Chris Tsutsui
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2002
- Messages
- 1,865
On sunday I auditioned the Avantgards Duo 3.0s in a Hotel sonic culture weekend and decided to post my thoughts and review.
Before you even consider these may I point out that they may not be in everyones price range.
I know that there are audiophiles that will say horn speakers are "colored" or harsh sounding due to their previous experience with horns. This was definitly not the case with these duos. The president of Avantgarde even stated that horn speakers DID introduce a change in tonal balance that wasn't always pleasant, until they developed new technologies to use Horns for an advantage.
With an extremely large horn, their driver can then move less than a tenth of a normal high-end speaker. Acceleration lag and overshoot are minimized in addition to the use of lightweight rigid diaphragms and giant magnets used.
The Avantgardes were very natural sounding, producing a smooth and effortless range of sound. Definitly the most clearest and undistorted speakers I've heard. The advantage of these speakers was that they were able to settle down after each transient due to their very large magnets. (They use a 6lb magnet on just the tweeter) Basically the driver barely moves at all, the horn amplifies the sound to a small sweet spot, using the physics of the horn to an advantage and reduce the need of a crossover. (circuitry tends to reduce signal strength)
Avantgarde attempts to describe the speakers by comparing them to others on the market:
First imagine a hypothetical speaker:
* Transparency of a great electrostatic (quad, sound lab or ML); or ribbon (Apogee, Wisdom)
* Balance and authority of Dunlavy, JM labs Utopia, Goldmund Apologue
* uncolored mids of Verity Parsifal or Quad
* dynamics of Klipschorn
* Build quality of Wilson, Thiel, and Avalon
* Accuracy of timbre umatched in many areas, noticeable on vocals, instruments, and brass (which usually lacks weight and sonority)
* Effieciency from 102-110db so it's easy on amps with a benign 8 ohms
They also claim to produce imaging and soundstage much more precise than LIVE, with an emotional impact to put tears in your eyes. (I didn't get tears, just goosebumps every once in a while)
They don't use a crossover for midrange, the musical signal passes directly from your amp to mid-range horn with nothing in its path for a more dynamic, detailed presentation. There is no passive crossover between mid and amp so physics (horn throat and bell) determines the roll-off.
Avantgarde states wide dispersion speakers are the wrong way to head, their speakers employ a controlled dispersion pattern so that ~85% sound directly reaches the ear so no room treatments needed.
Anyways the hotel demo lobby was roughly 15x35' and the speakers were roughly 20 feet from the wall.
Equiptment List:
Avantgarde Duo series 3 - 104DB+ @ 1w/1m/8ohms - minimum 1.5 watts
ABS plastic w/Nextel 225 S/L CTRL subwoofers
$17,970 pair
Audiopax Model 88 Mono-Block Single Ended amp - 30wpc
MPS - matched power supply
PTS - Perfect Triode Simulation
Bandwidth (15hz to 90khz, -3db)
-$9,970 each
Hovland HP100 vacuum tube stereo preamp
input impedance: 100kohm
gain: 14db
Freq resp: +/-.25db, 10hz-25khz
THD:
Before you even consider these may I point out that they may not be in everyones price range.
I know that there are audiophiles that will say horn speakers are "colored" or harsh sounding due to their previous experience with horns. This was definitly not the case with these duos. The president of Avantgarde even stated that horn speakers DID introduce a change in tonal balance that wasn't always pleasant, until they developed new technologies to use Horns for an advantage.
With an extremely large horn, their driver can then move less than a tenth of a normal high-end speaker. Acceleration lag and overshoot are minimized in addition to the use of lightweight rigid diaphragms and giant magnets used.
The Avantgardes were very natural sounding, producing a smooth and effortless range of sound. Definitly the most clearest and undistorted speakers I've heard. The advantage of these speakers was that they were able to settle down after each transient due to their very large magnets. (They use a 6lb magnet on just the tweeter) Basically the driver barely moves at all, the horn amplifies the sound to a small sweet spot, using the physics of the horn to an advantage and reduce the need of a crossover. (circuitry tends to reduce signal strength)
Avantgarde attempts to describe the speakers by comparing them to others on the market:
First imagine a hypothetical speaker:
* Transparency of a great electrostatic (quad, sound lab or ML); or ribbon (Apogee, Wisdom)
* Balance and authority of Dunlavy, JM labs Utopia, Goldmund Apologue
* uncolored mids of Verity Parsifal or Quad
* dynamics of Klipschorn
* Build quality of Wilson, Thiel, and Avalon
* Accuracy of timbre umatched in many areas, noticeable on vocals, instruments, and brass (which usually lacks weight and sonority)
* Effieciency from 102-110db so it's easy on amps with a benign 8 ohms
They also claim to produce imaging and soundstage much more precise than LIVE, with an emotional impact to put tears in your eyes. (I didn't get tears, just goosebumps every once in a while)
They don't use a crossover for midrange, the musical signal passes directly from your amp to mid-range horn with nothing in its path for a more dynamic, detailed presentation. There is no passive crossover between mid and amp so physics (horn throat and bell) determines the roll-off.
Avantgarde states wide dispersion speakers are the wrong way to head, their speakers employ a controlled dispersion pattern so that ~85% sound directly reaches the ear so no room treatments needed.
Anyways the hotel demo lobby was roughly 15x35' and the speakers were roughly 20 feet from the wall.
Equiptment List:
Avantgarde Duo series 3 - 104DB+ @ 1w/1m/8ohms - minimum 1.5 watts
ABS plastic w/Nextel 225 S/L CTRL subwoofers
$17,970 pair
Audiopax Model 88 Mono-Block Single Ended amp - 30wpc
MPS - matched power supply
PTS - Perfect Triode Simulation
Bandwidth (15hz to 90khz, -3db)
-$9,970 each
Hovland HP100 vacuum tube stereo preamp
input impedance: 100kohm
gain: 14db
Freq resp: +/-.25db, 10hz-25khz
THD: