Anyone heard new Avalon Transcendents???

If you have a Golden Ear Club membership at The Absolut Sound's web site (avguide.com), you can get early access to the Avalon Transcendent review from Alan Sircom at Hifi+ (http://www.avguide.com/review/avalon-transcendent-hifi-78). Alan Sircom notes in his review the following comment about the CES showing of the Transcendent:

I wouldn’t take the action at shows as too much of an indicator of ultimate performance, because the results can vary both from room to room and the last room you visited alters your perception of the sound of the next room. And it’s here where I lay perhaps my biggest criticism of the Transcendent, right at the feet of the company that makes it. In the US, Avalon is also the distributor of Acoustica Applicata’s DaaD room acoustic treatments and Prolifemo and Phemo Helmholtz resonators. Nothing whatsoever wrong with this, but in this year’s CES, the Avalon room was so dominated by acoustic treatment that people walked out of the room unsure whether the sound was down to the room, the treatment or the speakers. Acoustic treatments are vital, but this profusion of DaaD treatments clouded the issue.

If you do not have GEC membership, you can pick up a copy of Hifi+ (Issue 78) with the full review. He liked the speakers calling them a smaller version of Avalon's Time speakers. Hope this helps.

Hello Audioguy! You are likely correct. I think they were never properly broken in among other things. I previously owned Avalon Eidolons and had no complaints. However, when I first installed them they sounded like transistor radios. It took hundreds of hours to dispel my disappointment and replace it with euphoria. I am quite impressed with your very tasteful and comfortable Music Room/Library. I am about to have a dedicated room built in our basement in our new vacation home. It is a quite daunting experience: so many choices and possibilities.

Hi Kodak....read that scathing article....makes you wonder if something was wrong though......In my experience, when you get to this level there are degrees of difference, but usually not to that extent. Wonder if anything was up?

I heard them at RMAF and they are quite nice!
Great soundstage as mentioned, very musical, I was particularly impressed by the bass - very good low frequency extension and impact for a small-ish speaker.

Per Soundstage Network under "CES and the Show 2011-Awful Avalon":

http://www.soundstageglobal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=114&catid=58&Itemid=87

Heard them at RMAF. Musical (in the best sense) speaker with typical Avalon soundstaging.

Avalon is terrible about responding to emails. I own Indras and the only complaint I have is their communication via email. I can't believe that any business operating in America today willingly ignores emails and more importantly, that they think it is okay.