Avante Garde horn speakers.....

I had the Duo's at my house for 3-4 months running all Audio Note gear and I thought they were pretty damn good. Woofer were sub par. Would have purchased them except really couldn't live with their aesthetics in my living room. Candy Apple Red horns were to much of a statement for me, but still attractive to others. Also, a close friend has the trios (that red color) and they are even better sounding. BTW, Trios look better if you have the room. He has an incrediable Audio Note Japan system the exceptions are Sony SACD,Aesthetix Io {yes I am guilty} and a very dumb 24" hartley built in to house that he loves. The system sound really good. Transparency, tonality and dynamics that shine on orchestrial, chamber, Opera and jazz. I have never heard Rock or Movie scores on this system so I can't speak about insane loudness levels and movie sound effects dynamics. The hartly is barely on and crossed over about 60 cycles but sounds a little one note to me. Going back to the Trios, I was impressed well each voice or instrument sounds so natural with that phoney detail that etchy speakers. These horns are not etchy, They are natural and with all those AN SEs amps, Aesthetics, Koetsus, etc this is a sweet system. Hard to fault these horns. Some of the critical posts are overly emphizing the weak points of these fine speakers, and Cornfedboy, the Avante Gardes have had USA distributors problems that caused lack of dealers. Hopefully, that is behind AG now. They sell very well in Europe and are in many of the High end shops.

7p62mm, I don't believe there is an Avantgarde dealer within 200 miles of me in any direction, but I'll check. I would say that if you are seriously considering horn speakers, these are very likely some of the best (the Trios were a couple of the heavy weight reviewers "reference", at least until they heard the Pipedreams speakers). I don't care for horn speakers as much as some do on here, but I do like speakers that are dynamic. IMHO, dynamic range and dynamic contrast (with low distortion) are the main aspects that still separate the best loudspeakers from true "realistic reproduction". Try this test sometime: Take a spoon and a wine glass, and have someone stand between the speakers and clang the spoon against the glass HARD (just shy of breaking the glass). Record this with a DAT and quality microphone, and then play the recording back. Then you'll see what I mean. Even if you can't record it, do something similar with some other percussive instrument, and just try to imagine your system reproducing it. Seems like everyone feels that the recording medium would be the primary limiting factor, but I feel that it is secondary to the limiting factor of the speaker system (and the room set up philosophy, to a lesser degree). Speakers must transduce electrical to mechanical energy at a high energy level, so the losses are terribly difficult to overcome.

Carl, Thanks for the response. Your idea to tape a percussion sound and then to replay it is a damn good idea. I completely agree that if a person is using decent electronics in his system then the speakers are the most important part of the system. From my experience with the Ohm Walsh 300's the lower frequencies are the ones that really put a speaker system to work. I suspect that speakers that do a good job with the midrange and highs mated with dedicated subwoofers such as the Velodynes will provide good dynamic range with low distortion. Current budgetary constraints prevent the purchase of a pair of Avantgardes any time soon. Evidence that the gold market is being held down in the face of a huge supply/demand imbalance plus rising inflation makes me think that any extra money should be used for the purchase of gold and unhedged gold stocks at this time. If I am right these investments should provide capital for audio upgrades in the near future (six to eight months).

Sounds very good to me. I'm thinking of trading stocks online myself. Tech stocks are so low now that it seems like a good time to buy a few solvent ones...

I have lived with theDuos for three years now. Having reviewes many hundreds of speakers I cannot say that the integration of the bass is a problem. It is not easy to produce a frequency curve for these speakers as the drive units are effectively so far apart. However, with careful in-room siting, and 3m and 5m measurements you can get a +/-1.5dB flat response from 28Hz to 19kHz. The other thing to remember about bass is that it travels more slowly, but decays less quickly whereas higher frequencies travel faster and decay more quickly over distance. EVERY speaker exhibits this phenomenon. It is more likely that with their minimal cone excursions, that horns with an active sub are the best bet yet. Better that than slow tweeters! The horn material characteristics are also well outside the audible bandwidth. They are rigid enough to do the job of providing a channel for the sound, but their (low) frequency resonances and their mechanical integrities do not impose themselves on the sound passing through. Essentially thay are a 'rigid floppy' channel. The last thing to bear in mind is that the Avantgardes will reveal everything about what comes before them. If your amp or source is flawed, that's where the problem will lie, and not with the speakers. They are only as good (and in most cases (with 18 years or reviewing behind me) better) than most of the available electronics. If you really want to hear what they're capable of try a pre/power amp from Vocale in England. There's no resistor or cap in the signal path, and boy do they let the music through. You can contact Vocale on [email protected] Just think about it. with 100dB+ efficiency, the noise floor with 100watt electronics will make more noise than the signal on a 100watt amp....... before you get deafened.