Advent Large Advent (Original) — Spin Cycle

In 1970, Henry Kloss did something radical. He took the acoustic suspension woofer he’d pioneered at AR, scaled it up, and put it in a box that cost half as much as the competition. The result was the Large Advent—a speaker that didn’t just sound good for the money. It sounded good, period.

Wife Acceptance Factor

He Says

"Honey, these are the Large Advent speakers—the ones that literally changed how affordable speakers sound. They’re classics, and I can get a pair for $200. That’s basically the price of dinner out. And they’ll last another forty years after I refoam the drivers. We’ll be listening to these when we retire."

She Says

"They’re the size of small refrigerators. Where are you going to put them? And you said *refoam*—so they’re broken. We don’t need more broken things in the basement. Also, the dog will knock them over. They look like brown cardboard boxes that somebody left in an alley."

The Ruling

SHE SAID MAYBE

Maybe. Go explore some new music on Amazon Music while I decide.

The Large Advent (often called the “Original Large Advent” to distinguish it from the later “New” version) was a two-way, acoustic suspension design. The woofer is a 10-inch driver with a long-throw voice coil and a foam surround. The tweeter is a 1-inch soft dome. The crossover is simple—first-order, 12 dB/octave at 1,500 Hz. No gimmicks. Just physics and good taste.

What does it sound like? Big. Warm. Unfussy. The bass is deep, articulate, and shockingly well-controlled for a sealed box from 1970. The midrange is lush and present without being shouty. The treble is rolled-off compared to modern speakers—you won’t hear every cymbal shimmer, but you’ll never feel fatigued either. These are speakers that make you listen to music, not to the speakers. Put on a voice—Frank Sinatra, Sam Cooke, Joni Mitchell—and you’ll understand why people still hunt for the originals.

What makes them special is their balance of affordability and ambition. Kloss wasn’t trying to build the best speaker in the world. He was trying to build the best speaker for the money. And he succeeded. The Large Advent set the template for the “budget high-end” loudspeaker that companies like NHT and PSB would later refine. Without these, the idea that a normal person could own truly accurate speakers might never have taken hold.

They’re also overlooked because they’re ugly. The walnut veneer is fine, but the boxes are plain—no bevels, no fabric grilles that don’t look like they belong in a church basement. They’re heavy, too: about 50 pounds each. And the foam surrounds will rot. They always do. If you buy a pair, plan on refoaming (or buying already-refoamed pairs). It’s not hard, but it’s inevitable.

Still, once you’ve heard them, you forgive the looks. You forgive the weight. You forgive the foam. The Large Advent is a landmark, and for $150–300 on the used market, it’s one of the best entry points into vintage audio. Just make sure your amplifier can handle a 6-ohm load and has at least 40 clean watts. These like power.

The record drops. Let the bass hit.