Peter's Vitavox corner horns excel in integration and midbass, at least on the material that I have heard so far. I will be curious how Black Sabbath "War Pigs" sounds on them.
Natural Sound
- Thread starter PeterA
- Start date
Peter's Vitavox corner horns excel in integration and midbass, at least on the material that I have heard so far. I will be curious how Black Sabbath "War Pigs" sounds on them.
When i got my first amps i also tried different tube input stages but realized that i had to start from scratch if i wanted an all tube amp. Now i have balanced inputs as the speakers themself are balanced by nature so that made sence to me but makes everything in the signal chain more complex.
FWIW i am happy with my system as is of now and do not feel any issues in the bass region (one can even feel punches in the lower end midrange like snare drums etc. or feel the vibrations of a chello instead only hearing the instrument making it "come to life").
Attachments
Last edited:
This is interesting to me. This is yet another example of the un-bridgeable subjective sonic divide.
Brad and I will never understand how others can find that Avantgarde speakers driven by solid-state amplifiers sound natural and believable.
The best I ever heard Avantgardes sound was with Thomas Mayer amps (don’t remember which anymore) and a demo from the guys in Monaco using Audiopax amps. Both times these were Duos. I heard a good Trio demo with tubes as well but can’t remember the brand.
The worst was Duo XD with SS... very forward, very aggressive and thoroughly unpleasant. The other was big Duo Grosse with I think Luxman or Esoteric amps...dreadful...everything you wouldn’t be able to live with.
Avantgarde themselves only make solid state amps for their speakers. From a review by Roy Gregory in Audiobeat:
"But in the end, buyers of ambitious horn-based speaker systems want more than a slim-line integrated to do the driving. And there’s the rub, the continuing conundrum that has confronted Avantgarde from day one. Their speakers place very specific demands on the partnering amplifier. With sensitivities across the range that get comfortably into three figures, low noise is a critical consideration, but so too are dynamic range and speed of response. After all, there’s no point in building those qualities into the speaker if you crush them out of the signal before it even gets that far. Then throw in the fact that the spherical horns are used in a hybrid array, underpinned by active subwoofers, and it becomes apparent that the matching amplification needs more than just dynamics and speed -- it needs authority too. It’s no accident that all Avantgarde’s amplifier designs have been solid state, nor that every time I’ve heard the speakers sounding glorious it has been with solid-state amps -- and most of the times they’ve disappointed it has been with tubes."
From:
Avantgarde XA Power Stereo Amplifier and XA Pre Preamplifier - The Audio Beat - www.TheAudioBeat.com
read audio reviews, ratings, and user opinions on audio equipment before you buy an audio system
www.theaudiobeat.com
This a typical technical article of a reviewer without a technical background..... nice read, that's all...
For me going with SS on horns is a bit like drinking riesling on a cold night… brrrrr
I completely get that some speakers do need SS but for me the advantage of horns is to be able to get the best out of SET electronics and vice versa.
I would guess that with Peter’s Lamms the bass quality would align beautifully with his horns. More as a complex deep shiraz perhaps.
Last edited:
+1 for Avantgardes, under certain circumstances.
I have had Trios for years and heard them with 3 different solid state amps, the best matching of which were the Grandinote's. Thing is, all 3 made the sound harder, more... artificial & less like music compared to tubes.
Roy G is right about one thing, set up of them is everything.
My 5w PX25 amps aren't perfect but after 15 years of fine tuning the speaker position / wiring / components / speaker cables / subs integration they make a very acceptable sound TO ME. Which is all that matters, right?
I'm not going down the road of whether the sound it makes is natural or not.
....but its certainly beautiful.
I have had Trios for years and heard them with 3 different solid state amps, the best matching of which were the Grandinote's. Thing is, all 3 made the sound harder, more... artificial & less like music compared to tubes.
Roy G is right about one thing, set up of them is everything.
My 5w PX25 amps aren't perfect but after 15 years of fine tuning the speaker position / wiring / components / speaker cables / subs integration they make a very acceptable sound TO ME. Which is all that matters, right?
I'm not going down the road of whether the sound it makes is natural or not.
....but its certainly beautiful.
If I remember correctly the three amplifiers Avantgarde in Frankfurt demonstrated the big Trio system with were all tube amplifiers.
Avantgarde themselves would disagree with you. They only make SS amps for their speakers.
Just pointing out their philosophy, I'm not claiming they're right. I am a tube amp guy myself, BTW, even though I can appreciate great solid state, e.g., Spectral, CH Precision, Simaudio Moon (from what I am familiar with).
But they are from Rhine riesling terroir Al… and yes it is just a preference. But they also favour dsp so it does kind of fit in with the design philosophy. I’d still love to also hear them with SET though.
Last edited:
It is in the name....
1: Digital , many here have an aversion already with this term alone...
2: Sound, wel that i guess is not bad by itself...
3: Processing, a paradox....
We can combine , let's see...
Digital Sound.... everyone knows what this is and nobody wants this.
Sound Processing, mmm still a paradox to natural.
So DSP is good in conference rooms and cinema surround sound etc. but has nothing to do with natural as far as i am concerned...
1: Digital , many here have an aversion already with this term alone...
2: Sound, wel that i guess is not bad by itself...
3: Processing, a paradox....
We can combine , let's see...
Digital Sound.... everyone knows what this is and nobody wants this.
Sound Processing, mmm still a paradox to natural.
So DSP is good in conference rooms and cinema surround sound etc. but has nothing to do with natural as far as i am concerned...
Last edited:
Attachments
actually the “s” in DSP is in fact “signal” and that is partly why it can sound unnatural….
a “proper” installation - wish I could do something like that
They had their own SS amps, and the AN 300b 9w, and the Airtight 300b 9w, but that is because I had arranged for the other 2 to be their that day, given that on my previous visit when they only had the SS I thought the higher frequencies needed improvement.
The AN was unable to drive it properly but the Airtight drove it sufficiently.
I later heard it in Monaco at Geoffrey Armstrong's place but don't remember what the amp was then, it wasn't audiopax at that time.
Thanks for pointing this out, Bill
I do not hold a grudge against any attempt to create a uniform frequency spectrum, but this is only one of the aspects to consider in a audio system as we all know and in some cases in trying to overcome one evil we create multiple new ones....
Similar threads
