Does Avalon speakers have a house sound?

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.

In the past I owned much more expensive stuff than these days. Because my goal was to get a higher level in sound for more people. So I bought less expensive stuff to see how far I can get. To be unnest I never thought I could top many stuff with prices which are a lot higher. Brands sometimes want people to believe that some brands fitts better with there stuff. Like MIT and Avalon. I think this is based on nothing. Why? because with the latest Audioquest even Avalon sounds a lot better than with all the MIT cables which I heard and autioned many many times. Avalon sets a deep and wide stage. But you still need a sharp as a knife individual focus of voices and instruments. Wenn you use MIT instruments and voices both arr never sharp focussed as in real. With Audioquest connected to Avalon I got superior better focus as in real.Still I do not get the sharpness I want. A 3-dimensional image is very easy to understand for people wenn you have a system which can easily persuade and convince. After hearing this you use a 2-dimensional sound. I have to admitt that people say to me that they understand me exactly after hearing my demo. Then my words become very clear and simple to understand. Monitor Audio is the only brand I know to date which all speakers can give a deep and wide stage. This is based on there crossovers. Wenn you use an amp which can give a deep and wide stage it becomes clear how much better they to this job comared to there competitors. The problem is that many shops use only 2-dimensional amps with all there speakers. Then you never know. Monitor Audio England said after hearing my demo: we never heard a demo this good. The reason is very simple. And they admitt; they use amps which are not capable of giving the same level in depth and wide as you do. So I said to them; you limit yourself in most of your shows all the time. For me it is difficult to understand why they choose for a show were the level is that much lower. I wanted to be on that show only to be the best. Only reason why I wanted to be there. So I succeed.

Finally an intelligent response to the Audiogoners original question. Up to this point I was treating my review of responses here as standard humor.

I auditioned the Eidolon (Non Diamond), Indra's, Focal Utopia Scala's, Vienna Acoustic "The Music" and B&W 800D's at a local dealer. Room was professionally designed with appropriate sound treatment - I'll get back to that point in a minute. All of the upstream component's were identical (Pass Labs 100.5's, Playback Designs MPD5, Kubla Sosna Elation cabling, J River playing high rez files.

While all of the speakers mentioned are reference quality and have plus's/minus's, as any other component in this crazy hobby; The Indra's just did something special. They did not deliver the bass weight of the Scala's or VA's, however; the base was tight and accurate. The coherence and transparency they displayed could not be achieved with the others I heard. They just disappeared and made you feel as if you were in the studio listening to a master recording.

Back to set up & room treatment. As Vicdamone articulates, proper placement is key to getting the most out of your system/speakers. Avalon invests pages upon pages in their User Manual as such. Additionally, appropriate room treatment is critical to get any speaker to shine. (Bass Traps, Wall Absorbers, Ceiling panels, etc.) Hence, we all invest gobs of time, energy and $$ to achieve the very best sound in the space we live....Like sand through our fingers.

I am not familiar with Monitor Audio, but I do know this: if you are looking for a speaker that provides tremendous detail (Macro/micro Transients), coherence, sound-staging, etc...You will be ecstatic with Avalon's. The only other speaker I would consider other than Avalon's that provides similar qualities would be the Tidal Contriva Diacera SE. Until then, my Indra's are staying right where they are.

We live in the 21st Century....Self Promotion is NOT a characteristic that is admired or considered credible. BOL.....Cmon Man!

" We live in the 21st Century....Self Promotion is NOT a characteristic that is admired or considered credible. BOL.....Cmon Man!"

Words can be read differently. What is the reason why you use the words you write. At the end it is just about opening people there eyes and ears. Maybe you think it is about me, but it ain't. I am not a genius or God in hifi. Audio is only dead material which can play the music you love and want. My favorite thing in live is music. Emotion is in the music. The best audio set can play the best recording in the world of music you really don't like. There will be no emotion or feeling at all. But a well balanced audio set can improve the feelings of emotion of your favorite personal music. I want other people to get the best emotional feeling with there music. That is the main goal and why I do this work. A deep and wide stage makes listening to music so much more appealing than most 2-dimensional sound of many sets. It is measurable in the smile it gives on other people there faces wenn you have a 3-dimensional image. Voices and instruments are very direct and small in proportion in real. I call this intimate sound. Like the feeling classical live music gave to me. I was pulled to a voice like a magnet. I closed my eyes and I knew were she was. She was in front of me, so small and direct. She took al my attention. This part I Always want in every set I sell. Because it improves the emotional experience it can give. It places me closer to the music and singer. I want to give other people the best emotional feeling with there own music. I try to let people hear the difference in how there music can be played by an audio set. What are the differences and what does it do to your personal feelings. Many people sell to make as much money as they can. What I said earlier; many people with extreme expensive sets play at a much lower level than what could be possible for the money they spend. Sometimes I met people with sets from about 100.000 euro and the end results were so poor. Almost no depth, no controle in the low freq. And even voices and instruments which were poor foccused and too big in proportion. A good balanced system will give you more emotion at the times you play your beloved music. Wenn you use it well it is one of the best emotions you can create.

just call me Bobby

Up to this point I was treating my review of responses here as standard humor.

Tickets! Tickets! Smell something burning with all the brain power cranking.