Acapella vs. Avantgarde

Sdrsdrsdr, I don't know how you can make the comment, "Anyone who has negative comments on Trios have never heard them set up correctly with the right gear." You may be more easily satisfied.

I managed to deal with the bass pretty well, but the standard four box woofers are really not very good, as my friend in Minn. has demonstrated to me. My major problem with the Trios, is their discontinuity. Instruments with a broad range moved at the frequency was cover by one driver and then another.

Also, the horns themselves vibrate which resulted in some smear in the sound.

If you have a room larger than my 18x28x12 foot room, perhaps you could get a more integrated sound.

TBG- noticed you are selling your Campagnilles. What's next for you? And, in fairness to Sdrs, the speakers do require critical set-up and associated equipment. Your point, that even with all that, they have shortcomings, does not suprise me, nor should it. None of these things are without limitations of some sort, some of which can be rectified. For example, what's up with the horn woofers that AvG makes? Never heard 'em, not that I have room for those, but AvG does make a better alternative to the monkey coffins. I have also heard a few people talk about the need for more rigid stands, decoupled from the woofers. Again, that kind of tweaking may be worth the trouble.
Avantgarde lovers and critics- I love the Duos and what it has demanded from the rest of my system, in terms of lowering the noise threshold, working on my AC, playing with grounding, experimenting with cables, and finding a synergistic, musical front end, preamp and amplifier components. I do think that the speaker has some shortcomings, but the level of musical enjoyment I am now getting is extraordinary.

Whart, one of my customers had Duos and tweaked them by having much more rigid frames built for them. He reported they made a substantial improvement, to a point. I think the comments about the woofers not integrating are accurate, which is I think where he gave up and moved to dynamic speakers.

I should be carefull how I say things here. The comment I was disageeing with the most is when people say that avantgardes sound edgy and harsh. This is totally untrue in my system. My system is so smooth and natural that I can listen at high levels for many hours with no fatigue. I have not found this in many other systems costing even more. I have been in this hobby for many years and this is just my opinion and taste. This system, the way I have it now, is the first time ever that I have been content with the sound. I have always had some fatigue, even with vinyl, and I find that I am more sensitive than others to this. When I first got the Trios I was not happy though, it took alot of work to get them to this point. I haven't heard Acapella speakers before. I bet they are very nice. I am very sold on SET amps and would not use anything else. With a large push-pull amp maybe they are the way to go. I agree that Avantgarde speakers don't have the best bass, but I think it is still very good and what you gain is worth it for my preferences. The amplifiers I have tried other than my Viva Auroras are Wavac 300b, Cary 805c, Vt-52 custom and Yamamoto A-08s. With these amps I found the subs to sound slow and disconnected. With the Vivas I find the bass to be very good and fast enough to keep up to the horns. Also placement is very important. Like I said before, the subs don't always work as good in the same position as the horns. Also, I use good speaker cable direct from the amps, not jumped from the horns, Also good power cords help too. I have some Aurios Pros on there way to put under the subs that I think might help tighten the bass up even more. What amps are people using that they find the bass not fast enough for the horns.

2 comments on the "shortcomings" sometimes attributed to the Avantgardes - 1) the current Omega versions are significantly smoother, less glary, yet simultaneously have more air, detail and power delivery in the lower mids/upper bass (having one's cake and eating it, too), and 2) with proper amps, cabling & setup the bass can be made to integrate quite well, ceratinly to a point where it's not annoyingly discontinuous - my Duos were absolutely transformed by switching to the Lamm ML2s on Grand Prix Monaco stands, and by installing the Omega upgrade.

One may feel that the bass remains the weak point compared to the many profound things the speakers do amazingly well, but on balance they're hard to beat at the $28K price point. I'm permanently out of the speaker market...that is, unless I have the room/$$ to add Basshorns at some future date.