Starter Speakers

For decent sound below $100, nothing beats Vintage-Fi
I found my Large Advent speakers for $60 on craigslist. They sound great with my Tripath-amp

Paradigm Atoms! You should be able to find a used pair under $100. The Atoms are regularly compared with monitors that cost several times as much. It's got a warm but robust sound. Efficient so will work fine with the T-Amp.

It's hard to find speakers for under $100 that are good. Decent bookshelves seem to start at $200+ The only new "audiophile" brand speaker I've heard about in the $100 range was some DCMs on sale. I don't know if they are any good - never heard them. It's a good old audiophile name, but I think the company was recently bought by someone else.

Circuit city sells some ultra-cheap Dual speakers from time to time in the $25 range (per pair). I heard Dual's outdoor speakers hooked up to a T-Amp, and it was listenable. I suspect their $25 bookshelfs are even a little better. They are not going challenge Wilson Grand Slams (or B&W 800ds, whatever is your high-end fantasy) at that price, but it might be something to play with until you have the money for a good set. Unfortunately, the price has been $39 recently. I think I might buy a set for $25 when they next go on sale - just to play with. You might be able to improve the sound by adding a cross over (I think they just wire the drivers together in the box).

If anyone else comes up with a better $100 speaker, I'd like to hear about it.

MichaelConner: Large Advents - we're talking 25 year old speakers (I had them 25 years ago). Advent sold a receiver, the Model 300, way back then to power those speakers. 15 watts per channel - same rating as the T-Amp. I don't know what it "really" put out. I still have the amp (although it sounds really bad now -very noisy). It had a great tuner - the precursor to the one in the Tivoli radio, and a great phono preamp - something I no longer have use for. So, although those speakers were failry large and not very efficient (acoustic suspension), I'm not surprised to hear that they will run with a t-amp. Did you have to rebuild the surrounds?

Someone who is handy with a soldering iron could probably replace the amp in the avernt receiver with a T-amp and really impress people with the sound of the old machine! The pots are noisy as hell, and channels cut out (I used it for a few days while waiting for my first T-Amp to arrive). But it was a cool little box. Here's a picture:

http://home.netcarrier.com/~rstevens/advent.html


I would love to hear those old large advents with a t-amp. I only have a faint memory of the sound all those years ago. I remember them being warm but not very detailed. Of course, it could have been my electronics or source back then.

I love to hear about people keeping old audio equipment alive. Maybe it's because I am getting old too I have a pair of B&W 801 series 80s that I bought used about 8 years ago. They are 20 years old, or so. With good electronics, they sound fantastic. I'm sure the new ones are better, but it still sounds great, and there is some pleasure in knowing that an old piece of audio history is still alive and giving pleasure. Unfortunately, the T-Amp will not power the 801s. I have a 300 watt dual mono Adcom beast for that job. But I have no doubt that the T-Amp is better sounding.

I'd love to hear a review of the T-Amp/Advent sound.

Cool beans. I'm pretty new to loudspeakers, so I don't have enough experience to make a non-bias review, but I am sure that they sound great to my ears. Perhaps the warm/undetailed Advents are neutralized by the forward/detailed tripath? I just decided on them after seeing all the love they get at AudioKharma.com.

When I picked them up, they were in wonderful condition, but after a few minutes of use, the surrounds totally gave out(I hear the original foam usually rotted out after 10-15 years). I bought new surrounds from partsexpress and had some fun doing my first refoam. Afterwards, they sounded magnificant.

Funny you should mention the Advent300. I just saw one on craigslist today, but for $70, I figured I could just buy two more Amp3's.

That's interesting Advent's original receiver was only 15 amps. I was a little concerned about the Advents' inefficiency, considering the tripath's low power, but I've found that even 2/3's volume is loud enough to be uncomfortable. Perhaps I've unwittingly stumbled on a good match of hardware.

The sound of the model 300 receiver, at its best, was not in the T-Amp's league. It would only be worth fooling with for the FM receiver and the phono pre-amp. For the FM, it would probably be better to buy the Tivoli Audio radio. It has a similar high-quality FM circuitry, but updated significantly.

I've never done a woofer refoaming. Was it difficult? I have some old speakers around here (in addition to the B&W 801s, I have an old pair of inexpensive Kef Chorale III bookshelfs, which sound absolutely terrific with a T-Amp). So far, the woofers are holding up fine. But I know the Advents deteriorated. They have great cabinets and good components, so I'll bet it sounds good with the T-Amp. Sounds like a smart move. Anyway, enjoy them. That's the fun of audio.

It is becoming hard to find acoustic suspension speakers today. Everyone is porting speakers to get better base extension. But I like the sound of acoustic suspension speakers. Ported speakers - at least lower-end ones - tend to sound boomy to my ears. I was looking at the prices of new tweeters and woofers for your advents - man, they are expensive. They must have been pretty good quality.

I should mention (back on topic) that the Bic Venturi bookshelfs are available at amazon for $120 shipped. I can't find much objective information about how they sound. The Amazon reviews are quite good. That might be something to consider in the $100 price range.

Refoaming was pretty easy, just took a little patience.

These guides all pretty much show the same process:
http://www.simplyspeakers.com/speake...structions.htm
http://www.citlink.net/~msound/refoam/
http://www.wooferrepair.com/Woofer_Repair_Stream_2.wmv
http://www.partsexpress.com/tech/260-915.html

Back on topic...

Three popular high-effeciency low-cost T-amp-friendly bookshelf speakers include:
Athena AS-B1
Paradigm Atom
Infinity Primus 150

These are the cheapest speakers that get recurring praise around here. I personally can't speak for their sound, but there are lots of reviews out there if you Google them.

Nobody tried the Polk R15's for less than $100 pr?
For a starter set, they look fine.

i've got them. they're mediocre. if possible go paradigm. but they do sound OK. i wouldn't pay $100 though. outpost.com keeps having them for $40 + shipping, which comes out to nearly $60

The stock T-amp's bass dropoff is the issue addressed in most mods. This diagram shows a popular way to remedy the bass problem.



To get more info, surf around here.