JBL Everest DD67000 vs. Avantgarde Duo Mezzo

Gdhal, I have thought about the Everest as my next speaker simply because it is less involved than custom made horns with unobtanium drivers. I don’t doubt that the Everest benefits from some power, probably for the bass. I also don’t know enough about the X-over network to know how transparent it is, or whether it benefits from tweaking or bypassing in favor of some external one, but at a discounted price, it is actually not crazy money (at least compared to some of the uber horn systems and antiquarian ones). Hopefully, David Karmeli will weigh in here, b/c he has JBLs among other horns and uses them with SET amps. More later, and thanks for the kind response.

I've been harping over the Uber jbl model line's for year's!, only to be bashed by members of audiogon,  which tells me that they never listened to them,  to me,  the jbl speaker's mentioned on this thread is better than any magico speaker's,  I would know,  of course I  have both! 

You're welcome whart. Honestly the JBLs are out of my league price wise but wish/dream I could ever own a pair. And yes audiolabyrinth, I too noticed that typically JBL gets no love on this site and I really can't understand why. Here is a little something for the two of you that may prove helpful in some way :)

Greg Timbers (gdtimbers@gmail.com) who designed the JBL Everest DD67000  claims they are his best creation ever. He further states while they retail at 70K they can be had for half that, and recommends this dealership (purportedly the largest of the JBL dealers, owned by a fellow named Greg also) http://www.homeaudiosound.com/ 303-451-8250.

I am not sure about Avantgarde Duo Mezzo’s sensitivity comparison with JBL DD67000.

Avantgardes are semi-active loudspeakers. In case of Avantgarde Duo Mezzo (107 dB), there is a 500 watts Class AB amplifier for 12" woofers; external amplifier is only powering horns till 170 Hz. Whereas, JBL DD67000 (96 dB) is a pure passive loudspeaker. I suspect it’s sensitivity will also go really high if there was a built-in 500 watts amplifier for 15" woofers. And some people are doing active bi-amping with low power amplifier for the bi-radial horns and massive amplifier for woofers.

Right. As I mentioned, the issue of sensitivity bears on the kind of amplifier that can be used, and the SET is magic with the horns. However, at least with the older Duo, the issue is continuity or blending of woofers to mid horn. And the powered woofers are fed at hi-level inputs through jumpers from the output of the SET amp, so the self powered woofers are supposed to retain the character of the main amp. They may, but at least on the older Duo, you still have the horn v. dynamic speaker discontinuity in character I spoke of upthread. It can be ameliorated to a large degree, but it’s there. I’d have the same question if you bi-amp the JBL with different amps, but would be interested to know how that sounds.
PS: what external X-over has been recommended? The one thing I do like very much about the Duo (and assume it is true on the Mezzo) is the absence of any x-over on the mid-horn. I think it contributes to the speakers "un-reproduced" sound.