Good standmounts & stands?

jtc

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Apr 10, 2007
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John
Hi folks. I'm new here but an old hand over on PFM. Basically I am downscaling my main speakers (Audiophysic Avanti mkIII) after a lot of, ahem, heated discussion with She Who Must Be Obeyed.

So, I'm looking for a small speaker which can give me many of the qualities of the Avantis whilst working close to a wall. Must look good, have a decent bass response (but not overblown) and be dynamic and with electrostatic-like speed. All of these things the Avanti has in heaps, and I would like to see if I can do better than my current 'stand-ins'.

I have a pair of AVI Pro Nine+ in yew finish, which I bought a couple of months ago. They are very good speakers in their own right, but simply outclassed by the Avantis.

Assuming I get my £4k for the Avantis (or at least £3.5k), I would like to put £2k of the proceeds into the bank and get a smaller speaker, preferably used and mint, which will be:

(a) good sounding;

(b) fast;

© good looking (no ugly boxes);

(d) available s/h within budget including GOOD stands.

In fairness, I could probably live quite happily with the Pro Nine+ speakers, as they do little wrong and their only sin is in sounding a bit less open and ultra-detailed as compared to the Avantis. Otherwise, they do bass well enough (though nowhere near as deep as the Avantis) to make me be able to live without a subwoofer.

HOWEVER, I want some ideas for alternatives that might be worth checking out.

My amp may or may not be an AVI Integrated (depending on some other matters) and it might be that a different amp:speaker combo would deliver what I'm after. I asked this on PFM and got some good ideas, so now it's time to see what you guys can come up with. When I get the Avantis sold, I'll know how much I can spend and see what I can do...

Cheers,

john

 

jtc

Wammer
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Apr 10, 2007
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John
They do, but they're pricy. Plus, I sort of want to make a clean break from the AudioPhysics, not for sonic reasons but just because if I stay with the marque, I'll always be comparing to their bigger sisters...

 

Jasper

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Jul 29, 2005
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I have a pair of GamuT L3s which are beautifully made. I think they look stunning, would be hard for your wife to object to those. Mine are still running-in, but they have the ability just to make sense of music which I have not encountered from another speaker. Should fit your budget if you can find some s/h.

Alternatives might be the WB Arcs and at the other end of the scale SF Cremona Auditors both new within your budget and hard to beat.

 

kennyk

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Aug 8, 2005
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just get a Tannoy Prestige series brochure and leave it lying around.
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G

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Guest
Well WB arcs , Focal 1007 and Sonus Faber are defintely three different flavours to try imho. Some good suggestions there.

 

The Hifi Gallery

Wammer
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Sep 1, 2005
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Mr Cat wrote:

but surely if you've got standmounts on stands then the overall footprint is the same..? no?
it's often much more, standmounts often have to be further out into the room, as their ports are giving off more energy, so need room to breath.

 

jtc

Wammer
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Apr 10, 2007
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John
I should have said that the standmount requirement is so that they can work close to a rear wall. The Avantis are DEEEEP speakers - perhaps 20" (when you include the inclined cabinet) - and they do like a bit of space to breathe too.

So, compact floorstanders that work close to a rear wall are another option. In fact, the standmount requirement is partly of my own doing, as I reckon a typical standmount at £1000 (say) would be better, overall, than a floorstander at the same price.

Oh, and cabinet size is very important. Tannoy DC cabs of all descriptions may not apply (unless they can be shrunk considerably)...

 

jtc

Wammer
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Apr 10, 2007
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John
Paul - just realised who you are (I think) - will you guys be getting the AVI ADM9 actives in? I am wondering if this might be a more sensible option given my circumstances?

 

audioboy

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Jan 25, 2006
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This is completely off topic, but i was interested to see what the Audiophysic Avanti mkIII looked like. I went to the Audiophysics web page and could not believe the level of toe in that almost all the pictures of almost all the Audiophyscis speakers are shown at. Im sure i heard somewhere that these speakers normally required, no, to little toe in, but the pictures on the web site show serious teo in (more than 45 degrees in some cases).

 

rockmeister

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Jul 24, 2005
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John
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  1. No
anything with a rear port is not going to want to be closer than 18" (tho you can always bung in the foam to calm things down a bit). No idea what avanti's sound like, but why not just show your wife some piccies and choose that way...that way also you'll buy the best speaker from the suggestions so far...focal 1007's
smile.png


audioboy...EH? You must be looking at a different page. The apavanti page has just one pic I could see with about 5 degrees toe in shown:?
71_71.gif.90e48c720ca56a2d2fa0532dd3380cc7.gif


 

The Hifi Gallery

Wammer
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Paul
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  1. Yes
jtc wrote:

Paul - just realised who you are (I think) - will you guys be getting the AVI ADM9 actives in? I am wondering if this might be a more sensible option given my circumstances?
not sure if we'll get them in, but can reccomend the ART stiletto floorstander though, have had it around 4 inches from wall and it still sounds great (£995) have the speed and detail of your avantis, but perhaps not the Low bass, but wht there is is very natural.

 

jtc

Wammer
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Apr 10, 2007
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John
I don't know what the Focals look like, but so long as they're not like the Utopias which are simply hideous looking things (and a main reason I never for one second considered them).

As far as the Avantis are concerned - they operate fine in a normal speaker arrangement, though the optional 'AudioPhysic positioning technique' does require a fair amount of toe-in. It does deliver the goods though. However, it's not at all practical in anything other than a dedicated room.

A friend of mine (Simon) who lives in the same town has Virgo IIIs and is lucky to have a dedicated room (albeit small) and gets fantastic results with a nearfield version of the AP positioning method. I'm not so lucky - much better speakers but somewhat compromised by the need to also use my room for other things...

Here's a pic (from my ad)

3yjnj7


 

jtc

Wammer
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Apr 10, 2007
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Fife Riviera, UK
AKA
John
can reccomend the ART stiletto floorstander though, have had it around 4 inches from wall and it still sounds great (£995) have the speed and detail of your avantis, but perhaps not the Low bass, but wht there is is very natural.
Thanks for the recommendation but I have heard them and whilst they're nice enough speakers, the Tempo 3i I heard at the same time was better - and the Avantis are MUCH better than the Tempos... actually, I reckon the Avantis are way better than the Emotions too, but I know you'll disagree (and that's what makes this hobby fun)...

 

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