Hooper ke,
I'm in the same boat as you. I've owned my Avatars for several years now, I'm very happy with them. I live in Phoenix, there is no Avalon dealer in Arizona. The only Avalons I've seen come up used locally were identical to mine, my friend bought them.
I do watch the used Avalon speakers on Audiogon. Until I got my Avatars, my favorite speaker was the Apogee Mini Grand. These speakers in my room sounded great. They were very demanding of everything upstream. The Avalon Avatars
do everything my Mini Grands did, just on a smaller scale.
I have read up on the Avalon Eclipse, it is still a 2 way, but it is appreciably bigger & heavier than the Avatar.
I also watch the newer Avalons on Audiogon. I know the earlier models like ours (designed by Charles Hansen), were all sealed, and the new ones (designed by Neil Patel), are ported. I usually prefer sealed speakers, and I'm using my Avatars now with a James EMB1200 sub. This sub is sealed & I do have another one I'll add to my system as soon as I add dedicated lines.
I'll either stick with these Avatars, or take a vacation & drive to another state to decide on an upgrade in this brand.
I'm in the same boat as you. I've owned my Avatars for several years now, I'm very happy with them. I live in Phoenix, there is no Avalon dealer in Arizona. The only Avalons I've seen come up used locally were identical to mine, my friend bought them.
I do watch the used Avalon speakers on Audiogon. Until I got my Avatars, my favorite speaker was the Apogee Mini Grand. These speakers in my room sounded great. They were very demanding of everything upstream. The Avalon Avatars
do everything my Mini Grands did, just on a smaller scale.
I have read up on the Avalon Eclipse, it is still a 2 way, but it is appreciably bigger & heavier than the Avatar.
I also watch the newer Avalons on Audiogon. I know the earlier models like ours (designed by Charles Hansen), were all sealed, and the new ones (designed by Neil Patel), are ported. I usually prefer sealed speakers, and I'm using my Avatars now with a James EMB1200 sub. This sub is sealed & I do have another one I'll add to my system as soon as I add dedicated lines.
I'll either stick with these Avatars, or take a vacation & drive to another state to decide on an upgrade in this brand.