The Advents, in most environments, sound a shade heavy and under-damped at the bottom with a moderate-power amplifier, and are at their best with high-damping, brute-force amplifiers like the Crown DC-300. The Dyna, however, seems to perform at its best with amps of moderate power and damping (50–80Wpc), and tends to thin out at the bottom when used with high-powered, high-damping amplifiers. The A-25 has somewhat more transparency than the Advent, a very slightly forward sound (by comparison), a somewhat rougher and not-quite-so-extended high end, somewhat lower, and rather less capacity for producing deep bass at high listening levels.īoth systems tend to be noticeably amplifier-sensitive, in that their low-end performance is audibly affected by the power capability and damping factor of the driving amplifier, although the Advent seems a little less affected. In terms of price, of course, the Advent speaker invites comparison with the $79.95 Dynaco A-25, which we reported on three issues ago. But Advent's literature for their speaker invites comparison with the best available, and indeed, except for the slightly veiled sound, the Advent speaker has no need to feel embarrassed by such a comparison. Of course, the comparison with the Nine in this respect is patently unfair, because of the price discrepancy and because the KLH has that quality of "focus" to a degree that is unsurpassed by any other speaker. It seemed more a matter of "focus," as though the Advents were slightly smudging transients in the sound. It wasn't a matter of high-end response-the Advents actually had more of this than the Nine when the latter was oriented so its tweeter beams weren't aimed our way. Compared with the KLH Nine full-range electrostatic, which has some other imperfections and costs over $1000 anyway, the Advents seemed to be playing through a velvet fog. In fact, the only respect in which we felt the Advents took a back seat to any other speaker system was in transparency. There was no trace of low-end distortion until the system was driven to what would normally be entirely excessive (for most people) listening levels. Bass response was very smooth down to around 37Hz, and rolled off gradually below that, producing what we judged to be usable output down to 30Hz. Sweeping an audio oscillator through its range revealed no humps, dips, or rattles.
LARGE ADVENT SPEAKER SPECS DRIVER
Driver blending, too, was excellent, and the speakers did an outstanding job of reproducing the front-to-back perspective in stereo and mono program material. Dispersion was excellent and so, as a consequence, was the stereo imaging. Probably for just that reason, the Advents proved eminently easy to live with, and sounded equally comfortable and natural at low or room-filling listening levels. They were, in fact, the least-colored loudspeakers we have ever heard, and this includes the highest-priced systems currently available. We couldn't even find any sonic characteristics to hang adjectives on, in order to try to describe their sound. The extreme low end was very deep, evidently good to at least 35Hz, and the highs were extremely smooth, sweet and detailed.Īfter several weeks of listening, we still hadn't found anything to complain about. No squawk, honk or hollowness, no papery or metallic flavor from disc surface noise, no flabby mid-bass boom. And indeed, the Advents did prove to be about as uncolored as anything we had ever heard. But is that bad? Well, no, as a matter of fact. Our first reaction was Ho-Hum! They didn't send us. Of course, we were pleased to see a new hi-fi manufacturer taking the plunge and we wished them well, but my God, not another oversized "bookshelf" loudspeaker! Who needs it? And at $112, could it possibly be any good? Sure, the Dynaco A-25 was a pleasant surprise, but could there be another one so soon?ĭutifully, though, we hooked up the Advents and gave them a listen. That, at least, is how we felt about receiving a pair of Advent speakers-their first product since the company was formed.
![large advent speaker specs large advent speaker specs](http://fisherdoctor.com/pictures/other/Speakers/KLH-6.jpg)
The appearance of yet another one that looks like hundreds of others and embodies no radically new innovations to pique one's curiosity is likely to be greeted with a passionate Ho-Hum. After a number of years of equipment reviewing, one gets rather blasé about "compact" loudspeakers.