Hi Ian. First I'd like to say how amazed I am that you respond to these questions--and that you respond so quickly! That sort of dedication to customers definitely does not go unnoticed. I really appreciate it.
Now for the question--and I apologize if this is a stupid question.

Right now I have a 55 wpc receiver, and the only speakers I've heard on it are the old Large Advents (from the late 70's) that I'm borrowing. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the speakers, but I'm not sure what their sensitivity rating is and I was wondering if the M3's, at 93 db sensitivity, will put out more sound than the Advents--because I'd like them to put out just a *little* more sound than the Advents at equal volume settings on the receiver.

I realize the comparison is a little silly because the Advents are floorstanding and go down to almost 30hz, but it's the only point of comparison I have for my receiver. Any information you could give me on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

-Tim

Hi Tim,
I am very familiar with both of those.
The larger Advent is a classic, a best seller in it's time. Served me faithfully back in then, cranked to the limit while I jammed along on bass guitar. Eventually the woofer surround rotted away though and they went out for the garbage one night but someone scooped them overnight before the collection came. Kind of made feel good that they maybe were going to be used again :)
The M3Ti won't reach down as deep due to the physical size difference but will have much more extension in the high frequencies with tremendous more openess.
I am not positive of the spec on the Advent but I think they started to roll off around 12kHz in the top end. They were relatively innefficeint too, about 86dB if memory serves (I think they used to have a white label on the back at the binding posts that showed some specs and a curve measuring something).
I'm positive that you will not have to turn the volume up nearly as much with the Axioms to hit the same volume levels.
Also, technology has changed greatly since then so you will hear much more detail and a lot less colouration. Granted the bass won't be as deep but it will be a lot clearer and faster with a lot lower distortion.
Hope you find that helpful.
Marc

We will have to dig deep into the memory banks for this one. I believe the Advents back then were acoustic suspension which tends to keep sensitivity low. The M3 has a very good sensitivity for a bookshelf speaker so you should end up with least the same if not higher sensitivity from the M3s.

Ian Colquhoun
President & Chief Engineer

Thanks a lot guys! That's just what I wanted to hear.

I agree with Marc, the Advents were a great speaker in their day, but they were very inefficient. I now own some M3s (bought from Marc) and they are much more efficient. To get the same bass response you can always add a subwoofer.

If you are still using the Advents for a while, there is a switch on the back that should be in the extended position. Do that and take off the grills and the sound is much more open.

Tim