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Vintage Advents too big for small room?

In my current house, where I'll be for at least another 5 years, my listening room is only 12' by 12'. I have New Advents, owned since new in 1978, tweeters replaced under warranty by the better ferrofluid ones, woofers replaced about 10 years ago with OEMs from Jensen, who owned Advent at the time. They're still beautiful and do everything they've always done, but they completely overwhelm this smaller room. I have no real choice but to place them in the corners. I've moved them out 6 inches, but that didn't help appreciably.

I've thought of two options: 1) buy some stands for the Advents in the hope of decoupling them from the room a little more, or 2) go with some much smaller monitors and stands that, just because of their size, would be farther from the corners of the room. Are there any other options?

Monitors would probably be something like Epos ELS-3, Ascend CBM-170, Triangle Titus - I would need to keep monitors+stands at $500 or less for now. Also, I've had trouble locating stands for the Advents - any reasonably priced suggestions?

David
armstrod
armstrod OP
602 posts
 
Plato,

I agree with you, and I wish I could get the speakers out of the corners, but in a room that size my options are limited. I do have a very absorbing futon couch opposite the speakers. I'm sure that most small monitors don't do much below 60hz, so that's probably the best solution. Any that you've heard and liked?
plato
1,543 posts
 
Hmmm, something like the VonSchweikert VR-1 or the Green Mountain Audio Europa's might be interesting and would probably work well with a little tweaking. Then there are the Paradigm Studio 20s, which could be had for a little less money. But, I'd still try to move them in from the corners.

Good luck to you; I believe you can find an agreeable solution.
rockvirgo
587 posts
 
When I had original big Advents I built short stands for them from spare shelving, 1" x 6"s or 1" x 8"s, in an H pattern, cheap and easy. Big cinder blocks work too - put some carpet remnants between the speakers and the blocks. Basically use whatever you can to get them off the floor. Forget all the ritualistic audio hoohah except getting some equilateral placement going. Place them sideways on top of a dresser or into a shelf; they'll sound great. Use books as elevators. Experiment with the tweeters on the insides or outsides. The Advents are fun so have fun with them.

Nowadays I'm running posh, high WAF, pampered ProAc 2000 Signatures on stylin' Target welded stands. The ProAcs are certainly sweet but some days I still miss the bulky, get the job done Advent magic.
armstrod OP
602 posts
 
Ritualistic audio hoohah? Maybe I need some of that. :-)

Rockvirgo: Getting the Advents up on just any old platform, at least for experimental purposes, is a great idea. I don't have any shelves or dressers in this room, so the Advents or any other speakers would have to be on the floor and vertical, both for space considerations and WAF. The Advents have served me well for 25 years now - I'd never part with them. If I can't make them work in this space, they'll go into storage for the next house.

Plato: I've looked at the VonSchweikerts and the Green Mountains and they're out of my price range even used. The Paradigms just slide under the $500 mark used but are rare. Would the speakers I mentioned above be too much of a step down from the Advents? I realize I'd give up some bass, but the room can't deal with it anyway.
plato
1,543 posts
 
I think the Triangle and the Epos models you mentioned may be a good bet... Also, I just saw a pair of Signet SL-260 speakers on A-gon for a good price, and they could be a very good choice as well.
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