If you’re a retro speaker enthusiast, you’ve probably heard of the large Advent speaker, but have you ever heard of the small Advent speaker? For audiophiles looking for that uncolored vintage Advent sound without the huge footprint that the large Advent speaker took up, the smaller Advent speaker was the perfect solution. It really is a testament to smaller speakers that even today, a pair of these purchased in 1972 stand up to current speaker technology of the day. This really can’t be said of the big new speakers or similar brands like Bose and JBL of that time.
You could call the approach of the advent speakers of the early 1970s innovative. They were the consummate innovators led by Kloss and his team of crazy audio geniuses. Since Kloss’ goal when he founded advent in 1967 was to develop a commercially viable big-screen television, Advent Loudspeaker was something he arrived at somewhat circuitously. Lucky for us, he did! The large Advent speaker, as we all know, was the most modern method of acoustic suspension “bookshelf” speaker of the day. With a smaller hard dome tweeter and 1 foot air-suspended woofer, this speaker packs a reasonable punch in a small package. The cabinet of the large advent speaker was made of wood or MDF (customer choice). It included 1 tweeter control.
Still, when 1972 rolled around, Kloss, fresh off the success of the big advent speaker, decided he needed to design a smaller model. The smaller avent speaker was very similar to the original avent speaker, albeit with an 8 1/2-inch woofer and a 9 1/2-inch diaphragm in its smaller cabinet. The crossover and tweeter frequencies were actually the same as the large advent speaker, but lacked the control that was standard with the original advent speaker. It also lacked the option of a real wood cabinet. That being said, the price was 30% cheaper, at about $140 a pair at the time of product launch.
To found the smaller team of advent speakers, Kloss brought in respected colleague Andy Kostatos (who later founded Boston Acoustics), and offered his expert speaker talent, specifically in crossover tuning. Kostatos eventually left Advent in 1974 after a recapitalization effort rocked the company.
The small stock Advent speaker was a real beauty and due to its more compact components, when you buy these speakers now on the used market there is a good chance you will find a speaker like new or at best with just some minor details. reforms such as rubber gaskets or cones.
There are some interesting things to keep in mind when it comes to the Small Advent monitor. The first thing is that they really are not that “little”. Truth be told, the smallest modern cabinet is actually larger than 90% of what would be considered bookshelf speakers today. Second, the build quality was pretty rough around the edges and not nearly as slick or shiny as current speaker/cabinet builds are. That being said, smaller model speaker fixtures were particularly sophisticated for the time and remain so today. Finally, if you’re shopping for smaller advent speakers, do your best to find a pair with the original papers – the manual that came with these bad boys was awesome! Even then it was clear that the Small Advent speaker was aimed at and made for serious audiophiles, the same people who covet these speakers even today. The Smaller Advent Speaker is a great introduction to the Advent Monitor and a proven speaker in the world of audio!
