Building a system around the Avanti 3's, need help

I agree with Gregm's comments about the Avanti's. I have a pair of Avanti III's matched with a Berning ZH270 amplifier with cryo'd nos tubes. The Berning is a kind of OTL design (no transformer) and is very fast with great bass, wonderful midrange, and clean highs. It is really a terrific combination, and I think the Berning deserves to be on your short list if amps. I think someone on audiogon has paired the Tenor 75 amps with the Avanti, and I'll bet that is spectacularly good - the Tenor's are the best amps I have ever heard. My personal opinion is that it is critical to get the amp-speaker combination right first, then build the front end components, then the cabling etc. By the way, I am not using a preamp, because the Berning has an a/b selector switch and a volume control. If you have only two sources, this is great way to go. If you need remote volume control, Placette makes a passive volume control that is completely transparent.

One interesting thing I have noticed about my setup is that I get really good, clean bass from the Avanti's. One factor may be that I have them on a hardwood floor, and they have a down firing bass port on the bottom of the speakers.

Good luck on your quest. Let us know what you end up with and how it sounds.

John gives good advice. Having lived with Avanti & heard & helped set up quite a few, I'll try to set some ground rules & maybe also explain where John 1 is coming from.
General comments: FAST speakers; easy to make them chirp, but TRICKY to get the last ounce out of them. The tweeter will NOT tame (roll off, etc) any harshness that's fed to it; the lower mids need current to emerge. Generally it's a VERY precise speaker. IMO, it's a phase & pitch correct speaker -- and driven correctly it WILL offer seamless, fast sound (good for jazz, that!). For these reasons,

*highly resolving AND musically inclined electronics (as per John1) are necessary.
*Fast & "neutral" (well, as far as we can get that) cables are necessary.
*So, electronics & cables are VERY important. I'd go there first. Then,
*finances permitting, top-notch source components: if not, you'll hear it (but maybe you can live w/ it for some time?).
On digital source, I'll just add that a Capitole II or similar level of performance is what you're looking at.

Using both TT & digital, the following components sounded good (this is MY experience, of course not the absolute list!)

Cables: spm ref, valhalla, bearlabs cables on speakers. Bearlabs, valhalla, purist dominus (very expensive), for IC. I found that Nordost 4fil, a good performer, was bettered by the above IC's.

Electronics: my experience with 3's & tubes is limited, so refer to John, above. I did try and enjoy:
*KR Antares (tube) driven directly, and with a CAT ultimate. *Pathos monos (hybrid) with their own pre. For tube, you might add John 1's ARC (his being the better sounding, older model).

*CAT Ult pre/Symphonic Line pre + Symphonic Line rg4 monos: probably the FASTEST system I have ever listened to.
*YBA passion pre + passion stereo (not far from the old Aleph sound -- s/what fuller & faster. The new YBA pre is better than the old aleph).
*CAT Ult. pre/Symphonic Line RG3+full PS pre + Symphonic Line Kraft 250 classA amp, both stereo & mono versions. The mono's are overkill.

Overall:
The Kraft stereo/CAT combo gave the absolutely BEST sound for active line, followed closely by the YBA combo. On phono, the RG3/Kraft combo gave the best sound, again followed VERY closely by YBA.
The Symphonic Line RG4 monos combo follows. VEry good with rock & jazz

Please note that I judge by classical when evaluating equip. So my opinion is... tainted AND limited by the few amps I've tried on Avanti 3's.

The avanti-centuries. See www.soundstage.com. These were known to image a little better than the 3's, but didn't have as much bass. This is what immedia told me. I haven't heard the 3 in person.

Great speakers & a great value. I felt the avanti's could compete with quite a few of the 20-40K speakers I've heard. Not as powerful, but better imaging and low level detail.

John,
Did you own the avanti 3's, or the older avanti's?

I owned avanti's for a few years. In general, they do not need much power & they favor high quality components and revealing cabling.

Off the top of my head, the best combination I can think of would be:
Audio Aero 24/192 cd player direct driving an ARC v100m2 tube amplifier with svetlana kt88 tubes. Use a nordost quattro-fil ic to connect them & use nordost spm speaker cables.

I think the best solid state for them is pass labs. I used mine with the aleph 2 100w monblocks & aleph P preamp. I later moved up to an X1 preamp. I haven't heard the x series amplifiers yet.

For tube electronics, I had two favorites:
(1) The BAT vk-5i (or vk50se), and an arc vt100
(2) A 15 watt Cary 300 SEI with Western electrics.

For cabling, I found Nordost quattro-fil was my favorite for ic's with SPM speaker cables. I also had good sound using the acoustic zen satori speaker cable. It's a little slow and syrupy compared to spm, but has more harmonics and can tame a bright top end.

I listen to everything really (except rap and country). I mostly listen to jazz, classical and classic rock. I should also say that I am not married to tubes or solid state exclusively. I am open to any suggestions.

Hi Jbo: which Avanti, what kind of music do you MAINLY listen to & judge by, yr tastes in reproduction? This info would help us give meaningful recommendations.
I had Avanti @ home & have heard & set up a few other pairs at friends' & dealers'