[pihkalexplosion]

I recieved an Advent 300 from ebay which stated that it worked fine, but when I put in the headphones in the jack it is extremely noisy. It is a constant buzzing sound with a little static in the background. This is when no signal is being sent from it.
Does anyone have experiences with Advents, and if so did I get a dud?

Thank You.

 

[guzziguy]

The Advent 300 was a nice budget receiver in the mid 1970s. It had a very good phono section. However, it's build quality was not very good. The headphone out should not be buzzy. Probably you have a worn out example. I would think that pretty much all of them are worn out now. I know of nobody who restores them. Sorry.

-ken

 

[SteveA]

Hi!

I used to use my Advent 300 to drive both Stax SR44 electrets (from the speaker outputs) and Grado SR80 dynamic headphones. No problem driving either but it did a better job with the Stax. On the Grados, there was a low level 60 Hz hum always present which tended to get a little tiresome after a while. I replaced the Advent with a MAD Ear+ to work with my dynamic cans, shelved the Stax, and never looked back.

There is some helpful information on http://home.netcarrier.com/~rstevens/advent.html

Good luck and very best regards,
Steve

 

[mkmelt]

The Advent 300 receiver had a very good FM stereo tuner, a well regarded headphone output, and an excellent phono stage preamplifier similar to the circuit used in the Apt Holman preamplifier. As you've discovered, the downside of the Advent 300 was in the quality of the parts. That combined with the age of this unit (makes me feel old, I remember when these were being sold along with one or two pair of the Powered Advent Loudspeaker as an alternative to the high powered receivers of the late 1970s), means you will likely need to repair the receiver to restore it to close to original specifications.

The buzz you are hearing is undoubtedly from AC voltage leakage where a capacitor is failing. If you have the skill and patience it is possible to replace the many small electrolytic capacitors used in this component. The static could just be some dirty contacts and switches. To give you an idea of what would be entailed, here is a useful link.

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

 

[pihkalexplosion]

Can't I just change the main capacitor to fix the problem. Thank You.

 

[pihkalexplosion]

I found out some important things about the advent. Can anyone guide me to the problem? When I use the Advent 300 as a preamp the buzzing sound goes away. I send the preamp out on the advent 300 to another reciever and play it through that way. It works fine. But when I listen to the headphone amp it buzzes a lot. So, would replacaing all the capacitors fix the problem? This is the email from my ebay seller about the advent 300.

Email: "OK so you say there is a hum from both the headphones and
speakers........when I was using this unit I didn't experience a hum. I
have tried both the headphones and the speakers as well. If there was a hum present at that time it would have been one of those barely audible
things. I don't get that impression from your description. To be honest when I was testing the unit however I was also using an external amplifier and not the small built in unit. (why I tested it this way I don't know) This would lead me to believe that there is either an issue with the amplifier section if you are not using an external amp. It may also be possible that there is a ground fault of some sort or that the hum may be being introduced from your source component. These things being said; if you do have an amplifier that you can hook up to this unit try that and see what happens. Also if you have different sources (cd's, tape decks, mini-discs, etc) try a different one and see what that does also.

I know when I was using this unit (again with the external amp) at
times it didn't seem to want to work at all once! Then I discovered it was how I had it hooked up. Once I corrected that all was fine. I'm not saying you're to blame, I'm just saying that it may be something one or both of us are overlooking."

Thank You for all your help.

 

[mkmelt]

Good, you have determined that the source of the buzzing noise is not in the preamplifier stage nor is it in the power supply. There are one or more faulty components, probably capacitors, in the power amplifier section of the receiver that are the source of the buzzing. A good repair shop should be able to locate the source of the problem and replace these parts in about an hour or so. That is not to say that there are not other components that are failing and undoubtedly will fail in the future.

If you don't have someone you trust who can perform this repair for you, locate an electronics repair shop in your area or consider shipping the unit to David R. He offers an Advent Model 300 receiver swapping service and in exchange for your 300 unit and some cash he will send you a working one that comes with a 30 day guarantee. This might be worth considering.

http://www.davidreaton.com/300_Repairs.htm