Audio Physic Avanti Century vs Avanti III

The Century was a failure similar to the Libra. Neither remained in the line for very long. There is a newer Century that is supposed to be good but I've never heard it. The Avanti III is the best speaker I ever owned and one of the best I've ever heard.

Thanks, but can you clarify what you mean by "failure"? Perhaps it wasn't on the market very long, superceded by the Avanti III, so it didn't have time to attract much attention? Or was there some aspect of its performance that led to its early replacement? If there are two version of the Century, does anyone know how to tell the difference between them?

The Avanti III replaced the original Avanti which was a disappointing speaker. The Century was replaced by a later version. There was no direct replacement for the Libra. The Virgo II and Avanti III are special speakers.
In my opinion, no other Audio Physic model has surpassed them. Both the Libra and original Century did not have the same magic ability to disappear into the soundstage.

Narrod, have you heard the new Virgo V or Avanti V? Curious what your thoughts are, if you have.

AP did a special version of the Avanti for Y2K and called it the Century. They installed the SEAS tweeter from their then $20k Caldera and modified the crossover to better mate with the Avanti's custom midrange driver made from cast magnesium. A second crossover update was done a few months later to the Century which gave another 4db on the low end, bringing its response down to 28Hz. To my knowledge there was never a second instance or newer speaker from AP with 'Century' in its name.

I think the Libra was a fine speaker and I enjoyed auditioning it - a bit more laid back and not quite as quick as the Avanti Century, but not a sufficient increment better than the Virgo to succeed financially. Put differently, at the time, AP had too many price points too close together.

I have not heard a Virgo III, but, imo, the Century easily dispatches the Virgo II - as nice a speaker is the Virgo II, frankly there is no comparison. The Century never gave a sense of image miniaturization as the Virgos sometimes did. Bass is tauter than the Virgo, and while it won't plumb the lowest lows, the Century's bass yields v. nice pitch with a tonal 'rightness' to it. Excellent sense of air up top, and easily capable of conveying the spaciousness of a concert hall. The Century does so many things very well and it will reward top-notch cabling and upstream electronics.

I'll give Narrod a bit of pushback on his claim about the Century's ability to dissappear into the soundstage - quite the contrary. When dialed-in properly in an AP nearfield arrangement, the Centuries present a full orchestra entirely behind themselves within an incredibly deep soundstage. Dividends come from time spent to get the set-up 'just so'. Soundstage width will be a function of relative distance to the sidewalls. If electronics or recording production values bring an instrument forward, the Century's won't hide this, while they are superb on well recorded orchestral music.

Fwiw, the lineage goes: Avanti, Avanti II, Avanti Century, Avanti III ... The III was the last Avanti designed by Joachim Gerhard.


Tim

I have not heard the latest Virgo or Avanti so I cannot comment.

i have the libra's and they quite good... however they are very critical of setup and equipment not to mention they need a really big room.

in really looking at it - i think they are one of the better speaker bargains out there if you got the room and high quality gear.

Very good job on providing the background on this line, Tim!

Can you give us a comparison of the Avanti Century vs the Avanti III, please? I realize were now back to the original question, but I would appreciate your insight.

All this feedback has been very good - thanks! Now would anyone care to comment on how the Avanti V compares? The configuration looks similar to the III, with two mid range and two pairs of woofers. Big differences seem to be the new tweeter and a new cabinet design AP claims obviates the need for damping material. Is the result superior sound or not? And I'm still hoping to hear how the sound of the Century compares with the III. That seems to be a much bigger difference in configuration - single mid, single pair of smaller woofs - but I also know that more isn't always better, often it's not.