Does Avalon speakers have a house sound?

Real music gives you a focus as it should sound. I am a perfectionist and good never will be good enough. Comparing and hearing gives you a lot of information how to deal with it. Many music lovers do not have the knowledge how it should be. Those who know how it should sound do not know how to get it with audio stuff. In 2005-2006 I visited many audiophile people with sets from 10.000 euro till 150.000 euro. Seldom there is a good balance between the equipment. They all make many misstakes and there often are not happy with there set. The main problem is that most cannot listen in a few seconds to all the parts you Judge a system for. They often focus on one part with which they are not happy. Wenn they solve this, often after some time there is a new issue. People often do not know the properties of cables, amps, speakers etc. This is what you have to learn to understand it. I work en think in properties. I use the properties of stuff to make those changements which are needed. Many audiophiles buy parts which are tested well. This doens't make any sense. Audio is al about making the right combinations. Wenn clients send an email with all there stuff I often see the misstakes they make. I send them an email back and try to explain why it wil not work. I always use the properties to explain why it causses problems.

Yeah they sound like a house!!

I know a number of people who bought Avalons and sold them because they couldn't set them up correctly.---
Audio is filled with enticing components which are really dead-ends towards achieving the proper tonal balance. Everything matters, including power and cabling.

One should start with the speaker which is potentially capable. Avalon Eclipse was not the one with the capability. I struggled for 7~8 years to make a decent sounding system. I failed. Without capable speakers, it is the dead-end. Don't waste your effort, time, and money at the dead-end.

When you have capable speakers, the right timber and balance are easy to achieve because you can hear it. Audio is fun with the hope and expectation that you will get there. When you don't hear it, everything become hard and complex.

I am happy with a simple tube system I have now. When you have a good sound with a simple system, who want walls of gears. One should start with capable speakers that one can hear what is wrong and right sound.

In comparison of the last and improved Eclipse to the Monitor Audio Pl-200. The Pl-200 blow away the Eclispe with ease. It was superior in every single part you Judge a speaker for. Time and technique goes on. These days it is more easy and cheaper to get a 3-dimensional image like you can get with the best highend in the past. Still there are many people who spend a lot of money on audio for only a 2-dimensional image. This is caused by the poor knowledge of the peole who buy it. But also caused by the shops who sell it. I was amazed that many shopkeepers were stunned by my 3-dimensional image at the show. Wenn I asked them which amps they sell? They have many 2-dimensional amps for sale. So wenn people do not get the right information they still spend too much money on only 2-dimensional audio. It is that simple!

More aptly, what speaker brand doesn't have a house sound?

Omsed ["Sorry, but coloring up speakers with cables and amps adds distortion (as pleasing as it may be) which heavily masks true detail."]
Can you tell me what brand of cables add distortion?


James63, if your looking for more robust bass performance you might check out the Avalon Compass, Opus, or the higher end Time models. You're not going to find a great deal of Avalon reviews in Stereophile since the US is not their main market.

Which brings me to BOL who's self profess claims of his three dimensional hearing abilities are such that 'manufactures ask for his opinion'. Bol is a biased audio dealer who never fails to lead you to believe he pretty much knows everything audio, in his mind anyway. His compulsion to respond to almost every reply in a thread he has participated in with wordy contrary negativity that often has nothing to do with the original posters question is plain weird. "They are not bad speakers." but (this is were all of his speaker responses end) Monitor Audio's (with their time and phase inadequacies) are way better, 3D and absolutely accurate.

If the Eidolons were at all brittle in the upper frequencies Avalon would have been hammered by the press years ago when they used Spectral/MIT electronics for their 2C3D demos which showed the possibilities of vast sound staging possibilities of dynamic box speakers. Soon after the Avalon faceted enclosure became, and still is, one of the most copied design aspects of dynamic speaker design. I'm sure Avalon uses solid state to voice their products and the majority of Avalon users use solid state with great results.

If they are mis-positioned within a room, reflections could easily cause issues in the upper frequencies. The synergy between the speaker and the rest of the system is such a subjective matter of taste I find many of these claims made here regarding all Avalon designs a likely result of inexperience.

I'm an extremely satisfied Eidolon user and working Musician. I won't deny my Eidolons took a great deal of time to properly locate in my room and even then a more experienced user visited and eliminated the slight toe in and moved them about six inches closer together resulting in a deeper sound stage and the speakers total disappearance in the room. "Dead end," hardly.

Fortuitously, this labor day weekend I played a recorded digital file solo Violin track recorded the week before for the Musician who performed it. He was floored by the playback from my system which includes Carver tube, Cardas, Avalon Eidolons. He said he could even hear his A string going off which he didn't hear at the studio. A search for higher end Avalon speakers (Eidolon on up) discussions will yield a majority of positive responses with many users trading up.

Personally, I never found the Eidolon an exciting speaker at show and store auditions. By comparison they seemed sleepy. Within minutes in my home system their cohesive single source presentation was immediately noticeable followed by their time and phase accuracy. House sound? After some time with my Avalon's I can immediately hear time and phase issues with many other speakers. And yes Bol, that includes your Monitor Audio. To be fair and since replacement tweeters are no longer available for the original Hansen designed Eclipse, I have suggested Monitor Audio speakers to those on extremely limited budgets. Monitor Audio does offer very good performance for their modest price.