STACKED ADVENTS AS REVIEWED BY THE ABSOLUTE SOUND MAGAZINE

[Guest crusty]

After having owned both the Large Advent and Small Advent speakers, two pairs of each at various times, I will not argue that it was an outstanding product for its day. I was fortunate enough to have been able to purchase these speakers new in the early seventies and until the mid eighties used a double Smaller Advent system.

I have tried every combination of the double system one can imagine, tweeter to tweeter, woofer to tweeter, side by side one speaker on the floor the other 2 feet higher, just anything I could come up with. But, the positioning I preferred over all others and the one I always returned to to was two in front of me and two behind me, all about 18 to 24 inches off the floor and 1 foot away from the wall and away from room corners or intersecting walls. This positioning put the tweeters at ear level and eliminated most floor bounce in the bass. This positioning helped to minimize room resonant modes and gave a true rendering of the Advents bass capabilities which are its strong point. I remember that the four speakers, whether it was the Smaller Advent or the Larger Advent, had no difficulty in filling the room with clean sound in the above described positions.

Often times a review done by a reputable magazine can be more subjective then the opinion of someone who spent their hard earned dollars for something they only think performs as well as they hoped it would. So after digging through my collection of old audio equip. reviews and brochure I came across a copy of a review for the double Advent given out by the Advent dealers in the early seventies. The Absolute Sound magazine did honest and subjective reviews just as they do now. Whats even better is theres a manufacturers comment written by Andy Petite, product manager at Advent then, and later, founder of Boston Acoustics.

Please read and enjoy.

[Zilch]

'Course, Dynaco petitioned for their piece of that action, as well:

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Boar...ost&id=3166

[dingus]

'Course, Dynaco petitioned for their piece of that action, as well:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.ph...mp;d=1180555205

already in the CSP Library ...

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Boar...ost&id=3166

[dingus]

thanks for posting the article, i just wish they had detailed the configuration used.

[DrBob]

I dug my 1974 Large Advents and Large Advent Silver Anniversary editions out of storage after 13 years, re-foamed the 25th Anniversary  versions, stacked 'em in front of a pair of  tricked-out very suped-up Dynaco MKIIIs.  I do have a Thorens TD124 MkII on the front of an RCA scratch-built phono and line stages.  The result is a staggering sound-stage in all aspects, resolution and imaging, and a smooth natural (flat) representation, top to bottom.  As a percussionist, I was especially attuned to cymbal and brushwork which can get buried in those classic Blue Note and other recordings.  Not so anymore.  I had been satisfied with a 101db efficient set of upgraded Zu Druid 08 IV, which have remarkable mid range, balance, and highly dynamic presence--I really like them.  The Advent arrangement is another world.  Oh, the caps in  the original classics were replaced with Solen, making the upper mids smoother and more transparent.

[Frank Braswell]

Hello my name is Frank I purchased a set of OLA's back in the seventies while serving in the US Navy had the for several years and sold them. recently I was lucky to find a set of beveled walnut with the masonite woofers and tweeters, refurbished the grills an cabinets. I found another set locally with the bull nose cabinets. they sound identical, I stacked them both upright and the sound is amazing, this set up blew away my cerwin vega AT15s the bass is tight and plentyfull any one thinking of doing this don't hesitate you will be pleased.

[Norman Nicolai]

If your “Bull Nose” Advents are NLA’s, which they probably are, be careful. NLA’s were rated at 8 ohms like the original large Advents, but everything I’ve read on this Forum indicates that they were actually closer to 6 ohms, or even lower, and should more accurately have been rated at 4 ohms. Make sure your amp is capable of handling a load below 4 ohms if you’re running them in parallel.  I ran “stacked” OLA’s and NLA’s for a while and got away with it until I became the wiser. I sold the Bull Nosed NLA’s and replaced them with a set of OLA’s so I’m now running ostensibly at a 4 ohm load with two sets of stacked OLA’s.  The OLA / NLA combination may have sounded a bit better, but the stacked OLA’s are a safer load for my amp.

[Frank Braswell]

thanks for the info I have plenty of power to push both sets

[Norman Nicolai]

Just purchased a refurbished Mitsubishi DA-A10 power amp and I’m running my stacked Advents off them. The DA-A10 is rated at 100 wpc and I’m pretty sure that’s a very conservative power rating. I’ve never heard the OLA’s sound better. I cranked it up after a while and the DA-A10 never even got warm under the 4 ohm load. Previously, I was using the power amp in an HK-3490 receiver which was rated at 120 wpc, but the DA-A10 sounds like it has a lot more power. Still using the preamp in my Advent 300 receiver with this arrangement. 

More to follow when I’ve run the component combination for a few more days. 

[JKent]

Nice amp. I really like the look of the DA-M10 meters that go with it.

[Norman Nicolai]

I kind of like the look of the meters too, Kent…Unfortunately, the amp didn’t come with them! The meters weren’t available from the the seller so I have just the basic power amp.

Online reviews of the DA-A10 are all over the map, ranging from producing clinically cold to engagingly warm sound. My guess is that most reviewers always fail to take into account the effect of the preamp and the room acoustics on the overall sound of a system. I’m currently using the preamp section of my Advent 300 receiver, but I also have a tube Dynaco PAS 2 that I will try pairing with the DA-A10 eventually. Right now I would describe the sound produced by my DA-A10 as clean and uncolored. The highs are not rolled off as much as in my tube equipment, but they are not at all brash or shrill, the bass strong, but not booming. While rated at 100 wpc, it seems to have so much more power than my HK3490, rated at 120 wpc, with lots more in reserve. It feels like this is the first time that I am experiencing the effect of a really powerful amplifier in my home system.

I’m always still amazed that changing one component can have such a dramatic effect on my listening experience. I still experience the kind of excitement one does as a newbie and relative newcomer when listening to new equipment. I hope that never goes away!

 

 

[JKent]

Those meters do show up on eBay. Purely cosmetic imho but they look cool.

Enjoy the amp and especially the music!

[jessiAV]

  I'm smiling Norman, as I have almost identical equipment in my system rotation. My A10DC sounds exactly as you describe, impressively neutral, although currently I am using a Sansui AU 717 into my OLA's for it's warmth.

       While I recap, or not, on a case by case basis, two years ago I renewed the old decoupling power supply caps in my Advent 300 and it made a delightful and dramatic improvement.

[Norman Nicolai]

My Advent 300 receiver was a “throw in” when I purchased a Fisher 400 receiver. The 300 had some issues so I did a David Eaton swap. The first swap he sent me was damaged in shipment. I had some problems with interference from a local FM station when I received the 2nd replacement Advent 300, but that disappeared when I moved the receiver to another location in my house. As I said,  I’m only using the preamp section and do not use the power amplifier or the FM tuner. The Advent FM tuner, while sonically good, has much more background noise than my Sony ST-J75, so I almost always employ the Sony for FM listening, and I listen to FM a great deal. 

At one time I was contemplating selling the stacked OLA’s in favor of my rebuilt AR 2ax’s, but the power of the A10DC has taken the Advents to a whole new level. I’m finally hearing the “magic” of stacked Advents that’s been written about for so many years. They are truly better than the sum of their parts.

[Ric27]

Sweet topic!

I have had LG Advents for over 40yrs but just recently assembled the double stacked arrangement. Wow is what i say! Everything is relevant to preferences of the listener so this setup is not all things for all people, but i can't imagine that anyone who likes to listen to music could help from at least enjoying their favorite recordings through stacked Advents. 

At this time I have mine running through my Sansui 5000X. 85 wpc @ 4ohms

 

 

[blanddawg625]

85/ch. is not nearly enough. I am currently running stacked NLA with a Yamaha P2200 with 425/ ch @4 ohms. There is alot to be said for headroom in any system.

[frankmarsi]

6/26/2023

About 15 or so years ago there was a foto circulating on the web that showed an individual who used stacked Advents (the vinyl clad version)*.

The owner properly used a separate Phase Linear PL-400 Series One amplifiers for each pair of speakers which is the correct way to to hook double speakers.

This unknowing trend of novices stacking speakers and only using one amplifier is incorrect and not advised if you value you amplifier.

Running speakers this way will over tax the amp and therefore lessen the effect of a system’s fidelity. Long term it will burn out your amplifier and teach a fast lesson to the user. 

I myself have stacked my four AR-LST’s with double Phase Linear-PL-400 amps starting in 1989 with good results except over-all the system wasn’t what I had expected. It wasn’t until I took the advice from a AR corporate representative I had met at a well known NYC stereo salon. He told me he and other AR corporate types had hooked-up two Phase Linear PL-700B’s with two sets of AR-LST’s. He said that with that system, the sound was unimaginable. At that time I had too many aspects of my life where I couldn’t afford new amps. Luckily, by 2005 or so I bought another used Phase Linear PL-400 and enjoyed a new found huge-ness of sound over-all.  It wasn’t until 2009 that I upped the size of my amplifiers to two rebuilt Phase Linear PL-700 Series II amps and I’ve been enjoying excellent and balanced sound to this day with additional huge-ness, even bigger sounding than with two PL-400's. I have no need to improve, I'm at the top of the mountain already. Four AR-LST's and 2800 watts RMS is enough for me.

When one uses only one amplifier, it puts undo stress and strain on the amp. I learned that quickly. I had one PL-400 out for repair and decided to use only one amp to drive both sets of LST’s. With in less than 2 weeks of that configuration, it left me with no sound at at all as the stress and strain blew out that singular amp. Admittedly, driving four AR-LST speakers with one amp was a stretch for any amp but, I’ll never do that again.

My current system since 2009 uses 'matched' double amps for double 'matched' speakers and that is the only way to render good unstrained sound. Both amplifiers must be identical as should the speakers be identical. I'm speaking of high-fidelity not playing with speaker boxes as if they were a child’s set of building blocks as a few novices may use them as. If using mis-matched speakers or amps, it's the lowest common denominator that will prevail. Not good and certainly not a purist move and definitely not a sophisticated use of components. There's been a couple of novices around here and 'AK' who play like children with mismatched speakers and mismatched amps and have the mindlessness to brag about it-you know who you are.

*This is a photo of double Advents that has mysteriously disappeared from the web as I had to do a long search to find this one below. Notice the two Phase Linear PL-400’s on floor against the front wall of system. This photographed double pair of Advents has been referred to often when speaking of the double set-ups across the web for years.

I wanted to show the foto but, this forum's allotted space will nor permit it so, here’s a link of the foto. Scroll to bottom of page to see double advents in use.  This system's owner was correct to use double Phase Linear PL400's as seen in background of photo as I bet it must sound thrilling.   If I purchase another pair of vinyl-clad Advents, I'll be sure to hook up such a system for curiosities's sake in my den.

 http://wajonaudiosv.weebly.com/high-end-audio-on-a-budget-getting-the-very-best-hifi-sound-at-the-least-possible-cost-short-version.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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