Advent Baby IIs

Norm Apter

I have a pair of these bookshelves that I bought back in 1993, from Circuit City I think....I can't even remember how much I spent -- maybe $200.

Anyway, 16 years later, I still have them on a second 2-channel and I think they sound pretty decent for being a 16 yrs. old and of early 1990s vintage. I saw that some people sell these on Craigslist for something like $40...I can't see getting rid of them for two twenty dollar bills (what can that get you, today?) so I plan to keep them until they can't play any longer. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that to have spent $200 so long ago and still get some pleasure out of them so many years later is kind of nice.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if anybody else has heard of this company or even these particular speakers. If you have heard of Advent, would you happen to know if they folded...I realize that this is low-fi stuff (most likely below the radar of most folks here) but I'm still curious.

George Grand

Norm Apter wrote: »

Anyway, I'm just wondering if anybody else has heard of this company or even these particular speakers. If you have heard of Advent, would you happen to know if they folded...I realize that this is low-fi stuff (most likely below the radar of most folks here) but I'm still curious.

You have got to be kidding.

heiney9

Here's some reading about Henry Kloss and his history with Acoustic Research, Advent, and Cambridge Soundworks.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Cambridge-SoundWorks-Inc-Company-History.html

Yes, Advent has a long and storied history and have gone thru numerous changes since their hey dey. At one time Advents, AR's ,etc. were the bomb. Some of the models are still highly coveted and still sound fantastic today. I believe the Baby's you have were made after Teledyne who also acquired AR sold off the company. Certainly are a nice sounding speaker....check the foam around the 6 1/2 woof.....it may need repairing.

Hope this helps

Norm Apter

heiney9 wrote: »

Here's some reading about Henry Kloss and his history with Acoustic Research, Advent, and Cambridge Soundworks.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Cambridge-SoundWorks-Inc-Company-History.html

Yes, Advent has a long and storied history and have gone thru numerous changes since their hey dey. At one time Advents, AR's ,etc. were the bomb. Some of the models are still highly coveted and still sound fantastic today. I believe the Baby's you have were made after Teledyne who also acquired AR sold off the company. Certainly are a nice sounding speaker....check the foam around the 6 1/2 woof.....it may need repairing.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the link to the article on Koss.

Yes, this helps tremendously as I didn't know anything about this company (I bought the Baby IIs merely on a friend's suggestion). A fascinating read. As an aside, one of the most amusing elements (though unrelated to my question) was the controversy over the Cambridge Soundworks' slogan: "Better than Bose at half the price."

Its also interesting that you mentioned the foam around the woofers. Last night, shortly after my post, I googled the speaker and found that most of the recent discussion on this model centered on foam rot, the problem you brought up -- this seems to be a common problem as they age. Well, I pulled the grills off each speaker and fortunately everything still appears to be in good shape. I'll be sure to check on this periodically, but for the time being they still look pretty good and sound great.

shack

I have some Large Advents (with the vinyl covered "utility cabinet" unfortunately instead of the wood cabinet) from the late 70s (still a great speaker btw). I did a refoam job a couple of years ago. I also have a pair of Mini Advent II speakers that sound remarkably good. They are from the early 90s as I recall.

jlandbl

I used to own the Advent Smaller Loudspeaker. My uncle was the original owner back in 1972 and he gave them to me in the early 80's. I used to love the sound until the woofers rotted. I actually cannot remember what I did with them. What a shame. Check this link for a very recent review of them:

http://www.stereophile.com/historical/506advent/

Danny Tse

Do you have the matching subwoofer?

The Advent Baby came from the era when the brand was owned by International Jensen. Int'l Jensen, at the time, also owned AR and an upstart speaker manufacturer called NHT (Now Hear This). Eventually, Int'l Jensen got into financial troubles and had to sell off the individual brands....AR and Advent went to Audiovox (who would go on and run those brands into the ground) and NHT initially went to Rockford Fosgate. Today, NHT is the only company left that's anything close to the hi-fi market and we all know how it's doing.

The Advent Baby sure brings back a lot of good memories. Its bigger brother, the Advent Graduate, was the speaker I was considering buying when I was ready to buy my first serious home speakers.

jcaut

I had (actually my father-in-law has them now) a pair of the Baby II's. Maybe they were III's... Still the same basic speaker, I believe, 6-1/2" woofer and a mylar tweeter in a sealed cabinet. They're pretty nice sounding little speakers. I also have a pair of the larger floorstanding Legacy III's. They're 10" acoustic supsension and 1" tweeter. The III's for sure and probably the II's as well came out when Int'l Jensen owned the brand. I've never owned any older Advent speakers but my guess is these later models are a little lower quality overall than those produced in the heyday, but still based on the older solid Advent designs.

This progression seems to be the norm with audio companies: When the real genuises retire or sell out, the quality products trickle down for a little while before the mass market runs 'em into the ground. It's disturbing for an enthusiast really.

heiney9

jcaut wrote: »

This progression seems to be the norm with audio companies: When the real genuises retire or sell out, the quality products trickle down for a little while before the mass market runs 'em into the ground. It's disturbing for an enthusiast really.

That's a concern I have now that Matt is retired. I'm sure there are enough figure heads to keep that from happening for awhile.........but they are now owned by Directed...so who knows what the future holds for Polk Audio and for consumer electronics in general.

Barefoot

My first real speakers were a pair of Mini II's. Loved 'em.

sandworms

i have a pair of advents in the basement set up. sound pretty good to me, and i too had to refoam the woofers (dry rot) i'll post some pics later. they're heavy buggers, due to the beefy enclosures, and maybe someone here can tell me what the switch in back does

see forthcoming pics

apphd

heiney9 wrote: »

That's a concern I have now that Matt is retired. I'm sure there are enough figure heads to keep that from happening for awhile.........but they are now owned by Directed...so who knows what the future holds for Polk Audio and for consumer electronics in general.

Not commenting on Polk, but on the consumer elec. in general, this has been going on for a while. Some enthusiast engineering types rightfully believe they can do it better, than the mass marketed, mass produced crap that is out there. So they start their own company and all is good until they become too big. Then:
they are bought out by one of the mass marketing conglomerates to eliminate the competition,
they sell out because of retirement,
or they were great at running a small to medium size company but not so good when they are bigger. Then they just tend to falter and fail.

On a bright side of this economic disaster, there may be some new companies/products to come out of this. Guys loose their job so start out on their own, maybe some added gov. money for small business start ups, who knows. We just may need to move on and away from some of our favorite time tested products when they no longer deserve our loyalty and support. Unfortunately we some times end up with some %*&^% products in the search for replacements to throw our loyalty behind.
End of commentary

ND13

I still own a two pairs of Advents. Smaller Advents(1972) and Maestros(1986). Have had numerous other sets, including the first of the Baby Advents, two sets of the first Legacies, two sets of Larger Advents, and another set of Smallers. They were a lot like Polk in that they offered superior performance in their price range. When I can afford to, I'm going to set up a retro rig, with the Advents and some late 60's-early 70's Marantz gear.

sandworms

sandworms

opps, little bigger than i wanted, sorry, my first attempt at pic posting

sandworms

sandworms

ND13

The switch is for attenuating or boosting the high frequencies.

cnh

heiney9 wrote: »

Here's some reading about Henry Kloss and his history with Acoustic Research, Advent, and Cambridge Soundworks.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Cambridge-SoundWorks-Inc-Company-History.html

Yes, Advent has a long and storied history and have gone thru numerous changes since their hey dey. At one time Advents, AR's ,etc. were the bomb. Some of the models are still highly coveted and still sound fantastic today. I believe the Baby's you have were made after Teledyne who also acquired AR sold off the company. Certainly are a nice sounding speaker....check the foam around the 6 1/2 woof.....it may need repairing.

Hope this helps

Will take a look at this link but I'm already pretty familiar with Kloss's history, my first real speaker (still have it) the KLH Model Six--a classic. Advent..absolutely the bomb at their peak. A friend of mine still has a wonderful vintage pair. AR also some great speaks in their day (Kloss's day). The guy was another one of the Legends in this field.

cnh

George Grand

Henry Kloss was with AR for 3 years from 1954-1957. The really "famous" AR speakers came after he left, and Roy Allison had a lot more to do with those than Kloss.

cnh

Gotya George,

You're right. I associate Kloss more with classic KLH and Advent designs. Slipped up on that AR reference...should be less sloppy with that history. I grew up with KLH and Advents. History....it's important.

cnh