Building a system around the Avanti 3's, need help

Hi Jbo: which Avanti, what kind of music do you MAINLY listen to & judge by, yr tastes in reproduction? This info would help us give meaningful recommendations.
I had Avanti @ home & have heard & set up a few other pairs at friends' & dealers'

I listen to everything really (except rap and country). I mostly listen to jazz, classical and classic rock. I should also say that I am not married to tubes or solid state exclusively. I am open to any suggestions.

I owned avanti's for a few years. In general, they do not need much power & they favor high quality components and revealing cabling.

Off the top of my head, the best combination I can think of would be:
Audio Aero 24/192 cd player direct driving an ARC v100m2 tube amplifier with svetlana kt88 tubes. Use a nordost quattro-fil ic to connect them & use nordost spm speaker cables.

I think the best solid state for them is pass labs. I used mine with the aleph 2 100w monblocks & aleph P preamp. I later moved up to an X1 preamp. I haven't heard the x series amplifiers yet.

For tube electronics, I had two favorites:
(1) The BAT vk-5i (or vk50se), and an arc vt100
(2) A 15 watt Cary 300 SEI with Western electrics.

For cabling, I found Nordost quattro-fil was my favorite for ic's with SPM speaker cables. I also had good sound using the acoustic zen satori speaker cable. It's a little slow and syrupy compared to spm, but has more harmonics and can tame a bright top end.

John,
Did you own the avanti 3's, or the older avanti's?

The avanti-centuries. See www.soundstage.com. These were known to image a little better than the 3's, but didn't have as much bass. This is what immedia told me. I haven't heard the 3 in person.

Great speakers & a great value. I felt the avanti's could compete with quite a few of the 20-40K speakers I've heard. Not as powerful, but better imaging and low level detail.

John gives good advice. Having lived with Avanti & heard & helped set up quite a few, I'll try to set some ground rules & maybe also explain where John 1 is coming from.
General comments: FAST speakers; easy to make them chirp, but TRICKY to get the last ounce out of them. The tweeter will NOT tame (roll off, etc) any harshness that's fed to it; the lower mids need current to emerge. Generally it's a VERY precise speaker. IMO, it's a phase & pitch correct speaker -- and driven correctly it WILL offer seamless, fast sound (good for jazz, that!). For these reasons,

*highly resolving AND musically inclined electronics (as per John1) are necessary.
*Fast & "neutral" (well, as far as we can get that) cables are necessary.
*So, electronics & cables are VERY important. I'd go there first. Then,
*finances permitting, top-notch source components: if not, you'll hear it (but maybe you can live w/ it for some time?).
On digital source, I'll just add that a Capitole II or similar level of performance is what you're looking at.

Using both TT & digital, the following components sounded good (this is MY experience, of course not the absolute list!)

Cables: spm ref, valhalla, bearlabs cables on speakers. Bearlabs, valhalla, purist dominus (very expensive), for IC. I found that Nordost 4fil, a good performer, was bettered by the above IC's.

Electronics: my experience with 3's & tubes is limited, so refer to John, above. I did try and enjoy:
*KR Antares (tube) driven directly, and with a CAT ultimate. *Pathos monos (hybrid) with their own pre. For tube, you might add John 1's ARC (his being the better sounding, older model).

*CAT Ult pre/Symphonic Line pre + Symphonic Line rg4 monos: probably the FASTEST system I have ever listened to.
*YBA passion pre + passion stereo (not far from the old Aleph sound -- s/what fuller & faster. The new YBA pre is better than the old aleph).
*CAT Ult. pre/Symphonic Line RG3+full PS pre + Symphonic Line Kraft 250 classA amp, both stereo & mono versions. The mono's are overkill.

Overall:
The Kraft stereo/CAT combo gave the absolutely BEST sound for active line, followed closely by the YBA combo. On phono, the RG3/Kraft combo gave the best sound, again followed VERY closely by YBA.
The Symphonic Line RG4 monos combo follows. VEry good with rock & jazz

Please note that I judge by classical when evaluating equip. So my opinion is... tainted AND limited by the few amps I've tried on Avanti 3's.

I agree with Gregm's comments about the Avanti's. I have a pair of Avanti III's matched with a Berning ZH270 amplifier with cryo'd nos tubes. The Berning is a kind of OTL design (no transformer) and is very fast with great bass, wonderful midrange, and clean highs. It is really a terrific combination, and I think the Berning deserves to be on your short list if amps. I think someone on audiogon has paired the Tenor 75 amps with the Avanti, and I'll bet that is spectacularly good - the Tenor's are the best amps I have ever heard. My personal opinion is that it is critical to get the amp-speaker combination right first, then build the front end components, then the cabling etc. By the way, I am not using a preamp, because the Berning has an a/b selector switch and a volume control. If you have only two sources, this is great way to go. If you need remote volume control, Placette makes a passive volume control that is completely transparent.

One interesting thing I have noticed about my setup is that I get really good, clean bass from the Avanti's. One factor may be that I have them on a hardwood floor, and they have a down firing bass port on the bottom of the speakers.

Good luck on your quest. Let us know what you end up with and how it sounds.