Any avantgarde acoustic owners?

I do not own the Avantgarde Duo's, but I would love to :-)

I have listened in detail to TOTL models from Focal and Sonus Faber  and to my ears the Avangarde's Duo's  topped them both - not by a small margine either.

Now maybe it's my ears, but the details, clarity and dynamic speed of the Avantgarde's won me over immediately. And in case you are wondering I tried all three at the same audio store that had them setup with very similar components & cables.

The Avantgarde's also provided the largest sweet spot and image.

All the speakers had plenty of  room to "breath" and I did not notice any reflections from any of them.

Now If I could just win that lottery...

Regards - Steve 

At Axpona last year, Avantgarde Acoustic had one of the most impressive rooms I have ever listened to. I waited over 20 minutes till a spot opened for me to sit down. which was not so bad, as the sound was great standing in the back. My friends and I were stunned at the sound stage and the live sounds coming out of those speakers, including the monster bass thing in the middle. The room was less than perfect to say the least, but wow.

I also have the Duo (225 era) supplemented by a pair of 15 inch subwoofers that are DSP’d. The speakers mesh wonderfully with SET amplification and require a little fiddling to get them to play well without being too reticent in the bass or lacking in cohesion between the integrated woofers and the midrange horn. Due to their efficiency, you can hear gremlins in grounding and power that may be masked in other systems. These speakers made me work to get a very low ’noise floor’ but it was worth it. Differences in recordings, cartridges, VTA settings, etc. are pretty obvious. Get them set up just so and they can be marvelous. My system page here has some pics of the set up installed in Austin, TX.
PS: on this era of Duo, there is no crossover on the midrange horn which lends it an immediacy that can be quite lifelike with the right amp. You connect the amp output directly to the midhorn, and then run jumpers to the tweeter and woofer module. I've been using Lamm ML2 for a dozen years and they are very synergistic. I came from electrostatics and have always been about the midrange first. Though I keep a restored pair of old Quad ESLs in a vintage system (a pair that I have owned since 1973!), I don't feel like the midrange in the Duo is compromised by comparison. 

fyi... Avant-garde Are Not Horn speakers!   They claim that they are horn speakers but in fact they are a copy of horn style/hybrid type of speakers.  

If they are true horn speakers;  it has to have compression drivers and horn load enclosure!  

@nickecb    My god, man! You could be on the threshhold of the audio grail of the highest order. If you can provide the not inconsiderable care and feeding (and space!) these drivers demand and can somehow come up with appropriate horns and a competent xover design (hopefully all analog) to open them up and let them breathe then you will have probably reached the apex of what is possible in lifelike audio. Goto is legend to me and I would drive a thousand miles to experience them.

Please tell me you don't live in Auckland.