Audes' "Blue" Speaker: 2000 Marvel?

The Audes speakers are amazing for numerous reasons. The build quality far exceeds the retail price. You have to realize that Audes builds the majority of what goes into the speaker, they have a low labor rate in Estonia and they are very committed having purchased a 100,000 square foot MIG plant.

Sonically the speakers have impressed everybody. I have yet to hear any speaker that looks and sounds as good as the Audes at anywhere near their price point. They have wonderful transparency without being aggressive, excellent bottom end, tight and fast, with superb soundstaging.

Having said these things I am a dealer but I have found no need to push the product since once experienced they basically sell themselves.

I saw your postings earlier but was too busy to respond plus I was hoping some customers would comment.

Good luck.

I completely agree with Stewart. The Audes line is IMHO the most amazing speakers no one has heard of. For the money, they are TOUGH to beat. Hopefully, you will get some customers to reply to your post, instead of just us biased dealers ;-) Good luck!

Best Regards...Mike - Father & Son Audio

HI

I purchased Blues a year ago. Its a killer for the money...the only cheaper way to get seas drivers is to biuld speakers yourself. Associated gear is all solid state
el-cheapo: acurus A-100 amp, Parasound P850 preamp, Tosh SD9200 DVD-A source. I am using them in medium sized room
25 by 16 Ft. Soudstage has good depth and width, upper end is smooth yet very detailed. Being an electrinica junkie i pay a lot of attention to bass and these babies get it right every time. Bass is tight and focused (Doped paper house made cones are big part of it), extending very low (no sub for music is necessary at all). Where these speakers really shine is the midrange spectrum. Two 4.5" seas drivers excell in voice reproductions.
Hope this helps a bit.

I recently have listened to the Audes at a friend's home. It was my first experience with Audes, and I am not a dealer or anything of the sort.

First, the negatives. The speaker is a bit forward. With the wrong equipment, could it turn bright? This is not a speaker in the "Boston bland" mold. That's about it. Yes, I know, a lot people will think I should say these are the positives. Fine.

As the speaker speaker is forward, it will appeal to some, and not to others. If you like a dark, laid back type of sound, this isn't for you. Also, the speakers are pretty large, which some people like, some don't. I do.

Midrange seemed quite clean and clear. Lower frequencies were full, but the smallish room I was in makes me not want to comment too much on the Audes bass in the absolute. The speakers are quite tube friendly and sensitive, but I won't say that they will mate with SET amplification. I didn't find them romantic, I found them to offer an open sort of sound.

I rate the cosmetics and build quality in league of $5000+ speakers. Fit and finish is very good. In fact, I rate just about everything about the speaker to be in the league of $5000+ speakers. The binding posts made me ask if the owner performed his own upgrade. He did not. Suffice it to say even the most jaded will say, "WHOA!"

I was asked to guess how much they cost. My guess was between $7500 and $11000 (in these days of audio lunacy, I have learned to round up).

Would I buy a pair? If I was looking for a new pair of speakers, I would definitely put them on my very short list. At $2000, I am not really sure if they can be beat, but I would still try(not sure I wouldn't go for a romantic type of speaker, but would depend where I was in my audio journey).

I'm a dealer so I am biased but I will say that when we discovered Audes speakers we were really blown away with how good they sound and look for the money.

To address the last post - they are mellow if you put them on the right electronics, but it is true that if you put them on bright sounding gear they could be a little fatiguing. But we don't sell any bright electronics for that reason :)

On mellow solid state or tubes they are dynamite. I love them on SET - they are extremely tube friendly. You can run the Blues on 2A3's if you want, but I generally recommend 7 wpc. or up. We have run them on Audes' own EL34 monoblocks and several 300B monoblocks successfully. The speakers have such a benign impedance than you can use the 16 ohm. taps out of tube amps if you like. This yields fabulous sound because there are fewer windings on those taps... few speakers let you do this. You really need a benign impedance and non-capacitant phase characteristics to run speakers on 16 ohm taps without losing control in the bass and overdriving the amplifier quickly. Suffice it to say that the Blues are easily the most tube friendly 4 ohm speaker we have ever encountered.

So we are big fans of the Audes here because they are so tube friendly and such a great speaker for the money. The build is remarkable - absolutely as good as a $5000 speaker no question.

They are a total bargain at $2000. People come in, listen, look, pick their tongue up off the floor and put down their credit cards. It's an easy sell.