Amps that sound great with Avantgarde speakers ?

KeithR said:
Great to hear about your experience, Jordan. The Thomas Mayer stuff would probably be first in line if i splurge on Duo XDs some day. Viva Solista a close second.

One other amp I'd love to hear on AGs is the new 47 Labs amp. Minimal parts, circuit path.
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Good point, Keith. The Viva and VAC were on my "lust list" after buying Mike's AG Duo Mezzo's. With such efficient speakers I was drawn toward the concept of building around just the watts I needed, though. I also felt Mike had gone above and beyond with sending me his MSB Premier DAC to trial with no strings attached so probably resisted fully vetting the Viva or the VAC. I didn't want to be asking so much for no guarantee I would buy, especially with big heavy amps.

The 47 Labs looks interesting, Keith. It does use alot of NFB though which might not be ideal for the short throw drivers in the AG's. Nevertheless, I hadn't ever even looked at the amp prior to your post...interesting approach.
 
I tried two gainclone amps on AG, the Audiosector Patek SE and Valab Vanus, both are based around the LM1875 or LM3875 chip like the 47 Lab. Yes the signal paths are extremely sort, in the case of the Valab there are so few components the circuit is actually hardwired. You should understand the pedigree of these chips, they are used in boom boxes and soundbars because they are cheap, compact and simple by design. I sold off the Patek and kept the Valab which powers a widebander I use on my desk top. They sound much better than you'd think i.e meaty, rich tonality/textures on AGs but not the ultimate in resolution.
 

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Back when I was involved as the North American Avantgarde distributor, I tried the 47 Labs gear.

Technically, it was excellent. Unfortunately (to me at least), that's how it sounded - technical.

No musical involvement at all. Hopefully, they have improved that aspect after 15 years or so.
 
Germanboxers said:
When I received the Duo Mezzo’s, I had the ARC Ref75SE. Not a great combination, so I tried my Valvet A4 mono’s and preferred them considerably. On my prior Zu Definitions Mk 4’s, the ARC was easily the better. Tried my friends Atma-Sphere MA-1’s (originally mine). It was excellent, but they need the Hexfried diode upgrade and lower gain version to be livable with the AG’s, just too noisy. I then traded my ARC for my brother’s Audion Black Shadow 845 SET (mine originally). Definitely the right direction.
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I'm interested in you Valvet experience. I have recently purchased Duo XDs and have been considering the 12 watt Valvet E2se rather than the more powerful A4 monos. The E2se is single ended (rare for solid state I believe) and at leat one Duo or Mezzo owner favours this model. Have you heard this amp? Peter
 
I haven’t heard the E2se, but have heard good things about it from more than one I would even fathom a guess that as a single-ended design and lower, but sufficient power for the AG’s, might be a better option than the A4’s. That said, the A4’s are incredibly good amps for what they do and what they cost.

Good luck!
 
I’ll jump in to say that after a loooong break in, the valvet E2se is stunning. More than enough power. And once broken in, smooth, sweet, 3D, quiet, and layered with depth.
 
Thanks for the Valvet comments. I've spoken with the UK distributor today and he will arrange a loan of his demo E2se when he gets it back from a dealer. It'll be interesting to compare it with my very different Purifi-based Class D amp. Peter
 
I’d love to see your thoughts on the valvet. I hope you concur with my opinion but I know gear is so personal.
 
joeinid said:
I’d love to see your thoughts on the valvet. I hope you concur with my opinion but I know gear is so personal.
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Hi Joe - of course I'll post here.

Incidentally as you probably know I have my new Duo XDs but still have my 2006 pre-Omega Duos. These are 3 generations earlier if you consider the Grosso as a pre-XD Duo with 12" drivers. I have both pairs of speakers rigged up to my amp via a Speaker Switcher placed on the table in front of me. Not ideal as the effective lengths of speaker cable are 8 meters or so, but I can compare one pair with the other by pushing a button. I had 2 friends around the other evening and we listened to numerous tracks while switching speakers. Very strange because there is a significant difference in the sound, but which we preferred varied continually. Even during some tracks, the comment was "I prefer the last speakers" and later when switched back, the same comment - or vice versa. And my friends didn't know which they were listening to. After a couple of hours there was still no consensus. I conclude that my old speakers are still very good (possibly improved by my support and isolation mods) and stand up very well with the latest XDs. This is pretty disappointing after spending so much on the new speakers!

I'm now in touch with Armin Krauss of Avantgarde and I'm hoping we can get the new speakers sounding better. I still have plans to ditch the upright support poles and the spikes, but I'd like to talk these ideas over with him first. I hope AG won't follow the very unhelpful "If you change anything, your warranty is void" attitude. I don't think they will as his boss Helgar Fromme has favourably commented on the mods to my old Duos!

My efforts with Dirac Live have been frustrating and disappointing. I had hoped that this procedure would provide pointers as to where to make speaker adjustments with the XD software. However, after running Dirac twice very carefully, it has produced poor sound, in particular it has over-emphasised the left channel so soloists have shifted over to that side. Again I'm in correspondence with NAD who include this in their M33 amp - no reply yet.

I'll post again with a progress report. Peter
 
Peter,

Good luck with the optimization. I’m sure I could use a little tweaking but overall extremely happy.

I’m sure you’ll get taken care of. Fingers crossed!
 
Jim Smith said:
Back when I was involved as the North American Avantgarde distributor, I tried the 47 Labs gear.

Technically, it was excellent. Unfortunately (to me at least), that's how it sounded - technical.

No musical involvement at all. Hopefully, they have improved that aspect after 15 years or so.
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That's interesting, Jim. Especially since an SET friend of mine recommends them and likes only 2 or 3 SS amps. Perhaps the Gaincard just wasn't a good match with high AG impedance.
 
I have been using with AG Trio ( and heard in my friends system) lately Audio Note ( UK) 211-variants ( Jinro, Tomei, Ongaku ). Very, very good sounding. Ongaku was one of the best ever heard with Duo Mezzo XD. ANUK 300B-amps are also very good. Also many First Watts, Ear amps work well. Even monster ASR worked well.
 
Curious if anyone has listened to, or tried Avantgarde’s own X-series amplifiers with their speakers? Just a thought anyway...I have always liked the looks of them, and ability to get them with different face plate colors, interesting, but I have never listened to them, as my closest dealer doesn’t have the electronics. Not sure if he ever has.
 
Frazeur1 said:
Curious if anyone has listened to, or tried Avantgarde’s own X-series amplifiers with their speakers? Just a thought anyway...I have always liked the looks of them, and ability to get them with different face plate colors, interesting, but I have never listened to them, as my closest dealer doesn’t have the electronics. Not sure if he ever has.
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Yes. Not my cup of tea. VAC, SIT3, Viva, all tops:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Thanks for your reply, Mike. It would seem you have plenty of various bits to compare to the Avantgarde amps, so you would know! I do not believe I know anyone that has heard them, so no idea of their signature at all. Not that I am in any position to look for anything in this price bracket either, I am pretty well set for the longer haul.
 
Frazeur1 said:
Curious if anyone has listened to, or tried Avantgarde’s own X-series amplifiers with their speakers? Just a thought anyway...I have always liked the looks of them, and ability to get them with different face plate colors, interesting, but I have never listened to them, as my closest dealer doesn’t have the electronics. Not sure if he ever has.
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Yes, I have.

Too bad they do not sound as good as they look. The speakers can sound better, and be far more musically involving with other electronics, including those mentioned here.

I really wanted to like them, but to no avail.

Just my opinion, not stated as irrefutable fact…
 
I was pleasantly surprised Sunday when I hooked up a naim supernait3 up to my Duo Mezzo XDs. It worked very very well. Much better than I expected. It wasn't as good as the VAC or my Border Patrol, but it's also 1/10 the price of those.
 
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