Why has Avantgarde Quality Slipped ?

Mechans makes a good point.

Open forums are not exempt from such legal scenarios TTBOMK. Slander is never good. You had better have some facts to assert a companies quality has slipped as opposed to expressing dissatisfaction in a particular case.

As an Avantgarde owner, I would like to share my personal experience with the dealers and the company.
I bought my pair new from a dealer about 1 1/2 years ago, and it was delivered directly from Avantgarde factory in Germany to my door.
Speakers were absolutely trouble-free, not even a hint of a problem.
I've met Armin Krauss, one of the Avantgrde principals many times in person at CES, even before I bought my pair, and he's nothing, but very courteous and very attentive person.
None of the arrogance and "HI-Fi" attitude, some people in the industry exhibit.
Since I've had my speakers, I had a number of technical questions, and Avantgarde never failed to respond within 24 hours with very friendly and detailed explanations.
When Armin was away on a business trip, some other guy (I forgot his name now) took over, and answered my concern as promptly.
In lieu of my experience, the OP thread sounds very suspicious and questionable to me, to say the least.
I could imagine, Avantgarde speakers are not immune to technical failures, like any piece of electronics, and since the problem with his speakers occured immediately after delivery, I would certainly suspect shipping damage, like a loose contact, or something else of similar nature, as a culprit.
If I were him, I would also be much more careful about posting my assumptions and accusations in the open forum under these very circumstances- it can damage a good company reputation for sure, and Avantgarde, as a company, deserves much better.
As a last comment, I know quite a number of current and past Avantgarde owners, and has never, even once, heard of a mechanical problem with their speakers. Call my sample biased, if you will, but that's a fact.

"Avantgardescrewedme"?

That moniker alone says a lot plus lack of OP response to-date makes the whole thing very suspicious.

Seems most likely a blatant attempt to discredit Avantgarde for whatever reason as best I can tell.

I would not pay any more attention to this thread at this point.

If Avantgarde really did that to him I hope they had the common decency to give him a reach around.

I've owned my Duos, new, since around the time I started posting here, 2006? Nary an issue, but everytime I reached out to the company directly, I received a response promptly. I'm not going to raise doubts about the OP, but whatever is going on, it is not consistent with my experience with the company (which last replied to a question I had within the past couple months).