A Great Deal on Audiogon


There are currently a pair of Avantgarde Trios for sale on Audiogon for(a mere)$13,000. While this is a lot of money for a speaker it nonetheless represents a terrific deal for the dedicated,(reasonably insane) audiophile. I thought I would bring this to the attention of any folks contemplating an upgrade to their stereo or those who might just have a passing interest in them. Let me say at the outset I know nothing of the owners and have no connection with the sale of them. I am just surprised they have not sold. Because I own a pair of these and am intimately familiar with them I thought I would pass on some of their benefits to interested parties. If you have heard the Duos or any of the other AG speakers and are thinking they sound similiar, they don't despite their similar pedigree, not even close. They also do not sound like horns in a "shouty" sense, if anything they are a bit mellow. They have the micro and macro dynamics one associates with highly efficient drivers but they also have a number of other advantages that a lot of speakers lack. I will just be brief and list some of them and leave it at that. They are not very room sensitive, and sound quite good in a smallish room despite their size. They are not placement sensitive within reason. You can just shove them up against a wall, tow them in a bit and you have it. While they beam a little, less than most speakers, their wave launch is large enough that you can move fore and aft without collapsing the image. They are not particularly amplifier or cable sensitive. No need to spend megabucks on an amplifier although to my ears they sound best with tubes. The bottom line is just how good they sound with a minimum of investment in upstream accouterments. I have rarely lived with a set of speakers more than two years and not started "looking". The longer I have had these the more I like them. I'll say no more.
lubachl

Showing 3 responses by mapman

The red ones, right?

Very cool!

$13000 is a good deal if everything is in good working order. I wish I had the $$$s to drop and a place where I could put'em.
High sensitivity speakers are like listening under a microscope. Trios are one of the highest efficiency designs out there I believe! Amp power becomes more irrelevant but every nuance of the source is exposed more so than most. That would typically mean a lot of trial and error and tweaking, more so than in most cases, to get things just right. Not for the detail oriented yet faint of heart.....

But once you get everything dialed in, I would expect the results to be hard to beat.
Its a valid point that the ability to work well with most any amp is an advantage in terms of getting good sound with minimal tweaking.

Avantgardes do get a lot of accolades but I think their cost size and unconventional looks (which I like) make them perhaps more of a niche speaker perhaps than their overall performance alone would merit.

Personally, they are one of the few designs I have heard out there these days that I would be thrilled to live with long term, but unfortunately they are just not practical in my case. Maybe someday....

The thing I would question is how many really need speakers that big and that efficient in their home? They could become lethal weapons (to the ears) turned up too loudly or in the event of some audible electrical mishap. Probably only a select though perhaps lucky few.