Avantgarde Trios, SETs, and Impedance Curves

Gentlemen, I truly appreciate your suggestions, but the reason I bought used Trios was because I truly couldn't afford new ones. As such, I'm probably not going to be able to spring for power amps in the $20K to $50K range either.

Charlie, the Tron 300B looks like it would be fabulous, but I'm assuming it is above $20K. I've certainly heard good things about the Audiopax. And thank you for reminding me about the Shindo.

Good suggestions all around, gentlemen, if mostly a little rich for my blood at this juncture. Anyone had any experience with either the Atmashpere M60 MkII or the Wyetech Sapphire 300B with a pair of Trios.

Sebastian, I will check out the Croft. I think you make a good point about the Trio not being as easy to drive as one might think as I suspect that the impedance curve of the speaker probably fluctuates all over the place, though I don't know that for sure--was hoping someone might have that information.

Gentlemen, thank you all for the additional suggestions.

Tim, you make a great point about Jim Smith and the Audiopax. I will look into these.

Richardmr and Tubes108, I have a local Art Audio dealer who has a PX-25, so I can borrow it just to get a sense of its flavor. Tubes108, since you've listened to both the Audiopax 88s and the Art Audio PX-25, did you actually compare them in an A/B comparison? Do you feel that you prefer the PX, or was your purchase based more on cost?

Charlie, thanks for the pricing info on the Tron and the Tom Evans. Wish I could swing the Tron, but that will have to wait for another day.

Dean

I guess I should check in here more often. I thought my thread was done in September. Thanks to all of you have responded here in November with some really helpful information and suggestions.

Ferenc, your comment on the Altmann amp is truly interesting. You're the first person I've seen report using the Altmann, and that you like it with the Trio tells me you are a man who listens and doesn't give one whit about the cosmetics of your amplification devices. I am also curious about your use of the REL Stentor II sub. I assume you have replaced the AG woofers, is that correct? Are you using one or two RELs? If so, at what frequency are you crossing into the REL? I didn't think the REL was able to go up high enough in frequency to mate with the Trio's lower mid horn.

711 smilin, the Mactone sounds very interesting as well, but given the inability to audition one with the Trios along with their cost, it probably isn't going to happen.

Atmasphere, it seems to me that you are saying that neither SETs nor solid state amps work properly with the AG Trios due to the Capacitors in the crossovers. Don't most speakers with crossovers use capacitors? Your comments seem to conflict with all the results of others who report very fine results with SETs and now Ferenc stating he is getting fabulous results with the Altmann amp, which to my knowledge (correct me if I am wrong) doesn't use any feedback just like most of the SETs that others have found favor with. Yet you claim that an amplifier with feedback is required in order to achieve proper results. It does make one wonder.

Hi Ferenc,

Thank you for your response.

Given that your listening level isn't very high, I can understand you're not needing the additional sub, but I am convinced that there is a lot of ambient information in the low frequencies that can only be reproduced in stereo. This element can lend a lot towards realism.

Obviously from your prior posts, you've had considerable experience with tube amplification on the Trios, so I am curious if you find the Almann to be the equal of the tube amps in terms of instrumental weight, body, timbre, and harmonic richness? These are the areas that I typically find solid state amps fall short of a good tube amp.

My room is similar in size to your own, so perhaps the Altmann BYOB would provide adequate power for me as well, though I may listen a bit louder than you on some occasions. I am surprised that since you like the Altman so much, you didn't decide to triamp the Trio with the DEQX providing the crossover and EQ for each of the three drivers. In my mind, the phase and timing errors between the three horns could be completely corrected with the DEQX, and I would think that since those timing and phase errors occur at frequencies where the human ear is considerably more sensitive, they would be far more audible than the ones between the Trios and the woofer.

Of course, you'd have the added cost of two more BYOB amps, but even the cost of three of them isn't as much as most SETs. I do wonder if you could run 3 amps without compromise on one large car battery? If these amps sound as good to me as they do to you, I'd love to try that myself.

Hey Jls3, after all this time, someone with an actual impedance curve. Is the impedance plot you are describing coming from the older 8 ohm version or the newer Omega series rated at 19 ohms? I can't even begin to comprehend the 65 ohms at 950Hz as that frequency is well above the lower cutoff of the midrange driver's operating range--no low powered SET or solid state amp will be able to drive it at that frequency. If I may ask, how did you obtain this impedance plot? Was it derived from information published elsewhere or did you perform actual measurements?

If you have an actual graphic display that could be sent via e-mail or posted here on the forum, I'd love to see it. Thanks for the information.

Dean