Avantgarde Speakers

one of the nicest sounds i've heard came from an oldeer pair of duo's, (w/their earlier *217* subs, not the latest-n-greatest 222's). still, a phenomenal sound, being driven by some home-brew 1.5wpc set tub amps. i've seen the older version duos adwertized for <$6k - stikk outta *my* league; i'm gonna try a pair of newform research nhb645's... doug

The Duos are better than anything I've heard except the Trios. They make virtually everything else sound like hi-fi. Buy a pair, get the amplification right (single ended triodes) and forget about upgrading speakers or amps (unless you're upgrading to the Trios) forever.

Well they finally got a dealer in my neck of the woods. I have got to hear what all the hoopla is about. Kind of afraid to really.

I would like to humbly suggest another horn, the Kochel K300 (6K), 3-way with all horn loading including the bass driver. Art reviewed K300 in Listener and gave them 4.75 stars and stated most neutral horn he has heard. Works great with flea-powered SET's, too. Smaller K200, 2-way better alternative for smaller room. jim@tmhaudio.com

Since i haven't heard any of the Avantgarde speakers, i can only pass on a few observations. I've seen more than a few pair of these for sale in the last few months. Some have been priced quite reasonably while others are not exactly "priced to move". This tells me that either people get bored quickly and need to move on to a new toy or that the sound quickly wears off and gets tiring. As a side note, the finest sounding horns that i've ever heard are some built by Ralph via Klassic Audio Reproductions. Sean >