An Advent for the '80s
Advent 5002 loudspeaker system, in wood cabinet with vinyl finish. Dimensions: 14 1/4 by 26 inches (front), 11 1/2 inches deep.
Price: $200. Warranty: "limited," five years parts and labor.
Manufacturer: Advent Corp., 195 Albany St., Cambridge, Mass. 02139.
For ten years, The Advent Loudspeaker--even after it had acquired companions like The Smaller Advent Loudspeaker--was the one to beat. Though its price inched slowly upward from the original $112, thousands of budget-conscious audiophiles saw it as a rare combination of low price and high performance. The speaker market today, however, is considerably more active and a good deal more sophisticated than it was in 1970, and there are lots of fine bookshelf loudspeakers whose sound makes the venerable Advent seem a bit old-fashioned. No doubt responding to this, Advent has redesigned and assigned model numbers to each of the four units in its line, with the 5002 occupying the spot once held by the original ("Larger") model.
At first glance, the 5002 seems identical to the older model. The relatively tall enclosure, beveled front edges, and characteristic knitted grille remain.
Also held over is the "classic Advent woofer," a 7 1/2-inch driver with a long-throw voice coil, but joined here by a redesigned parabolic domed tweeter and a new crossover network that includes a novel tweeter level control. Mounted in the recess above the screw-down binding posts on the rear of the enclosure is a two-position toggle switch marked BACKGROUND/NORMAL. According to Advent, the BACKGROUND setting is suitable for music listening "when conversation is the focus." In tests at CBS Technology Center, the cocktail party switch (as one staff member dubbed it) resulted in a shallow response dip in the presence range from 500 Hz to 4 kHz. This does, indeed, make the music less obtrusive, though we found that a lower volume setting is a far more efficacious way of achieving such an objective.
Put through its paces at CBS, the 5002 easily withstood the 20-dBW (100 watt) continuous-tone test and held up to 333/4-dBW (2,400 watt) pulses before exceeding distortion limits. The impedance curve is remarkably well controlled, rising from the nominal 5.5 ohms at 120 Hz to 20 ohms at 1,200 Hz, with values never dipping below 7 1/2 ohms from there up to 20 kHz. Considering the overall non-taxing impedance values and moderate efficiency of the system, the 5002 should present an easy load for just about any power amp.
At moderate sound pressure levels, both second and third harmonic distortion products remain quite low, averaging well below 1/2% from 100 Hz to the 10-kHz test limit. At loud levels (100 dB SPL), the redesigned tweeter shows its stuff, keeping second and third harmonic distortion well below 1/2% over its range. The woofer/midrange driver, however, is not so sanguine about loud playing levels, with second harmonics rising to about 2 1/2% from 150 to 400 Hz and third harmonics reaching about 1% in the same range. The scope trace shows almost perfect handling of the high-and low-frequency pulses, marred only by a very slight wrinkle in the 3-kHz pulse to connote possible cabinet reflections.
In listening tests, all the auditioners commented first on the uncanny imaging. When reproducing well-miked recordings, the 5002s present a marvelously detailed re-creation of the original sound stage with an unusual amount of depth.
Overall tonal balance was likewise judged excellent; bass is strong but not heavy, and the redesigned Direct Report tweeter handles difficult high-frequency percussives with beguiling ease. The tweeter can be a bit aggressive, though what was judged a touch of steeliness on string tone was easily tempered by a slight treble cut at the preamp. Auditioners were of mixed opinion as to some midrange effects. The warmth and presence that some heard on vocals sounded slightly hollow to others.
Considered in toto, the 5002 is a fine effort. Though its price is roughly double that of the original Advent, it is a bargain in the loudspeaker market by today's standards. In the conclusion to our test report on the original (May 19701, we wrote that "it should enjoy a well-deserved popularity among a large spectrum of listeners." We expect nothing less for the 5002.
-----------------
[Preparation supervised by Robert Long, Peter Dobbin, and Edward J. Foster. Laboratory data (unless otherwise noted) supplied by CBS Technology Center or Diversified Science Laboratories.]
(High Fidelity, May 1981)
Also see:
Audio Research SP-6 preamplifier