Welcome back. I took a 15-year little audio vacation and came back seriously last summer. My system was Bryston/Celestion/PSAudioCD/Lux Turntable. I moved onto Conrad Johnson/Vienna Acoustic/Pro-ject/Oppo.

Everything was an improvement over the past, BUT the most striking, jaw-dropping advance was in the TT (turntable). My Pro-ject RM10 with Sumiko Blackbird is several orders of excellence beyond where I left off with vinyl. I hope you still have your vinyl collection. If so, you're in for a big treat. The resolution of a good TT now blows CD into the weeds and competes, heads up, with SACD and DVD-A, with a much better, broader selection of software.

Roll around in your thoughts and the forums for a while. www.audiogon.com is another great forum and THE PLACE to buy and sell used audio equipment.

Luckily for you, the mail order audio pushers are thriving. You're obviously sensitive to speaker design, cross overs and all that stuff, so I think that should make that your first area of investigation. Dynamic drivers are now approaching planar in transparency and openness. There's also a move toward mounting a driver(s) on a baffle and calling it a speaker. Amazingly, it really works.

There's an online-only magazine that you may not have found yet, Tone Audio @ www.tonepublications.com Of course, you know Stereophile.

Have fun.

Dave

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There's an online-only magazine that you may not have found yet, Tone Audio @ www.tonepublications.com

I just read a great review of the Rega P9/Apheta. I wasn't aware of the rag until I read that article, but it seems like a promising publication.

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There's an online-only magazine that you may not have found yet, Tone Audio @ www.tonepublications.com

I just read a great review of the Rega P9/Apheta. I wasn't aware of the rag until I read that article, but it seems like a promising publication.

I just discovered it last week, following a link to a review of the Woo Audio WA6 headphone amp (incredible, BTW). The layout and graphics are top shelf and the price is right (free). Yeah, there are lots of ads, but they're all VERY professional. The reviews seem to gloss a little and not get into details, but they make up for that with pictures. (Incredible photography actually) The downloads are large, but what the hey, I've got a fast connection and a big hard drive.

Dave

What?! No Advent 201 cassette deck?!!!

The Advent 300 is unlikely to be in "mint" condition. Even sitting unused its capacitors are likely to have dried out over a thrity year span. When you plug it in, it should be done on a Variac to raise the capacitors up to operating voltages slowly; and hopefully this can be done while it is being monitored for excessive current draw. Even if they are unwilling to service the receiver, most shops should be willing to perform this service for a minimal fee. If this is impossible, you can connect the amplifier to a light dimmer with a 60-100 watt lamp in line with the receiver. If, as you raise the voltage, excessive current is drawn by the receiver's power supply, the lamp will glow extremely bright. Should this happen, shut down the receiver and consider where to go from there. Normally, it means either putting the receiver back in the closet or spending lots of money on a thirty year old receiver.

The Advent was not an elaborate design but did employ some proprietary devices which are no longer available for replacement purposes. If it is not in mint condition - which even if it powers up properly might not be the case after a few weeks of service - it should, IMO, be considered a nice piece of equipment you once owned.

Its power amplifier is still only 15 watts and while 15 good watts can get you a long way when coupled to the right speaker load- as Advent wished to demonstrate with this receiver - 15 watts and limited current delivery make this an amplifier that should be paired with efficient and easy to drive speakers. That narrows the field in today's speaker market to a mere handful of decent speakers or takes you into the realm of designs meant to be paired with single ended triodes and small tube amplifiers. The latter may be found through a web search for speakers matching such amplification. Place "single ended triode amplifier" into a search engine and you'll eventually find recommendations for speakers utilizing Fostex drivers and horn loaded designs; these are what I would consider pairing with the small Advent amplifier section. You can, if you still haven't, make up your own mind about sealed enclosures vs. other systems. The horns and bass refelx systems of today are not bound by the inaccuracies and boom of the JBL's and Klipsch of the Advent's time period. Still, to my ears, nothing sounds quite like a good acoustic suspension bass system.

The separate pre amp section of the Advent receiver was built around a very nice tuner and a phono section designed by Tomlison Hollman of APT and THX fame, so that's where you'll probably find the most benefit if you choose to retain the Advent 300. The receiver was designed several years before CD's came along and I doubt its line inputs will be happy with the higher output voltage of most digital players. You can certainly try but I think you'll hear overload distortion on high level passages. If this is the case, then once again the Advent becomes a nice piece you once owned.

Inspect the Advent speakers. This is also a case where the foam surrounds are unlikely to hold up to constant use even if they look good now. The New Advents were a lesser speaker than The Original in many ways but did have their own advantages. I wouldn't really bother refoaming the surrounds if they are in bad shape unless you just have a soft spot for the speakers. New replacement drivers typically don't match the Advent design though there are companies who specialize in bringing Advents and AR's back to life - at a steep cost. By today's standards The New Advent tweeter was still limited in high frequency extension - another point Kloss made with his design when being used with sources from the 1970's - and even after another few decades of diminshing response by your ears I suspect you'll hear better sound in many ways with a contemporary speaker. The KEF's are less inclined to suffer from this issue since the T27 tweeter was a classic design that held up reasonably well for several decades. IMO, the KEF's have the better sound from the midrange up but suffer from the polypropolene woofer's characteristic sound - a little plummy. But, while being different in overall balance, both speakers were/are musical and can still conjure up a lot of the excitement of what the musical performance was all about. Hook them up and give a listen. Let your ears and the condition of the speakers be your guide. Generally, the best upgrade any pair of speakers could receive when paired with the Advent receiver was a larger, more capable power amplifier.

I would guess you'll find the system - if it operates - to be capable of reasonably good reproduction. I would also expect you'll find this is similar to pulling a thirty year old car out of the garage. While still fun to drive, you'll have to decide how much it's worth to you to bring it up to snuff and whether new creature comforts don't better suit your now thirty years older requirements.

And don't get discouraged by younger salespeople and forum posters who refer to components far younger than yours as "vintage". Many of us have socks older than what these guys consider to be antiques. Most of them were still letting Mom clean their butts when MiniDisc was introduced.

Good luck.

Jan!

I did not know the dimmer/lamp trick!

Thank you for the additional knowledge!

It's hardly a substitute for a Variac and a scope since it's difficult for most people to differentiate the brightness increase in the lamp until damage has been done to the component. Major changes in the lamp's brightness or condition will indicate various problems that might make for easier decisions about how to proceed. However, this is at best a last ditch effort in a crunch. A Variac with current limiting is the better choice.

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/tshoot.htm#tshslt