Comment on this system.

The good thing for your friend is that he can hear the combination he would be buying right there at the dealer's showroom. If the tonal balance and sound suit him (I agree with Rushton and Beemer in that I like the Eidelons a lot but have always been less than moved by Spectral electronics), then the fact it's a killer deal is icing on the cake, if not, why spend any money on a system you won't like (and don't expect to get the money back on resale, either). The one thing he'll have to consider when he listens is can he take the sound long-term; Spectral equipment sounds very clean, and can be impressive on first listen, but after a while I agree with Rushton, it seems sterile and cold. The other part of the equation, of course, is his listening space; if the speakers can only fit in his room with their backs to the wall, he should look elsewhere.

Just for the record - I talked with Neil Pattel some years back while opening his Mexico distibutor and shared with me that , by that time, he used Spectral year at one of his personal systems.

I have never heard Avalons with Spectral gear, the best match I have found is with Gryphon and Pass gear.

Fernando

I talked to an employee at Avalon who likes this particular combo. he also told me about the new speaker called the "Vision".

The system is good as presented. For what it's worth, the Spectral+Avalon combo used to be quite common and, to my ears, a good one.
It's quite a high resolution system, however, with a particular tonal balance and, as such, should be listened to extensively:
*try some classical and check out the sound of violins, the sound of a soprano
*try out the system with & w/out the pre.
That should give yr friend an idea of longer term comatibility with his/her ears...

Tab,
The Eidolon Vision is a more expensive succesor to the Eildolon, but less expensive than the Diamond. I heard it briefly at CES, but w/unfamiliar electronics, so hard to judge. Cheers,
Spencer