Considering a change. Avantgarde for Wilson.

You are surely Honda Civic's owner looking at Toyota Tacoma. It's difficult to say, i am driving both of them.

With what are you driving the Avantgardes(tubes or SS), and using what interconnects/cables? They are very revealing of any shortcomings upstream. Not to say there has to be junk before them, but any stridency/glare/grain at all could become intolerable, given their high efficiency and frequency extension. For instance: If tubed- ditch the EH's and find some nice bottom-getter Sylvanias from the 40's. If you were using silver interconnects, a high quality copper might aleviate the problem(ie: Kimber's KS-1121). If your source were a Sony SCD-777ES, you might want to have the piece tweeked(as many others have) as they come from the factory with an upper-mid/low-treble edge. Unless you audition the Wilsons in the same system first: you may buy into the same issue, given that they are also very extended, though not nearly as efficient(93db vs 103db/1w/1m). Either of these excellent systems will act like a magnifying glass toward the rest of the soundstream.

I have a pair of Unos and do not experience any brightness or glare, I would not trade for wilsons as your speakers when set up properly are state of the art and outperform any Wilson.Make sure that your room is properly treated, this is very important, do not use any silver speaker cables or jumpers as they are bright on Avantgardes. I use Mit Bi-wire, low going to the bass, high to the midrange, with a Mit Magnum jumper from midrange to tweeter. Get the best Mit cables you can afford.Use an Set amp, I use an Art Audio Diavolo, and your system should sing.Remember that the problems you are experiencing are system related, not the speakers. When everything is set up right the speakers are unbelievable.
Mike

# 1 neither speaker is remotely part of the same sentence. Believe me minus maybe that new Wilson 8 I know I have heard the big dogs from wilson, whatever the cost was the time I know was well into the 100 k plus range model. Anyway also at the same dealer avantgarde.. Believe it or not the Wilson with VTL mono's that were about 30 k were no contents with the avantgardes on a 40 watt 700 dollar integrated amp! They were way more real, smoother, and of course due to the efficiency far more detailed and powerful without breaking the bank.

Beyond that room acoustics and on both otherwise you will get grain or bright on top, many other balance issues. And My honest opinion is selling the duo's for 9,000 and buying into a wilson that would become worth of the new 27 k a pair would be a mistake. I would go and buy the Omega upgrade kit for your avantgardes which with the Mundorf Silver oils in the new crossovers etc... will really smooth out and turn your horns into liquid. Yeah its pretty expensive at 8 k but better than the losses and barley parallel move you would make going into a whole different speaker that will required 5 times the power amp size, and have its own issues.

I don't own either, and both were a tad bright in the rooms I have heard them in, but still the wilson was really edgy which is a bit weird. 2 people were with me on a few occasions we visited both of these super costly speakers, every time we all gave the nod especially for size and value to the Duo's.

When the basic system is revealing the little things really matter- tube rolling, Herbies Tube Dampeners, vib control- even in the rack (if you have one). I filled my Solid Steel rack with play sand and it still rang, so I stuck a bunch of Moretight on it and replaced the stock spikes with Sound Care SuperSpikes. I also isolate each shelf with vibration products from Herbie