Avantgarde Trios, SETs, and Impedance Curves


Has anyone ever seen an actual impedance curve plot for the Avantgarde Trios? I am about to acquire a 3 year old pair and need to find a great amp to drive them. I suppose conventional wisdom would be to use an SET of some kind. However, to perform their best, SETs really require a relatively flat impedance curve. So, I guess what I'd like to know is how badly does the Trio impedance fluctuate with frequency, and/or, empirically, what amps have Trio owners used that have rendered awesome performance?

How about it, Trio owners, any advice for a new Trio guy? Any feedback would me most appreciated!

Dean
theloveman
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.
I have the curve if anyone is interested. It has two peaks of 38ohms at 90hz and 65ohms at 950hz. It's about 9ohms at 10K hz and is faily flat from 8k out to 20k.
jls3od@theglobalnet.net
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
My experience is limited to the Duo, not the Trio, but the speakers are enormously revealing. I used them the first year with a pair of Audiopax 88's and they were delicious. However, the move to the Lamm ML2 was noticeable in a variety of ways.
The speakers also benefitted from Apex footers, and very good wire- the jumpers that came from the factory pale by comparison to the aftermarket choices.
I have never been completely satisfied with the bass from the Duo though. Maybe it is me, or my room, but the problem isn't lack of bass, it is a discontinuity in the sound between the horns, which are very open, and the monkey coffins, which sound like amplified speakers. Perhaps in a large room- large enough to get the distance you probably need to let the Trios converge properly- the bass can be sorted out. I know AvG now offer a smaller horn-loaded woofer other than their monster bass horn, but I have not heard it. Jim Smith is a very good guy and quite knowledgeable.
Hi Theloveman,

actually you are quite right regarding the active multiamp setup. I was thinking of it a lot, but I definitely would like to use the digital output of DEQX to drive 3 Altmann Attraction DACs plus 3 Altmann BYOB amps and the active sub. However in the meantime I realized that soon we will have to move to a new home and in the new home there will be not enough room to take the Trio over so I probably will be forced anyway to change (sell) it, and I am looking for the Zu Definition Pro as an ideal replacement candidate. In case of the Zu two ways for the active driving would be enough, one for the sub section and one for the rest, as a kind of compromise.

Regarding the Altmann BYOB amp, it is very difficult to compare it to any tube or SS amp. It just sounds right and to be honest I can not explain what is the reason. It does not have a real signature on the sound just let the music flows. Since I own the Attraction DAC/BYOB amp I am just spending my money buying all the different music on different media like CD, DVD and LP. If there is anything in the music to entertain you and grab your attention, this combination will give you the best part of the music. It shows the quality difference between recordings, but does not require your attention to deal with it, you have to deal with the music content only. To be really honest after owning $100k plus amp and CD for some 6 years I can not imagine to find anything which suits me better. On ANY price and I am talking about $2k for the amp and the DAC plus a Macbook against $100k plus amp and CD. I am hooked.