Advent 4002 & 5002 MUCH LATER than claimed

[Guest gkentsmith]

Hi All,

Well, I'm taking a break from the knife thing that has grabbed me and wonder of wonders, someone put up a pair of Advent 4002 loudspeakers for sale on eBay. Better still, there was a closeup of the crossover / speaker attachment area.

At last I feel I can say what I've only discussed in private emails with certain people. There are those who believe the 5002 predates 1980 and the takeover of the Advent line by Jensen. Having only seen the front of the 5002 pictured, I could only be tentative in my claims as to the timeline they fell into.

The person selling the 4002 and a certain friend of mine here (you know who you are, C) claim that this line dates back to the 1970s. In fact the eBay seller claims early '70s.

I have long contended that the white lettering on the bottom of the front panel of the speaker is an ABSOLUTE dead giveaway that the 5002 and others of it's ilk are in fact MUCH newer than many people claim. This is a result of my once unfortunate purchase of a pair of Advent/9 speakers.

To get to the point, if you look at auction id # 120106496140 on eBay you will see the pair I'm referring to. The seller did an extraordinarily good job of supplying pictures. 2 pictures below the ones with the front grill covers off and the white lettering visible, there is a close-up of the crossover area.

The wording below the connecting posts clearly states:

Advent

A division of Intrnational Jensen Inc.

an ESMARK company

The earliest reference to Jensen as a division of Esmark using Google and Ask was rather obscure and dated an individual's involvement to 1987. Even this is puzzling, as I purchased a pair of Jensen Advent Prodigy tower speakers in 1992.

I stand by my contention that the Esmark Jensen Advents were of later manufacture than the original Jensen Advents following the bankruptcy of Advent Corporation. I hope I have started a spirited discussion and look forward to having my understanding improved (hint, Doug ;-)).

Kent

[Doug G.]

Whoever thinks they are from the early seventies is definitely wrong. I don't know the exact time frame of the 4002s and 5002s but I would think they would have been in the early to mid eighties.

They were before the later named Advents like the Prodigy or Legacy right?

Doug

[Guest gkentsmith]

Doug,

I think you are right about the time frame. The only thing which is not clear to me is the relationship of Jensen to Esmark. It now seems apparent that Esmark owned Jensen at the time of the Advent bankruptcy, and then there must have been a divesiture. The named Advents do not make any mention of Esmark, and the internet has been fruitless in tracking down that relationship.

Kent