So last month had visited the Avantgarde factory in Frankfurt. The have a big room built to the Golden ratio, but no other treatment except basic carpets, normal power and cables, no isolation. The room is big because it houses all their speakers, but to listen to a particular speaker, you sit at a normal distance of about 12 feet. They use an esoteric CD player with their own class A SS amps.
Review in one sentence: I have never been a fan of the duos and the smaller ones - in fact, I dislike them - however, the Trios with the bass horns is the best set up I have heard (Western electrics aside)
Never heard a 2-ch system where bass flows so easily, transients are so awesome, there is such wide scale from side to side, top to bottom, with loads of depth from the front to the back, and pinpoint imaging and micro detail. Best rendition of orchestra, it does large scale pieces like Mahler 2, Rachmaninoff Symphonic dances, etc flawlessly. Sound just floats from the bass horns. Excellent off axis, and you can throw anything at them, including rock, and they just sit there staring at you and play it. The separation and 3d is magical.
There is one thing though - the tonality of the mids is a bit not quite there. It is not as good as some other speakers. The mids come out into the room, but the texture or the tone, some other horns and panels do it better. However, while that might sound harsh while reading, it is ok for me as overall it's still the best presentation of full symphony I heard. And a good TT or Lampi + mooks (mandatory wording in all my posts) might better that. But having checked with others, those who didn't like them, cited the tonality as the reason. For others it was a dream speaker. So that's the caveat
After that I went to Monaco where another dealer has the Trios with the bass horns in a smaller room, his living room, with an Oppo and Tom Evans amps. This is as basic as you are going to get. Well, it sounded equally good, and his room dimensions are W 4.9m X L6.3m. Distance between Trios = 2.28m between insides, 3.9 between outsides. You get the soundstage and width more than any planar that I have heard, with the dynamics of a horn, with Sota bass. You can play organ music easily.
Review in one sentence: I have never been a fan of the duos and the smaller ones - in fact, I dislike them - however, the Trios with the bass horns is the best set up I have heard (Western electrics aside)
Never heard a 2-ch system where bass flows so easily, transients are so awesome, there is such wide scale from side to side, top to bottom, with loads of depth from the front to the back, and pinpoint imaging and micro detail. Best rendition of orchestra, it does large scale pieces like Mahler 2, Rachmaninoff Symphonic dances, etc flawlessly. Sound just floats from the bass horns. Excellent off axis, and you can throw anything at them, including rock, and they just sit there staring at you and play it. The separation and 3d is magical.
There is one thing though - the tonality of the mids is a bit not quite there. It is not as good as some other speakers. The mids come out into the room, but the texture or the tone, some other horns and panels do it better. However, while that might sound harsh while reading, it is ok for me as overall it's still the best presentation of full symphony I heard. And a good TT or Lampi + mooks (mandatory wording in all my posts) might better that. But having checked with others, those who didn't like them, cited the tonality as the reason. For others it was a dream speaker. So that's the caveat
After that I went to Monaco where another dealer has the Trios with the bass horns in a smaller room, his living room, with an Oppo and Tom Evans amps. This is as basic as you are going to get. Well, it sounded equally good, and his room dimensions are W 4.9m X L6.3m. Distance between Trios = 2.28m between insides, 3.9 between outsides. You get the soundstage and width more than any planar that I have heard, with the dynamics of a horn, with Sota bass. You can play organ music easily.
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