No I never liked Avalons. I never understood that much touted Spectral/MIT/Avalon triumvirate. Sorry, but they are not my cup of tea, and oftentimes, I thought their sound was so wrong in so many ways, and never realistic
It's wonderful this mixed ideas about the "house sound" of speakers and how our perception of what we hear is so different.
I've had in the last 6/7 years maybe 5 or 6 speakers models, ie Monitor Audio; Xavian, Vivid, Evolution Acoustics, Gryphon (monitors and floorstanders) and then I stopped when I got an Avalon speaker (the entry level IDEA),
To me, of all of them, Avalon has the most realistic sound reproduction, timbre, soundstage, imaging, etc, etc...they completely disappear.
Maybe you didn't hear them properly driven, they are quite fussy about amplification and take ages to be burned in.
For example I've paired them with a SOTA integrated (Gryphon Diablo 300) and also an Accuphase E470 and I didn't like it (which is kinda strange since the Gryphon is a great amp IMO),. With the Accuphase it was more to my taste but not breathtaking.
A friend has a pair equal to mines paired with Jeff Rowland and it's a fantastic combination (Colorado joint venture)
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Then I've tested at home the Nagra Classic amp and I couldn't believe what I was hearing, the speakers literally opened up in a way absolutely magic. I was surrended with this pairing and stopped looking and searching other speakers or amps. Sinergy is fundamental.
Im diverging, you could have heard them properly amped and didn't like it, period.
Ah...this hobby of ours is really marvelous!
Just sharing my opinion.
And sorry to resuscitate such an old post
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Cheers!