Pulled out some old old self powered speakers

[vargis14]

Hiya Guys and gals,

Since i just picked up a new desk,keyboard and mouse,i was gaming on the edge of my bed on a huge 55" plasma.
Well i still need a comfortable set of headphones so i started rooting through my hardware i had lying around and found these Advent AV570 70-Watt 2-Way Powered Multimedia Speaker System.They weight a good 10lbs each i remember picking them up in the 90S probably around 1995.
OMG do they sound good,i have them hooked up to my onboard Audio Chipset Realtek ALC889 with dolby home theater certification and 108db output,up until this point i have been using the speakers in my tv over the hdmi cable that i thought sounded pretty good for tv speakers on my 55"vt30 panasonic plasma.
Any body who had these speakers and can let me know about the quality of them.I dont know whats making these speakers sound so good for just being stereo with no sub and self powered on top of that,is my onboard audio that good,is it the speakers or mt conclusion a combination of the 2.
Still in awe how well they sound with music and movies and they are only 2.5 feet from each other and the stereo is so wide,now to try some gaming with BF2BC and some BF3 LFD2 and aliens vs predator.
Thanks for any input.

[sluggo]

When you bought these Advent was part of Jensen International, which also owned brands like AR, NHT, and some other good mid-fi brands. They had very good sourcing in the far east and good brand value. These were, at the time, probably the best consumer-grade powered speakers on the market. They sound good not in spite of being self-powered, but because they are self-powered. When you design an amplifier for a known loudspeaker (as opposed to "an 8-Ohm load"), you can do a lot of optimizations and produce a very good sound sounding system. Connect those drivers to a basic, standard amp with flat response and they probably wouldn't sound as good as they do with their own amp.

[ludi]

When you design an amplifier for a known loudspeaker (as opposed to "an 8-Ohm load"), you can do a lot of optimizations and produce a very good sound sounding system. Connect those drivers to a basic, standard amp with flat response and they probably wouldn't sound as good as they do with their own amp.

I'm not aware of optimizations that could or would have been done in the amplifier, although the system certainly could be using a profiled equalizer curve in the preamp stage. The performance is probably best summarized by the quality of the materials and design. These were something special when new, and if taken care of, should still perform very well now.

[vargis14]

Thank for the information,after some more testing movies are amazing sounding where ever the sound is on the 37"screen its right where is supposed to be in my ear. I can honestly say they sound better then any headset i have ever worn and a heck of a lot more comfortable.
Music is also great.They are very loud also,without distortion unless you overdue the bass,luckily beside having a digital equalizer on the motherboard for fine tuning,Each speaker has its own volume,bass,treble and its own power cord.That makes for some great fine tuning during playback without having to pull up the EQ.
Now as for gaming i only tried BF3 played a few rounds,they sound good but i had them a bit too loud at first drowning out that directional sound you need in a FPS.Once i turned the volume down it was much easier to tell where noises where coming from but i think a headset is better for BF3 for now,since i didnt look at my sound settings in bf3 now that i think about it.
I remember retiring these speakers for a klipsch 5.1 system with the speakers that looked like passenger plane jet engines,way back when the original audigy soundcard came out.The only thing left from that klipsch system is the subwoofer that i have hooked up to my tv for some decent bass but not overkill.
Luckily i never beat the heck out of them only thing i had to fix was a loose speaker grill that vibrated something fierce during low bass tones.
Glade imm slightly a hoarder i also have a set of bose 6.2 bookself speakers from 1984 hooked to a kenwood amp from 1986 in 3 way stereo mode with just a center speaker for the living room tv.

[sluggo]

When you design an amplifier for a known loudspeaker (as opposed to "an 8-Ohm load"), you can do a lot of optimizations and produce a very good sound sounding system. Connect those drivers to a basic, standard amp with flat response and they probably wouldn't sound as good as they do with their own amp.

I'm not aware of optimizations that could or would have been done in the amplifier, although the system certainly could be using a profiled equalizer curve in the preamp stage. The performance is probably best summarized by the quality of the materials and design. These were something special when new, and if taken care of, should still perform very well now.

Well, okay, I was referring to "the amplifier" as the electronics block, as distinguished from the speakers. But yes, most of the equalization takes place in the line stage. There are optimizations you can make in the power stage, though. Bi-amping and impedance contouring spring to mind.

[Captain Ned]

Bi-amping and impedance contouring spring to mind.

With reciprocal impedance contour matching being the most important depending on the output impedance of the amplifier.

For those wondering what arcana we're discussing: Back in the days of tube amplifiers and speakers whose measured impedance (those pesky Ohms) changed drastically with frequency, the frequency/impedance curve of the speaker could actually be impressed on the amplifier's output, thus changing the amp's output depending on frequency. Solid state amps and better crossovers largely cured this problem, but for some reason the speakers audiophilia nervosa sufferers plotz over have scary frequency/impedance curves and the hard core still loves the fire bottles.

[MadManOriginal]

When you design an amplifier for a known loudspeaker (as opposed to "an 8-Ohm load"), you can do a lot of optimizations and produce a very good sound sounding system. Connect those drivers to a basic, standard amp with flat response and they probably wouldn't sound as good as they do with their own amp.

I'm not aware of optimizations that could or would have been done in the amplifier, although the system certainly could be using a profiled equalizer curve in the preamp stage. The performance is probably best summarized by the quality of the materials and design. These were something special when new, and if taken care of, should still perform very well now.

Well, okay, I was referring to "the amplifier" as the electronics block, as distinguished from the speakers. But yes, most of the equalization takes place in the line stage. There are optimizations you can make in the power stage, though. Bi-amping and impedance contouring spring to mind.

These speakers are bi-amped internally. They also aren't tiny (5" woofer) or try to compensate for small satellites with a boomy one-note sub or a ported enclosure. They were marketed toward use as portable monitoring speakers for musicians and can be battery-powered.

I bet they are pretty good, and were not cheap when new.

[ludi]

For those wondering what arcana we're discussing: Back in the days of tube amplifiers and speakers whose measured impedance (those pesky Ohms) changed drastically with frequency, the frequency/impedance curve of the speaker could actually be impressed on the amplifier's output, thus changing the amp's output depending on frequency. Solid state amps and better crossovers largely cured this problem, but for some reason the speakers audiophilia nervosa sufferers plotz over have scary frequency/impedance curves and the hard core still loves the fire bottles.

Yeah, with a tube amp topology I can see where it would be more practical. Solid state, not so much -- if a speaker driver has a profile that bad, it usually makes more sense to find a better driver or, at most, add a tuned crossover network that flattens the load impedance, than to come up with some convoluted amplifier design.

[vargis14]

These speakers are bi-amped internally. They also aren't tiny (5" woofer) or try to compensate for small satellites with a boomy one-note sub or a ported enclosure. They were marketed toward use as portable monitoring speakers for musicians and can be battery-powered.

I think i spent about 100$-125$ each for them way back when,i dont think they came as a set.But i do recall them being shielded so the magnets would not screw up my 21 inch crt IBM cream colored monitor back in the day.Then i spent a bundle on a new monitor a 22 inch superflat mitsubishi superbright,black in color....still have it i retired it when i picked up a 24 inch 1920-1200 lcd from dell that cost $1000 when they 1st came out.I also remember a couple weeks after purchasing that lcd they had a coupon special for 750$ that customer service would not refund me or even give me credit for.But i did not go nuts since i loved that lcd so much.wonder if it was a ips panel or Tn way back in and around year 2002

Now looking at the back of them,besides the 120volt power cord,that is detachable just like a computer printer cord or A/V power cord.They also have a 14 volt input one of the round power plugs that would have a power brick that would down volt to 14 volts.
What a strange amount of voltage i would think 12 or 24 perhaps even 9 but 14volts,kinda weird.I fix cars for a living and they only get near13.5-13.9 volts idling,sometimes 14 volts,usually if your car is charging over 14 volts at idle its overcharging and your battery will not last long.

One more thing i wonder if adding a port to them would increase bass output,wonder if they did not have a port on them since they where portable and they did not want anything falling into the port hole and causing a short? I might pop one open and take a look at the guts of these speakers,one of them is a tiny bit quieter then the other in the midrange area.plus i wonder if i can find new 5 inch speakers of the same or better quality and try swapping them out they look to be paper cones,Ahh i better leave well enough alone they already sound good,probably not a good idea to change anything unless they start breaking up or something.

Here is a link to amazon reviews http://www.amazon.com/AV570-70-Watt-Pow ... ewpoints=0 i really bought some jems here after reading every review imm not messing with them unless i just change the 5 inch speaker when the time comes for them to be changed....It goes back to that old saying if it aint broke dont fix it.

[Forge]

wonder if it was a ips panel or Tn way back in and around year 2002

I can pretty much guarantee that 1K$ monitors in 2002 were IPS. Not IPS as we have now, though.

One more thing i wonder if adding a port to them would increase bass output

At the cost of all other sound quality, maybe. Those speakers are designed to be sealed or ported as they are. Changing that changes the acoustic qualities of the enclosure in multiple ways, ports aren't just magic holes to let the bass out.

Ahh i better leave well enough alone they already sound good,probably not a good idea to change anything unless they start breaking up or something.

With speakers in particular, that's probably quite wise. Generally mid to high end stuff is well-engineered, by guys who have forgotten more about sound mechanics and how to achieve quality than you or I will ever know.