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advent 300

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Posted on April 13, 2014 at 09:33:28
fstein
Audiophile

Posts: 2996
Location: fstein
Joined: May 18, 2006
 just "won" an advent 300 receiver on E Beast.
Is my Dayton DA100 Class D amp better than what's in the advent? Should I use it as a VERY good preamp? (No vinyl).
It's said to work. Should I recap now or wait for symptoms/failure? David Reaton swaps these out for a redone one but it's $300.

 

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RE: advent 300, posted on April 13, 2014 at 09:35:53
fstein
Audiophile

Posts: 2996
Location: fstein
Joined: May 18, 2006
 Speakers are Klipsch Cornwall 2's so power is not an issue

 

RE: advent 300, posted on April 13, 2014 at 14:22:12
Awe-d-o-file
Dealer

Posts: 21037
Location: 50 miles west of DC
Joined: January 10, 2004
 It's strong point is the Holman designed phono stage, so............


ET
ET

"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard 1936

 

RE: advent 300, posted on April 13, 2014 at 17:24:10
BCR
Audiophile

Posts: 2446
Location: connecticut
Joined: April 7, 2009
 Why don't you wait til you hook it up before you do anything? It just might not need anything done to it! "Don't put the cart before the horse."

 

RE: advent 300, posted on April 13, 2014 at 17:26:20
Bill Way
Audiophile

Posts: 1884
Location: Toms River NJ
Joined: May 28, 2012
Contributor
  Since: December 14, 2012
 Re-capping the 300 is extremely easy. Once you have the caps on hand it takes 20 mins or less, and everything is very easy to get to. Someone sells a cheap little kit for this, with instructions.

As Awed mentions, the phono section is the star of the show, but the line stage is quite clean. I suspect the crummy RCAs may be a limiting factor, but I never tried swapping them out, so that's just a guess.

The tuner is Henry's classic, with pretty good RF characteristics, but not great sound. Still, it's listenable.

The power amp section, at least in the units I've had, was pretty dismal - somewhat gritty and transistor-y, though the bass response was really outstanding, clean, and nicely defined. Of course that made it possible to demo it with the Advent speakers, which masked some of the transistoritis and showcased the bottom end, which worked if the room was small enough.

It was a classic.

WW
"Put on your high heeled sneakers. Baby, we''re goin'' out tonight.

 

RE: advent 300, posted on April 14, 2014 at 06:32:49
Brian Levy
Audiophile

Posts: 2438
Location: Toronto
Joined: June 5, 2000
 Funny, I have never been impressed with the 300 and agree with your evaluation. His KLH 27 was designed and built with almost a no holds barred attitude not showing any cost cutting of compromise in design or execution. I found the phono preamp as good as the 300's and the tuner far more sensitive and less fatiguing. Pick it up and then a 300 and just feel the difference in weight. The biggest advantage of the 300 is the preamp outputs so it can be used as tuner/preamp with a better power amp.

Admittedly, recapping a 27 vs a 300 is like pulling down a jet engine vs the engine of a rubber band model plane.

I am not knocking the 300 but, just do not see the reason for the almost cult worship except it was a Kloss stabled product.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada

 

RE: advent 300, posted on April 14, 2014 at 09:25:40
Crazy Dave
Audiophile

Posts: 14371
Location: East Coast
Joined: October 4, 2001
 I heard a 300 driving the ill-fated bi-amped Advents when they were new and was bowled over by the combination. When the bi-amped Advents worked, this combination was quite impressive. It is good to know that it is easy to recap. This is one of the pieces that is on my wish list, but the only ones I've seen were too expensive.


Dave

 

RE: the Advent 27, posted on April 14, 2014 at 12:26:03
Bill Way
Audiophile

Posts: 1884
Location: Toms River NJ
Joined: May 28, 2012
Contributor
  Since: December 14, 2012
 One of the coolest looking pieces of gear ever, especially as a built-in. And it sounded good. I got a couple of them for almost nothing, intending to rebuild/recap one. Opened it up, realized how tightly packed everything was in there, and went to Plan B: use #1 until it dies, then use #2 until *it* dies. Of course #1 worked for years, and I gave them both away when I moved back to an apartment.

WW
"Put on your high heeled sneakers. Baby, we''re goin'' out tonight.

 

RE: advent 300, posted on April 15, 2014 at 10:06:26
BigguyinATL
Manufacturer

Posts: 3475
Joined: April 10, 2002
 I've owned a few of these - and my son has one of them in his Dorm room now.
Phono is OK - it was really over Hyped. My Kenwood KA7300 integrated actually sounded better. I think the AMP is the best part - the tuner drifts a bit. It seem to outperform its 15Watt rating. I used it primarily for driving rear speakers with a Advent 500 time delay linked between amp and preamp - both at huge Dynaco 400 and a Carver M400 "Cube" served as 1980 power amps to Shahinian Obelisks in that early system I owned.
"The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat" - Confucius

 

RE: advent 300, posted on April 15, 2014 at 10:11:14
craigh
Audiophile

Posts: 47
Location: Maryland
Joined: January 2, 2013
 I had one for years mostly used as a preamp/tuner. Really good phono section. I was never happy with the tuner, it always drifted & I was listening to stations with a strong signal.

Craig

 

RE: advent 300, posted on April 16, 2014 at 10:05:26
4season
 I had one of those things and liked it lots. As a preamp, it can be hit-or-miss, because it's output impedance is pretty high, and won't properly drive all power amp inputs, but if you've got a combo that works, enjoy! It otherwise seems to measure pretty good.

GREAT tone controls, BTW. Just the lightest touch seemed all that I ever needed.

I'd be a little bit careful with those preamp outputs: Try not to static-zap them because there's a couple of FETs right at the outputs which can get damaged. (Anyone need replacement FETs, PM me).

I don't wait for capacitors to fail, because sometimes they take other devices with them, and then you've got the unenviable task of finding suitable replacements for obsolete semiconductors. Pretty easy to service this unit, because with top and bottom covers removed, you've got good access to the circuit boards.

For those using the phono stage: There's a couple of 1 microfarad 50V electrolytic coupling capacitors there. I replaced with polypropylene film capacitors and thought that was a very worthwhile upgrade. Also replaced the small-value mylar capacitors which form the RIAA EQ circuit, but you really want a capacitance meter w/picofarad range to match parts within 1% or so.

 

RE: the Advent 27, posted on April 16, 2014 at 16:25:47
Brian Levy
Audiophile

Posts: 2438
Location: Toronto
Joined: June 5, 2000
 It is on my short list as I thin out my equipment in anticipation of going from a decent sized house to either a smaller or an apartment. Being a small chassis and better than the Sony STR6045 its only competitive receiver in my stack is the PHILIPS 785 but as that is larger I do not think it will make the cut.

The 27 is really packed, the opposite of the 300 and I suspect working on it without a service manual or not experienced in repairing them could be a nightmare but, IMHO it is such a great little receiver it is well worth having it worked on by a well versed professional tech as I did with mine.

I do need a metal insert for one knob and there is some bubbling under the faceplate finish but, since I have owned it it has not gotten worse.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada

 

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