Just spoke to an old client of mine..........Avantgarde owner

Basically I would avoid any 3-way design in a room where you can't sit far enough away for the drivers to integrate, regardless of the type of drivers.

I am forced somewhat in to a fairly close listening distance - between 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 feet from the listening position.  (Currently at 7 feet).

So maintaining coherence at a close seating difference is paramount in my speaker choices.   My Thiels do great given their coaxial driver array, and one reason I chose my Joseph Perspective speakers over the Devore O/96s I was going back and forth on, is that the crossover/driver design of the Josephs are superb for maintaining coherence over varying listening distances, where the Devores required at least 8 feet to truly cohere.

Generally, pretty much every speaker I've owned has been quite coherent for my listening distance.
(I'd love to try horn speakers, but my situation makes those a hard problem).

Dynamic drivers almost always have trouble properly mating with different driver types. Worst I have heard are the Sanders electrostats in this regard although I clearly hear this often with horns as well. 

The Cornwall’s do a fair job until you hear a real horn bass cabinet but they give up some low end. my Thiel 2.3 are awful in the near field but lovely farther out......

what model avant g ?

My Tannoy Dual Concentrics are pretty coherent. It’s nice initially, as if something less is happening, but it’s funny how quick you get used to this effect. I guess the reverse wouldn’t be so easy.

Last year I heard some Monopulse active speakers and whilst far from perfect, they were so, so ridiculously easy to listen to even whilst playing back a stream from a laptop. Again, as if something overly busy but normally present was missing.

Their designer Allan Hendry has been on a mission to integrate driver coherence for decades.

Anyway, your friend must be suffering to have such fantastic speakers and not be able to enjoy them fully. I heard a pair some 15 years ago on the end of some exotic vinyl system playing a 1950s jazz recording and they remain the only pair of speakers I’ve heard that had that spooky imagery.

And yes, it was in a huge room. It had to be due to their sheer size. 

Jond, it is all about the right speaker, for the right room, and the marriage, between them, and the listener. Prof., nice speakers, both, especially for a short listening distance. My modified Lascalas do great, with near field as well. Toe in, as well as angling upwards, is paramount. But as always, Klipsch, or horns in general, are not for everyone. I do use powered subs, which took a week or so, to to get them dialed in, in this space. Audition Audio. I am with you. I have not yet heard a hybrid system, that totally eliminates this anomaly. Admittedly, as much as I have heard, I have not heard it all. Tomic, hey buddy, I mentioned it early in the post. Yea, I hear it, also, with the Cornwall, but have heard so much worse ( still running them in your garage ? ).cd318, he thought I would be interested in purchasing them ( I helped him with the purchase some years ago ).  Unfortunately, I do not have the proper size room for them. I think I could enjoy ( really enjoy ), immensely, the Volti Vittora, with a pair of his ELFs, and the Marchand electronics. I should contact Greg, and see what he can do for me. Concentric drivers, for sure, are coherent, in this respect. With my conversation with him, and my encouragement, I think my client is now, looking to move again, as he moved for a job relocation ( it is a rental home ). To all, thank you for all of your comments. Always, MrD.

No the garage rockers have gone on to a fly rod building / guitar shop in the mountains w an 8 wpc Toolshed amp with the Basis table - sounds freakin fantastic 

Mr. D, ime the audible discontinuities you describe in hybrid speakers can have several different causes. Among them are:

1. If the angular spacing between the drivers is large, and in particular large relative to the wavelengths (which can happen with Avantgarde Trios at close range).

2. If the immediate acoustic environment around one of the drivers is significantly different, like if one of the drivers is subjected to a lot of very early reflections.

3. If there is a large arrival-time discrepancy, particularly in the midrange or treble regions.

4. If the off-axis response of the various drivers is significantly different, particularly in the crossover region(s), resulting in audibly different direct-to-reverberant sound ratios.

5. If there is a particular signature or coloration which is present in some of the drivers but not in others.

6. If the basic propagation characteristics are different, as when combining a line-source panel with a point-source woofer.

These sorts of issues are not necessarily inherent to hybrid speakers. The Dutch & Dutch 8c would be an example of a hybrid that doesn’t have any of them.

Duke
not at Dutch & Dutch dealer

You can easily have a great speaker that does not sound so great because the room is just not big enough for it.

Certainly very large horns can be a problem in most people’s rooms.

The best speakers are not only good but tend to be larger and designed for larger rooms. Lots of contenders for best sound in most people’s rooms at home where certain limitations may not matter. 

I found it very tricky to get the Duo, the smaller horn/hybrid, to cohere- crank the woofers to get impactful bass and they sound discontinuous with the midrange horn; back off the woofers and you improve coherence but the speaker is bass shy. I solved the problem through a combination of positioning in a fairly large room, and adding subwoofers that begin rolling off at 55 hz. I also use DSP on the subs which improves their performance in the room. That, and a change in cartridges, has given me the best performance I’ve ever had from the Duo. Part of the problem may be that the woofer system is playing somewhat high in the range (I’d have to look at where they can cross over, but the difference in character between the horn and dynamic drivers can be exaggerated by some settings).
The Trios would be a hoot with the manufacturer's bass bins. Tres cher, though. Horn loaded woofs would be almost mandatory with the Trios even if they weren’t sourced from Avantgarde. It is sad that the price/value ratio is so poor with the producct- the are now very expensive in the U.S.

I think separate bass bins or subwoofers is a good thing to enable an optimal and coherent setup with larger horns.  

I have a pair of Duo XDs, in a large room and I sit well back from them. No problem with integration of the drivers. My only hesitation on getting them was that I knew it would constrain me to larger rooms. I will just have to be sure the listening room is a priority for the next house!

I have also listened to the Trios, I actually preferred the Duos or Duo Mezzos to them. I think the Trios need a really large room.

I agree, your room, and your future room when you move (a few times perhaps), can be different, even hugely different than when successfully auditioned elsewhere and purchased. Or, bought based on high consensus of reviews/owners.

They may not seamlessly blend as designed/measured at that distance in that room within those decor limitations.

driver level controls: my vintage 3 way speakers have ’brilliance’ and ’presence’ rear controls.

They can work to modify the relative volume driver to driver (after the crossover has done it’s frequency division work). (I’ve tried equalizers, but they work prior to speaker crossover, never got results I preferred).

tricky, or very tricky, but if carefully adjusted, a lot of patience, some help from tools/controls/friends they can improve results, ’save the day’, some, or entirely.

even more tricky, because they are interactive, like an old carburetor, fuel mixture interacts with idle speed, adjust presence changes horn mid before you change brilliance, etc.

15" woofer, horn mid, horn tweet. new enclosure, drivers from fisher president console, from 1958. Electrovoice Drivers, electrovoice crossover, Ceramic/copper wound rheostats (no brand). 16 ohm. they can be seen in one of the pics in this eBay listing

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133527873619

I have used these speakers in 3 separate rooms, and with a variety of tube and ss pre/amps.

My av consultant’s pro sound meter achieves mathematical balance driver to driver and side to side (lot of work/patience/start/break/back at it). However, like my JSE Infinite Slope Model 2’s, the most accurate speakers I have owned, after several years, you might decide perfection is too analytical. I happily went back to my tubes, horns and LP’s.

McIntosh Preamp’s Mode Control has been the true successful tool for this, combined with very very familiar music.

see pgs 6 and 7. it was new for my current mx110z; and I used it on my SS C28

http://www.berners.ch/McIntosh/Downloads/MX110_own.pdf

To get the full range of frequencies of a piano, matched so no wander occurs side to side, no slight height movement out of imaging, oh boy, however, once achieved, you can think of them as if the speaker designer came and designed an individual crossover for your room. Move to a new room, like the shampoo says, ’repeat’.

get Cassandra Wilson’s full range to refine mids, again, no wandering relative to frequency.

also, our hearing changes as we age, and not always symetrically, so adjustment ability can be an asset, again, that McIntosh Mode switch a huge help.

I appreciate everyones feedback. Duke, I completely comprehend every thing you say. With my background, I am still so limited in speaking of those things as you do. And as a speaker designer, I am sure considerations are made by you and applied to many of your clients. Dutch and Dutch are products I have not heard, and sound intriguing. However as I stated in my 2nd comment, Greg Roberts, at this time, would be my go to speakers, Vittora / 2 ELFS, and Marchand. I know the design and are quite comfortable with them, in my current location, or any future location I might be in. Well, maybe not when my son moves me to an old age facility. That, hopefully, is a long way from now. Thank you.......Enjoy, be well and stay safe !

 Thanks for posting this! This helps me put the brakes on my fantasy of getting different speakers. My current dream speaker would be the Sanders electrostatic. I’ve always fantasized about horns...like another poster said, spooky imaging unlike any other!

Currently sitting very near field,about 4 feet away, from my big Spendor SP100s. It works beautifully, with excellent integration of the three different drivers.

Again thanks for this post, you save me a lot of money, and possibly my marriage😃

My Heresy IIIs (and any other Heresy for that matter) have amazing coherency and imaging that I think is due to the fact that the tweeter, mid horn, and woofer are very close together. Very. Due to the horn being so thin it seems...check it out...this had occurred to me some time ago as an "ah ha" moment, and a reason I may go for thee newer version at some point over any other model of Klipsch Heritage speaker...the small compactness really works in my system.

I have a pair of 1982 Khorns which have been upgraded to the full Volti Audio package; The khorns are now at a totally different level, absolutely unbelievable. The sound integration is perfect. No improvement is needed.
Using a 6 wpc single ended tube amp gives all the volume I personally will ever need. Imaging, sound stage and perfect tonal clarity MAYBE can be improved, but how much, and more poignantly, at what costf?
I have no desire to upgrade at all. My curiosity  to try other amps is always there, but unless given to me free, I probably will stay with status quo. I appreciate what I have, but I was always pleased with what I had.

I have designed large full horn systems that one could sit as close as arms reach and not have issues. For a decade I built horn bass systems for AG owners I no longer offer due to size so a few AG owners may have felt the same as you I owned Duos and I really didn't enjoy them.  But I can relate horns match best with horns and hybrid systems are really not the same they miss one of the most important aspects of horn loading a horn-loaded mid-bass if horns fully horn-loaded to 75hz a conventional bass system can be used. The standard ported box under an 800hz mid is extremely suboptimal and I feel is why a good num after hearing a hybrid horn pronounce them as lacking. While I highly respect Duke I don't think the Dutch is a horn at all its a standard monitor with a slight waveguide.

Integration of different drivers is exactly hat held me back from getting a pair of Vaughn’s with the ribbon driver.  unable to hear them due to distance from seller.
when I owned Heresy first gens, I would have kept them forever if they had enough bass. But in a small room they were superb across the board. My son, a musician with critical ears liked them better than much higher priced speakers I have.