Advent, The Smaller Advent

I have been on a Henry Kloss roll as of late and the newest addition is The Smaller Advent speakers.

This pair has already been re foamed using the spliced surround method.

This pair was meant to be a lesser expensive pair of the original Larger Advent while trying to incorporate the original sound of the Larger Advent. these have a smaller woofer but the same fried egg tweeter.

The bass response is very impressive for their size but not nearly ass deep as their bigger brother.

I found that the Smaller Advent are best suited to solid state like my Marantz Model 28, I read somewhere that the efficiency is somewhere around 85-86db which does not make it a candidate for the tube gear.

I do prefer the Larger Advents over the Smaller Advents.

Here is a great article in Stereophile Magazine on how these speakers stack up against $500.00-$1000.00 speakers today.

"First, inner detail in the midrange was excellent, and as good as any under-$500/pair speaker I have reviewed. The Advent's articulation of transients, and its ability to render wide dynamic swings, were extraordinary—also in the league of the most impressive bookshelf speakers I've reviewed in the last few years. The Advent's bass extension, too, was surprising—more akin to what I'd expect from a floorstander, and accomplished without any of the modern design tricks of judiciously placed reflex ports."

 

Speakerlab Model 3

Another summer project that I finally got around to getting most of the work done is this pair of Speakerlab Model 3 circa 1975.

These units needed the woofers re foamed and the mids need to be done which I will do next.

Speakerlab was a California Seattle company that most have not heard of. the sold kits that you could build or have units built for you.

They still have a site up where you can peruse their catalogues of yesteryear.

 
This pair of Model 3's feature Peerless mid range and tweeters, I would also assume that this would be a 12'" Peerless woofer.

The cabinets are a beautiful walnut veneer that I will look into re finishing when the weather gets nicer. Although there is a tiny separation in the mid range surround I have found that it has not affected the sound at all. This will be fixed in short order

Very similar in size and bass as the Altec Model 9's this pair is a bit more refined with the same efficiency that pairs well with the tube amp. I had these speakers at the same time as the Altec's so it was an easy decision to let the Altec speakers go to the same person that bought the Cerwin Vegas.

I have been running this pair of speakers with the Magnavox Push/Pull tube amp and the sound is pure liquid gold to my ears. Extremely full bass, lush, lush mids and sparkling highs. The sound stage is deep and wide.

This pair of Speakerlabs are going to be around in the listening room for some time.

Electro Voice 12 TRXB speakers

Oh my god, these Electro Voice 12TRXB triaxial showed up this week and WOW.

We were so excited to get these up and running we just mounted them in open air and sat back and listened in amazement.

These units are going into an Open Baffle that we at Speakerholic are going to start to design. These units will be awesome for our venture.

A bit more can be found here.

Beautiful on a single ended tube amp, just beautiful!!

KLH Model 21 table radio

Effectively a speaker box with a radio inside this super cool Henry Kloss Model 21 table radio arrived today.

This unit has a wonderful walnut veneer case with super cool Bakelite plastic knobs. These units were well known for their tuning sensitivity and great sound for late 60's gear.

Inside is a small full range driver with a massive magnet that produces great sound. There is even a bass and treble adjustment, that is how good Henry wanted these to sound.

There is plenty of information on these radios and from what I gather the value of these are going higher in terms of collectables.

I will take this unit apart and clean up the case and front grill along with a good cleaning. This is one of the better sites for a write up.

This is a super cool thing to add to my collection.

Vintage Receivers for under $50.00, not any more!

I had a funny conversation with a Craigslist lowballer today that figured that silver faced vintage Radio shack gear was worth $45.00.

I usually sell my gear for a reasonable price and I attempt to repair stuff that is unique and worthy of repairing, which brings me to a pretty rare Realistic STA-111 receiver or for that matter a Realistic System 11.

I opted to not send this unit to the landfill and spent the money on getting it repaired locally, it is worth saving the Made in Japan stuff from the 70's and 80's as opposed to the Made in China crap that is made to the lowest price point only to end up in landfills in about 5 years.

So here is my conversation.

Here is an Angry Bird Bluetooth speaker that people that have no sense of value probably think is cheap.

$66.00 will get you this future piece of landfill junk but $45.00 for something made well and sounds great when people actually cared for those qualities is insulting, now it could be that this CL Lowballer is financially embarrassed.

I had a quick check on CL to see what was available in receivers for sub $100 locally, outside of plenty of Black Plastic Crap and HT 5.1, 6.1. 7.1  I found two that where of the Silver faced type, both I would pass on, but my new found ex friend figures he can do better.

I did offer up a nice Yamaha HT unit for $50.00 but I guess that was $5.00 out of his price range too.

Harman Kardon The Lute A220

This Harman/Kardon A220 "The Lute" has been on loan to me this week, a little wonderful 12-15 watt push pull tube amp.

This unit was brought up from the USA and has gone through a full refurbish locally.

A beautiful sounding unit that oozes all the goodness of tubes that I often write about on this blog. This unit is in exceptionally good condition.

Marantz Model 28 update

I just got this lovely Marantz Model 28 back from Pure Sound locally and this little unit sounds absolutely wonderful for 20WPC.

This is a late 60's early 70's model that came out before the 22XX models. I like this era of solid state receivers as I find they are modeled closest to a push pull tube amp and this unit has that sound. Under normal listening conditions the bass is full, mid range is smooth and the highs are not as crisp as a single ended tube amp but pleasant just the same.

Imaging in the mid range is pretty nice with this unit, with a nice deep three dimensional sound stage.

This unit was noisy in the right channel when arrived and it has since been serviced at Pure Sound, a few transistors had to be replaced. All capacitors checked out to be fine. This unit still has minimal noise but it is very low and I will accept that given the age of the unit. The noise does not interfere with the music at all.

November update:

Since buying a Magnavox push pull tube amp, I would put the sound of this receiver near to the sound of the Magnavox. Not as lush in the mid range and a little brashy in the upper mids to low highs but a real solid sound stage that sounds magnificent. this unit matches well with the more efficient speakers that I own. this piece will be staying in the collection.