Avante Garde horn speakers.....

I appreciate your input, but would still like to audition them. My interest is due to the postive reviews by people who heard them at the CES in Las Vegas.

Don't be too discouraged, "corn fed" people would have to spend a lot of time in the lavatory, and probably aren't as adept at listening to music, as the rest of us.

i heard a pair of the *duo's*, a couple years ago at a small shop - deja vu audio, mclean, va - & they were fantastic! this was the version w/the older subs; still no integration problems. they were being driven by some home-made 1.5wpc set tube amps. not the best room, but still amazing sound. unbelievable detail, but still not fatiguing - i was there for over an hour at lunch - got back to work *way* late!

Carl, any chance of talking you into giving these thing a listen? I want to check them out; but, its going to take some time. New city and new job has me working like a galley slave.

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.