Avalon vs Kharma

both are great speakers. one significant difference is that the Kharmas are generally easier to drive......and 50 to 100 tube watts are plenty for them in medium sized rooms......whereas, the Avalons typically like at least 150+ watts or more.

i own the Kharma Exquisite 1D's and do prefer the Kharma's in general to the Avalons.....but i like the Avalons. the Kharmas to me are slightly more refined and coherent (but the Avalons can be pretty good in this area too).

the Avalons may be a little more 'punchy'.....meaning slightly more slam and bass energy.....although i overall prefer the bass articulation and accuracy of the Kharma.

system and amp matching would be a big part of the answer to your question.

good luck.

the Wilson is slightly less coherent than the Kharma.....and is not really friendly to middle power range tube amplification (under 150 watts). the Kharma's mid bass is more integrated and articulate. the Wilson is more dynamic and punchy (even more so than the Avalon). the WP7 is fairly tame in the treble (unlike the WP6 which i owned) and doesn't tend toward edgyness like the WP6. the WP7's are much more 'like' the Kharma than the WP6's were.

ultimately the Kharma will challenge your ability to hear the drivers......it will completely disappear like a small monitor.....but you won't get that 1/2 bottom octave with the 3.2's.

neither the Avalon or Wilson can quite pull off the disappearing act. you will be more aware that you are listening to a speaker (for all the right and wrong reasons....you will enjoy the parts of what those speakers can do).....is that important to you? it is ALL important to me that i listening to the event and not speakers. this difference is subtle but significant. i don't mean to infer that the Avalon or Wilson are not coherent.....just coherence is the Kharma's biggest strength and it is amazing to live with and spend extended listening sessions with.

the bigger Kharmas have plenty of bass extention but also disappear unlike any dynamic full range speaker i have heard (especially one that weighs 565 pounds).