The perfect speaker

My friend is looking for a an upgrade to his speakers, (Infinity IRS betas), so we went to audition various candidates. During our endeavor, we encountered, what I think is the best speaker that I've ever heard by far. It's the Avant Garde Trio. Holy poop!!! When I heard that thing, I felt like the performance was right there, in front of me. The images were just the right size. The tonal balance was near perfection, the frequency integration, textures, everything was as close to perfect and as close to a live performance as I've heard any speaker reproduce. A completely immersing, and almost spiritual experience.

Alas, there are definite drawbacks. First of all, the damn things are HUGE! These speakers will easily take over your entire room (and they require a BIG room). The horns are the size of a baby elephant plus the version that I listened to had 4 subwoofers that were the size of a mini cooper.

The second drawback is that these babies are EXPENSIVE. The 4 subwoofer version was about $90k. The 2 sub version would be $28k less, but the extra subs weren't overwhelming, so I suspect that the 2 sub version may sound a bit thin.

Needless to say, I won't be buying these any time soon, but if you have the room and the money, you should most definitely check these babies out.

 

Good lord - do those things act as portals into the ultimate music universe or something?

 

what's the thing in between?

Is that part of it or just some big odd thing often found in rich people's houses?

 

Another thing about these speakers that you may want to bear in mind is that they are reported to roll off around 16khz...
I've heard tehse a few times and they are pretty nice, but I wouldn't pay that for them.
I'd rather go the Parry route of the big Tannoys, or if I was in the US investigate vintage Altecs etc.

 

Those are the subwoofers...

 

I've heard those speakers, but without the subwoofers! Didn't realise they came with "those" optional subwoofer too!

Maybe one of the ultimate speakers, depending upon your priorities, but certainly not THE ultimate speaker IMHO.

Certainly for dynamics and scale, utter ease of reproduction of macrodynamics, presence, immediacy and all those kind of things they'd be ideal for someone who had the space to accomodate them.

One nagging doubt I've always had about any Avantgarde speaker I've ever heard, and that is the issues of "colouration". They're not highly/obviously coloured, but there's always this nagging doubt in my mind. But having said that, one of most convincing portrayals of brass band and big band orchestra style music I've ever heard came from a system comprising of a pair of the big Avantgardes.

Agree with Joel on the old big horn loaded Tannoy DC speakers. They're certainly based on similar sonic values to the Avantgardes IMO, and would suit those who have less space.

 

The thing in between are subs. 3 of them. The configuration I heard consisted of 4 subs.

I haven't heard Tannoys, but I have heard the smaller, cheaper Avant Gardes. Whereas they're nice, they don't hold a candle to the big boys.

Re: coloration, I haven't heard any obvious colorations. I wonder if what the other poster heard was coloration higher up the chain.

Personally, I haven't heard a speaker in ANY price range that does a better job of reproducing a "live experience" than these. To me, these are the ultimate ultimates. Not perfect, but VERY close.

 

Hey bif.

Check out the living voice horns if you like the Avant Guard ones.

Heres the link - http://www.livingvoice.co.uk/home.htm

They also manufacture 'bass bins' not subwoofers, but huge seperate horns for bass to go along with the 'scouts' or 'air partners'.

None of its in my price range, but if I had the money/space for ultimate horns, Living Voices they would be.

This picture shows the matching bass bins inbetween.

 

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...........

come to daddy

 

I've heard of bookshelf speakers, but that bass cabinet looks literally like... err... a bookshelf

 

I was thinking that!. Or perhaps that you could put your hifi inside...

Put it on and turn it up, and you'd probably find the bass firing your amp at you at warp 7!

Another question - which is the most visually pleasing? Lvs or AGs?

Toughie! - personally, Id say the LVs are more invisible, and the AGs are more HEY!! look at meeee!

You'd need a 20ft by 30ft living room for either IMHO!!!!..better get that Lotto ticket!

Chris

 

I have heard the full rig with the bass bins. It was one of the only two or three rooms at the Tokyo Audio Show that was worth a candle IMO.
They are *very* large in real life, they take up a huge amount of real etate and they sound very very very large. Possibly too large.
An acquaintance of mine who has better hearing and much more highly evolved listening faculties than myself didn't rate them at all. I think he said the big Avantguardes were "horrible". Horses for courses I guess.
Nevertheless, GrahamN, once he moves out of his London pied-a- terre and into his baronial chateau, should consider these. They do make the very large Westminsters look and sound quite compact yikes:
I would go for Tannoy over the smaller AG, secondhand Tannoys can represent very good value IMO. I would also take a look at the big Westlake (not the tower floor standers) and Rey Audio studio monitors. And of course WE folded horns from the 30s and 40s and classic Altec and Vitavox (which the big Living Voice are a version of I believe). Klangfilm Eurodyn are the best, though.

 

Having heard the cheaper Avant Gardes, I wonder if Tannoys would be able to recreate that almost live experience of the big Avant Gardes because the smaller ones didn't. Not to say that they weren't pleasant and downright nice, but they didn't do what the big ones did. I wonder if you really have to have these huge horns in order to recreate that live space and images and textures.

BTW, the picture of the big avante gardes shows the bass horns, not the traditional subs.

 

These speakers system are extremely out-gracious but if the photos are real listening rooms it is among the top of the list compare to those already submitted in the other thread with that snappy title, Nice hifi but shame about the room.

 

Horns tend to do that to you, once you have heard them, nothing else is quite the same.

True to get that superb mid strength comes at a cost you cannot have it all categorical, the bass is not as deep, though personally I wouln'dt care, as its of a different quality.

Bass is not everything, mid is, provided bass is ok

My choice, either the LVs, or tannoy westminster