dyer@wivax.UUCP (07/01/83)
Before anyone says a good word about Peter Sprague, let it be known that he was in large part responsible for the demise of Advent. In a short-sighted move to New Hampshire for supposed economies, Advent lost all its skilled labor force in Cambridge. In addition, his attempts to grow even larger proved ill-timed: the stereo market was beginning its collapse, and the enormous costs of moving the entire facility to New Hampshire finally overwhelmed the company, causing them to go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. If I'm correct, Advent was subsequently purhased by Esmark, a big conglomerate which also owns Jensen Audio. The name may be the same, but the people behind it aren't. Meanwhile, Henry Kloss is happily making loads of money as president of Kloss Home Video, another Cambridge-based company, just blocks away from the original homes of AR, KLH and Advent. His "Novabeam" video projection systems are universally regarded as the state-of-the-consumer-art. He's more successful than Advent, because he's learned from his mistakes, concentrated only on one market, and produced a very good product for that market.