounds.

This is/was a simple vinyl-clad two-way speaker in a no-frills mdf cabinet. If I recall I paid something like $200. and about the same for the Kenwood receiver in 1978. I think they were advertised as the ‘New’ Advent. Used my 1972 AR turntable with a Shure M55 cartridge and a Dust-Bug. My main system was AR-3a’s and a Phase Linear PL-4000/400 combo.

FM

 

 

 

62

[Doug G.]

OK, if they are New Advents, they would normally have the all-metal woofers.

Doug

[frankmarsi]

I'm not sure what exactly you mean about 'all-metal woofers'? They're stamped-steel basket with a surround set back into the frame more than normally seen in such designs.

The actual cone area is smaller than say a AR-2ax or similar 10" (8"piston) paper-cone design.

AR did a study many decades ago that proved their 12" woofer had the ideal moving piston diameter of 8 inches. When I ran across the 'New' Advent 10" woofer the piston size was close to a standard 8" woofer cone/piston. I surmised due to this design, it must've had more piston travel. I'm a loving fan of the AR 12" woofer and have trusted AR's findings of so many years ago. For me, another size woofer has its own set of circumstances . For instance, a 15" can be slow and lumbering in their musical and 'Hi-Fi' response to a signal whereas a 12" AR proved is the ideal size all things considered and can respond quicker. Conversely, an 8" woofer has to work a little harder to present any sort of quality bass response and still has smaller cone surface radiating air moving ability. 

As an electric bass guitar since 1967, I taught myself the differences of musical amplifier reproduction sound quality. The larger the speaker's cone, the larger the sound response and volume. In the past a bass amp with two 15" drivers in most every case sounded better than two 12" speakers that had to work harder. When I converted my Fender Bassman amp from two 12' to two 15" I attained a bigger sound. However, using my Hofner bass it was not as noticeable as when I used a short-scale or 'P' bass which has a deeper, bigger sound. Once again, a little extra information put forth confirming that the input-'source' has much to do with what comes out of the speakers. For some years now bass amps have been using multiples of 10" speakers. They offer quicker response and faster output-ed sound but, fail in the super gut-wrenching response larger cones offer. Therefore for me a 12" woofer is the optimum size as AR determined so long ago in hi-fi use. Although, small 'sub' woofer cones can put out impressive amounts of sound in 'Hi-Fi' applications as it's done electrically and in cone design. In musical instrument applications one isn't always aware of a 15" slowness as compared to a 12" or 10" but since they output so much more sound due to their larger cone area, I prefer two 15" drivers in a musical instrument scenario. In Hi-Fi, I appreciate the all around ability of a 12" woofer because it's faster and retains a large enough piston area to work in most applications.

FM

 

 

 

 

 

 

73

[Doug G.]

By "all-metal woofer", I mean without the Masonite ring of the earlier ones.

Doug