Problem Advents

[paulfuchs@spamain'tkosher.oink]

Don't know if this qualifies as "high end," but maybe somebody here
might have a usefull suggetion.

I have a pair of Advent Legacy speakers which I bought in the late 80's,
new, driven by an SR-3A Nakamichi receiver. About 16 years ago the foam
in the woofers basically disintegrated and I had them rebuilt by a lab
in PA, can't remember the name. They sounded really great afterwards.
Anyway, they sound pretty bad now - sort of mushy and fuzzy.. Can't
make out the lyrics easily to well produced songs. The foam around the
woofers still looks perfect. I have Audio-technica headphones and the
receiver is very clear through them. I played some music through the
Advents at volume and headphones at the same time to see if the clarity
was breaking down with a load larger than the headphones, and the
Advents sounded fuzzy and the A-T's sounded clear. Any ideas regarding
cleaning the sound of these babies up? Gotten attached to them over the
last 35 years:-)

[Dave]

Several things come to mind.

Disconnect, then re-attach your speaker cables, could be corroded contacts

Try mono sources listening to each speaker separately, determine if is one speaker or both.

If possible, try another amplifier. Your Nak might have a different amplifier for speakers and headphones.

If none of the above helps, you might need new/rebuilt drivers in the Advents. cannot offer any advice on that.

Dave

[John Stone]

A couple of possibilities:
The electrolytic capacitors in the crossover may have gone south, causing
loss of high frequencies and shift in the crossover points.
Or, the tweeters may have developed "ferrofluid clog". This is when the iron
particles in the fluid coagulate causing the coil to seize in the gap. It
was common in some tweeter designs using old, high viscosity ferrofluid
formulations. This can happen when the speakers are unused over a long
period.
I also wonder if the foam surrounds, even though they may look good, might
have stiffened up considerably in 16 years. The impact of this would be more
in the bass end, but it can also affect the midrange response.
It may be time for new speakers. The good news is that more modern design
combined with overseas manufacture have resulted in much better speakers
than those Advents at rather reasonable prices.


On 2/4/15, 9:48 PM, in article ,
" > wrote:

> Don't know if this qualifies as "high end," but maybe somebody here
> might have a usefull suggetion.
>
> I have a pair of Advent Legacy speakers which I bought in the late 80's,
> new, driven by an SR-3A Nakamichi receiver. About 16 years ago the foam
> in the woofers basically disintegrated and I had them rebuilt by a lab
> in PA, can't remember the name. They sounded really great afterwards.
> Anyway, they sound pretty bad now - sort of mushy and fuzzy.. Can't
> make out the lyrics easily to well produced songs. The foam around the
> woofers still looks perfect. I have Audio-technica headphones and the
> receiver is very clear through them. I played some music through the
> Advents at volume and headphones at the same time to see if the clarity
> was breaking down with a load larger than the headphones, and the
> Advents sounded fuzzy and the A-T's sounded clear. Any ideas regarding
> cleaning the sound of these babies up? Gotten attached to them over the
> last 35 years:-)

[Peter Wieck]

On Wednesday, February 4, 2015 at 10:49:35 PM UTC-5, paul...@spamain'tkoshe=
r.oink wrote:
> Don't know if this qualifies as "high end," but maybe somebody here
> might have a usefull suggetion.
>=20

First, replace the capacitors. If my memory serves, there is a 32uF and a 6=
uF !!** NON-POLARIZED**!! electrolytic capacitor in place. These are the on=
ly 'wearing' parts in the crossover, but as already noted, 35 years is a go=
od long life for these beasts. Mouser (amongst others) has a good selection=
of NP caps such that you could build up to the value you need. By the way,=
there is no need for boutique caps in this application. Any well-made cap =
will do. I think they are set in 'elephant snot', so you may have to excava=
te a bit to get to them. Mark polarity on the leads as well.=20

Next, as previously noted, the tweeters may be crapping out. You could go t=
o Radio Shack (before they disappear as they just declared bankruptcy) and =
obtain an inexpensive dome-type tweeter to use as a test. If this clarifys =
things, you have your answer. Generally the OEM tweeters survive well, espe=
cially if the speakers are used every day.=20

There are a lot of tips and tricks on the Classic Speaker Pages that may gi=
ve you further advice if neither of the above suggestions work for you.=20

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[~misfit~[_3_]]

Once upon a time on usenet Peter Wieck wrote:
> On Wednesday, February 4, 2015 at 10:49:35 PM UTC-5,
> wrote:
>> Don't know if this qualifies as "high end," but maybe somebody here
>> might have a usefull suggetion.
>>
>
> First, replace the capacitors. If my memory serves, there is a 32uF
> and a 6uF !!** NON-POLARIZED**!! electrolytic capacitor in place.
> These are the only 'wearing' parts in the crossover, but as already
> noted, 35 years is a good long life for these beasts. [snipped]

I agree. As I understand those crossovers the tweeter signal passes through
both of the NPE caps before getting to the voicecoil so it's way past time
they were replaced.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)