Hi all!
What follows is a review of a little-known speaker by Advent, the A2000. Built under the International Jensen Company of Illinois as Advent in the late 1980’s early 1990’s, and possibly in conjunction with the “New Vision” series 250, 350, and 500 speakers. (Maybe some Advent savant can add some clarity here...)
The A2000 is an impressive-looking tower speaker, standing just over 45” tall. Each speaker comprises of a 1” poly dome tweeter and two 6.5” pressed paper cone woofers with foam surrounds. The woofers have a vented pole piece to assist in heat dissipation and a very large magnet assembly. Voicecoil diameter is approximately 1.25”. The cones looked to be fairly rigid and thick.
Included in this review are photos of the woofers and tweeters, showing the following identification numbers on the magnet assemblies:
Woofer (x2): 25033-220-1151 (Very similar to the woofer used on the Advent Laureate, but those are typically marked 25032. Perhaps these are cosmetically slightly different, or a modified suspension to accommodate a vented cabinet?)
Tweeter: 99-20240-313TND (Same model number as used on the Advent Laureate)
The crossover is simplistic, but effective and is attached to the terminal cups located at the base of the speaker. I couldn’t find an equivalent crossover online, but the model number is 99-20300. It would seem from the markings that the upper woofer has a different crossover point than the lower one. I couldn't confirm this definitively. The woofers measured about 5.6 ohm, the tweeter read 5.8 ohm, so nominal 8 ohm impedance for all the drivers.
Essentially, this looks like a modernized redesign of the Laureate with a taller profile, slimmer footprint, and non-standard cabinet shape.
The cabinet design is very unique as it is an irregular hexagonal shape. The cabinet is made of 3/4” MDF, wrapped in wood-grain laminate “film”, and topped with a 3/16” thick acrylic panel, in gloss black. The cabinet also sits approximately 3” from the floor, supported by a rectangular wood base, and a triangular-shaped platform. The platform hides a small, down-firing bass port.
Unlike some rumors online, this speaker design is not a transmission line, but a standard bass-reflex design. There’s no internal cabinet bracing, it is assumed that the angular cabinet side panel attachments will secure the cabinet enough to effectively reduce resonances. Each cabinet is only treated with a 2” thick layer of fiberglass insulation that runs from top-to-bottom along the inside back wall of the cabinet.
The overall appearance of the speakers is, as mentioned, impressive, and definitely gives the impression of quality.
Now for the sound….
After warming these up with Bruckner’s Symphony No 4 on an unmolested DMM pressing from 1986, I was very pleased with the presentation of the program. Instrumentation was easily identifiable, and midrange responsiveness was very pleasing. These speakers certainly have a mellow sound, but not a muted one. And they can play loudly when asked to. Although they liked being stretched by my BX3 amp in bridged (BTL) mode, rated at 300 w RMS (600W program) per channel, they also delivered the goods at more moderate listening levels. As compared to my DCM TW1A’s, these speakers were brighter and a bit more forward, pleasantly so. And did so at a wider range of volumes than the DCM do.
Switching genre’s and formats, I decided to play Adele’s “21” via a high bitrate (though still lossy) MP3 format from my NAD T512 player. This record has all of the facets of modern overproduced pop, but with certain softer characteristics that make it challenging for many speakers to deliver adequately. Adele’s voice, combined with pulsing base, piano, and synthesized accompaniment can show the flaws in many setups (mine included).
Playing “21” these speakers presented vocals very well. My guess is the tweeter has a very low crossover point as Adele’s voice was produced effortlessly and without any messy interference from the woofers resonating in the lower range (“Crosstalk” I think it’s called?) The soundfield was a bit narrower than my DCM, to be expected, but still able to paint a clean picture. Upper frequencies were very impressive. Also interesting was that these speakers were not as particular about “toe-in” as I had expected to produce the designed image. Head-on, or a few degrees of toe, and the result was largely the same.
Bass extension from the midbass down to about 50-60 Hz was very solid, but there is a distinct cabinet resonance at around 100-120Hz. It wasn’t “buzzy” like some vented enclosures, but it was there. I think improved dampening of the cabinet would help soften this effect. Bass below 50Hz pretty much disappeared, roll-off was very rapid. These speakers, despite their size, need a subwoofer to be effective for home theater or musical tastes that require additional “thump thump.”
What I did notice was that room resonance was vastly improved with this speaker. The platform it rests on acts to couple the speaker to the room, assisting in absorbing unwanted vibration, rather than transmitting it audibly back up through the cabinet. As a result, male vocals from the same genre of “synthesized pop” music, in this case Active Child’s “Hanging On” were presented cleanly and without much coloration.
My final observation about these speakers is that they are fatigue-free. After about an hour of intense listening (or should I say procrastination!?), my ears wanted more. The overall balance of these speakers is very good. Having not put them against the Laureate, but having heard other Advents in my time, I’d say they are fairly characteristic of the Advent sound. Bass is controlled and ever-present, midrange is smooth with strong female vocals and instrumentation, and the high end sizzles without being too sharp.
Thanks for reading. I hope this review was helpful to chronicle the history of Advent, and International Jensen’s “parts bin” experiments of the early 90’s.
