Connecting Advent Loudspeakers...

[stormant]

Hey gang, new poster led here by confusion. I recently got passed down a pair of Advent loudspeakers and a Luxman tuner box, on top of a new vinyl record player, the problem being that I have no idea how to set it up and internet searches have been fruitless. I am gonna post the set up here in hopes that someone will provide an easy connect-the-dots. Help? I have the wire and wire cutters (as you can see I did some shoddy trial-and-error).

[dynaco_dan]

Hey gang, new poster led here by confusion. I recently got passed down a pair of Advent loudspeakers and a Luxman tuner box, on top of a new vinyl record player, the problem being that I have no idea how to set it up and internet searches have been fruitless. I am gonna post the set up here in hopes that someone will provide an easy connect-the-dots. Help? I have the wire and wire cutters (as you can see I did some shoddy trial-and-error).

Hi there

From the main photo, because you are too close, I see that you have run wires from the speaker output to the tuner input.

Please move back from the amp and tuner so that I can more adequately identify the cables.

Trim the wires back so that they cannot touch each other.

[stormant]

The two photos are misleading; the shot of the speakers show the wires hooked up, but they do not lead anywhere. Conversely, the shot of the tuner with wires hanging out of the Speaker A slot too don't lead anywhere. Lots of just hanging stuff waiting to be shuffled into other places.

[Doug G.]

I can't see the pictures because they are gigantic and the PC I am currently using won't handle the processing. Well, it will but it's ultra slow.

However, most of this stuff is standardized.

The speakers connect to the "Speaker A" outputs on the Luxman which is actually what is called a receiver. It has a tuner and amplifier in one box. Connect the red speaker terminals on the Luxman to the "8" terminals on the speakers and the black terminals on the Luxman to the "0" terminals on the speakers.

The phonograph or turntable connects to the phono input of the receiver with what are called RCA cables. These are shielded with a braided outer conductor to keep noise from getting into the signal wire which is the inner conductor.

Do you have any of these RCA cables? The terminations have a pin of about 1/8" diameter and an outer sleeve type connector for the outer conductor. Do a google search if you don't know what they look like.

The speakers can just be connected with regular wire as you have it.

EDIT: OK, I opened the last picture and it appears you actually do have a separate tuner. The red and white cables hooked to it are the RCA cables. The outputs from that connect to the "tuner" inputs of the amp.

But Vern is right. Wee need pictures farther away to see the entire rear of the pieces of equipment.

Doug

[JKent]

Hi Stormant and welcome to the CSP!

Photo 1 shows the back of your turntable, with connectors marked "R", "L", "E" and "GND". The R&L are the right and left outputs. They are fed to your receiver or amplifier using stock RCA cables, usually color coded red and white. I don't know about the "E". The "GND" is a ground lug. You can attach a plain piece of insulated wire from that to your receiver's ground lug (assuming there is one) to prevent hum from the turntable. This is optional. Remember--the ground lug is on the receiver or amp, NOT the tuner. Here are RCA cables. They come in different lengths and you can also find very expensive ones. Some even have a ground wire attached, but hese will do

http://www.parts-exp...tnumber=240-020

The next photo shows your speakers (NICE). The terminals are marked "0" and "8 Ohms". Other speakers are marked differently, so just remember the "0" is negative and the "8 ohms" is positive. Notice that the wires are color coded: the clear insulation lets you see one silver wire and one copper wire. This speaker is hooked up fine. Just make sure the other one matches. btw--what you have there are "The Advent Loudspeaker". Advent later made other speakers, so we often refer to yours as the "Original Large Advent" or "OLA". Excellent, very desirable speakers! Take care of them and you'll love them. More on that later.

Now the next photo shows your problem. On top is a tuner, with red and white RCA cables correctly attached. What is not shown is where they go. They should be plugged into the "Tuner" input on the bottom thing--the amp. If ther is no Tuner input you can use "Aux" or even "Tape" but NOT "phono". The turntable RCA cables MUST be plugged into Phono.

Moving to the right on your tuner there are what appear to be speaker wires attached to the antenna inputs. Remove those. If you want to listen to AM, a length of plain insulated wire attached to "AM" "may" work. For FM you have 2 choices: Use a "folded dipole" or a set of "rabbit ears" attached to the 1st 2 terminals (marked 300 ohm) OR if you have cable, you have to run a piece of coaxial cable from a splitter to the 75 ohm (3rd & 4th) terminals. The braided shield of the cable goes to GND and the center wire goes to 75 Ohm. OR--easier if you have cable--connect the cable to a balun transformer and connect that to the 300 ohm inputs. Here's a photo of the transformer. You can get one in Radio Shack, Sears, Home Depot etc for about $2

http://www.mcmelectr...ELAID=221165190

Here are a couple of antennas, a Terk and a standard folded dipole

http://www.parts-exp...romo=&srchAttr=

The box under the tuner is the receiver, and although the inputs for tuner and phono are not shown, I described that hookup. This amp will accept two pair of speakers, "A" and "B". The speaker wires from your Advents should go to "A". It looks like the right speaker is hooked up correctly, with the copper wire to red and the silver wire to black. Now hook up the other other (left) speaker the same way, under "A SPEAKERS", silver to black and copper to red.

That should work, BUT: VERY IMPORTANT!!!! Those are beautiful speakers but they are old and they PROBABLY have suffered "foam rot". If so, they should not be played because you can destroy them. But they CAN be repaired. Gently pry off the front grilles from the speaker cabinets being careful not to damage the wood. Inside is a big round speaker, the woofer. The center part is paper and the outer ring is metal (or metal and Masonite). The paper cone is attached to the metal by a ring of foam rubber called the Surround) If that foam is deteriorated it MUST be replaced. Once you have everything hooked up you can test the system at VERY LOW VOLUME just to make sure it works, but don't crank it up.

Here is a site that tells how to refoam speakers but if you are not into "do it yourself" don't be overwhelmed. If yours need to be refoamed there are outfits that specialize in that, such as Millersound and Carl's Custom Loudspeakers. These speakers are well worth refoaming. A DIY kit will cost you about $25 or you can remove the drivers and mail them to Millersound or Carl to be refoamed for about $75 a pair.

http://www.citlink.net/~msound/

So correct your hookup, check your woofers and get back to us. We'll be happy to offer more guidance.

Kent

[stormant]

Wow, thanks everybody! I am going to start working on this during the weekend and get back to you. Seriously, great great help here. Sorry about the large pictures but seems Kent here is on top of his business!

[JKent]

Glad to be of help. I've been on the receiving end of TONS of help here so I'm glad to help a fellow audiophile.

btw—that Matsushita sl-1100a is a REALLY nice TT. You threw me off when you called it "new". It's a vintage piece form 1971. Very cool. Whoever you inherited this stuff from knew his audio equipment! Matsushita products are sold in the US as Technics (and Panasonic). So yours was probably originally bought overseas, maybe by a service man during the Viet Nam war. Google either Matsushita SL-1100A or Technics SL-1100A for info.

You can download manuals here: http://www.vinylengi...s/sl-1100.shtml It cleared up what the "E" is—"earth" (British for Ground). You will have to establish an account but it's free and there are lots of useful downloads there. There are also forums on that site, with lots of Technics SL-1100 owners so while THIS is your source for all things speaker related, Vinyl Engine is a good place for turntable stuff (electronics too).

Let us know the make/model of the other stuff. Luxman tuners are nice. Some nicer than others. Some are reviewed here: http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/luxman.html

What's the amp or receiver? Keep us posted!

Kent