To Avalon owners,,what should I buy?

I love my Indras. Room is 14' x 33' x 9'.

The Indras are good. The original Eidolons are good. I'd stick with one or the other of these models.

Yesterday we had the local audio group over to our house for an afternoon of music played on our 9 year old Eidolons. The sound was wonderful! The Indras have a bit more lower and mid-bass puchiness than the Eidolons. If you listen more to pop/rock, the Indras might be a better choice for more money. But, if you listen primarily to acoustic music (jazz and classical), the Eidolons consistently should more natural to me. Also, the Eidolons will be available for a at least a couple of thousand under your budget. Take the extra and invest in some really good tube amps. I'm particularly fond of the synergy with the Atma-Sphere MA-2 OTLs.

I would also recommend the Eidolons - ultimately, I found them to have a more sophisticated presentation than the Indras, a touch more resolution, and more transparency through the midband (although to agree with Rushton, the Indras have more authority in the midbass.) Unfortunately, the "newer" Eidolons (Vision and Diamond) are probably a bit out of your price range (tough to find Visions for <$14000 used).

In terms of amplifiers, I think the Eidolons perform their best with high powered tube amps. CAT amplifiers are a particular synergistic match, although VTLs also work nicely (I believe Avalon has been using these at the high end shows). I have also matched them successfully with BAT monoblocks, and even an Air Tight ATM-2.

Mission,

If you do a little research, it appears that Avalon considers the Indra to be a "little" Isis. Apparently the Indra was so good that it forced an update to the Eidolon (The Time). Anecdotal evidence in several reviews and posts online suggests that the Indra made the Eidolon seem a little dated sounding. The Indra has the new Isis crossover design as well as other Isis features and by all accounts is more holographic than the Eidolon (my opinion as well.)

I could have purchased the Eidolons (used), but I simply thought the Indris were better all around.