Avalon Acoustics - Are they still relevant/competitive ?

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mdp632

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May 17, 2016
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We don't hear or read much about this brand anymore. Especially in North America.

It looks they are still in business and releasing new models.

However, they don't have the dealer network and marketing behind them like Magico and Wilson as an example.

That doesn't mean that Avalon doesn't make a good product.

I also hear that Avalon has a much larger presence and does quite well in the Asian market.

Thoughts or comments?
 
Wasn’t the late Charlie Hansen of Ayre-fame one of the founders?


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Kuoppis said:
Wasn’t the late Charlie Hansen of Ayre-fame one of the founders?


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That I'm not sure of. Although both companies are from Colorado so, perhaps that is the connection.
 
A dealer friend in Canada brought them in. Said they were trying to rekindle an old flame. After break in, they got rid of them all. Said they were not great.

They reached out to me a few weeks ago and were quite determined to make me a dealer. I politely told them “no thanks”.

To be fair, I haven’t given them much of a listen lately.
 
Mike said:
A dealer friend in Canada brought them in. Said they were trying to rekindle an old flame. After break in, they got rid of them all. Said they were not great.

They reached out to me a few weeks ago and were quite determined to make me a dealer. I politely told them “no thanks”.

To be fair, I haven’t given them much of a listen lately.
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Thanks Mike. Yes, it seems that the competition at Avalon's price points are far greater than it was years ago.

Magico specifically, seems to have every price point covered in the high end dynamic driver loudspeaker market now with the introduction of the A series.

I heard the Saga once a few years ago at relatively local dealer who carried Avalon along with Magico.

I remember been blow away by the Avalon at that time.

Building a six figure speaker (Avalon Saga MSRP) out of wood in 2019 I don't think is appealing. Especially, when the competition is using aluminum and now carbon fiber.

Needless to say I haven't been there in years but, a quick look on that dealer's website and Nope; no more Avalons.
 
mdp632 said:
Building a six figure speaker (Avalon Saga MSRP) out of wood in 2019 I don't think is appealing. Especially, when the competition is using aluminum and now carbon fiber.
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I don't see that wood can be a problem. Many of the speakers that I heard made with strange materials also sounded ... strange!
The Saga seems to sound pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sCpRE5uHSA

But, as always, the Avalon must be very ugly because I always see them with their "burka" :rolleyes:
 
Spock said:
I don't see that wood can be a problem. Many of the speakers that I heard made with strange materials also sounded ... strange!
The Saga seems to sound pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sCpRE5uHSA

But, as always, the Avalon must be very ugly because I always see them with their "burka" :rolleyes:
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Sure, they sound good. A speaker is the sum of all their parts that make up the sound.

But, I was just referring to their competitors that place at similar MSRP are using more advance cabinet materials.

You can only make wood so strong etc...

I'm not a Magico owner nor fanboy but, they started out with wood, then aluminum and now on the high end M series Carbon Fiber.

The stiffer the cabinet for the drivers the better.

Hell there is even a company that makes speakers out of granite. But, I can't recall their name.
 
mdp632 said:
Sure, they sound good. A speaker is the sum of all their parts that make up the sound.

But, I was just referring to their competitors that place at similar MSRP are using more advance cabinet materials.

You can only make wood so strong etc...

I'm not a Magico owner nor fanboy but, they started out with wood, then aluminum and now on the high end M series Carbon Fiber.

The stiffer the cabinet for the drivers the better.

Hell there is even a company that makes speakers out of granite. But, I can't recall their name.
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While the speakers in our main system aren't made out of wood, there are modern speaker manufacturers that use wood, like Boenicke.
Some of their transducers sound mighty fine to my ears.
I wouldn't discard wood as speaker material.
 
mdp632 said:
Sure, they sound good. A speaker is the sum of all their parts that make up the sound.

But, I was just referring to their competitors that place at similar MSRP are using more advance cabinet materials.

You can only make wood so strong etc...

I'm not a Magico owner nor fanboy but, they started out with wood, then aluminum and now on the high end M series Carbon Fiber.

The stiffer the cabinet for the drivers the better.

Hell there is even a company that makes speakers out of granite. But, I can't recall their name.
Click to expand...

There are no bad materials, only bad applications of materials.
 
bart said:
While the speakers in our main system aren't made out of wood, there are modern speaker manufacturers that use wood, like Boenicke.
Some of their transducers sound mighty fine to my ears.
I wouldn't discard wood as speaker material.
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+1 Boenicke speakers sounded incredible to me and have great value for the money. They easily kicked the ass of MANY fan favorite,
sicophant-followed high priced favorites I heard in Munich.

Don't ever discount wood as a material, only those who don't know what the frack they are doing with it :D .

Same statement for various types of veneers and stone.

Daedalus (Lou): knows that he is doing with high-quality, beautifully curated wood...there's another for the list!
 
mdp632 said:
started out with wood, then aluminum and now on the high end M series Carbon Fiber.

The stiffer the cabinet for the drivers the better.
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You have confused advertising/marketing with engineering science.

Nevermind it's "all subjective", whereas cabinet materials are objective facts. If it's the former, then the only thing that matters is how Avalons, or ______, sounds to you. Not materials, price, looks, popularity, street cred, etc, etc....right??
Maybe give them a listen and see...excuse me, hear what they can do.

cheers,

AJ
 
I remember this same conversation around paper drivers Vs new materials.

Thank God no one is longing for the days of metal dome tweeters!


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Based on my understanding Beryllium is a metal. Aren’t companies like Magico, Focal and TAD still propagating Beryllium tweeters? Also, Giya use other metal and Harbeth aluminum tweeters.

Guess we’re not completely over that trend yet...


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Properties like stiffness which can be good for things that you want radiating sound, like drivers, may not be what you want for things that you don't want radiating sound. Like cabinets. Engineering 101, the opposite of Marketing 101.
If sound is ones number 1 priority, I'd suggest giving Avalons or _____ or Zu, etc a listen.
If it's flavor of the minute popularity, street cred, etc, etc., maybe do a poll. :)

cheers,

AJ
 
Kuoppis said:
Based on my understanding Beryllium is a metal. Aren’t companies like Magico, Focal and TAD still propagating Beryllium tweeters? Also, Giya use other metal and Harbeth aluminum tweeters.

Guess we’re not completely over that trend yet...


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TAD is definitely still using Beryllium in their concentric driver for the R1 MK2 & MK3 and the CR-1. Don't know about the line-up below the CR-1 but the top speakers
still employ TAD's one of a kind vapor-deposition technology to leverage beryllium with harsh sonic side effects of ways of constructing beryllium drivers. Yes, it is a metal
and we are definitely not over the trend. Properly matched cable and power for the TAD R1 MK2 when I had them never exposed any harshness in that driver at all. To me,
Be and other metals are no different than use of diamond or other super-hard substances,....if you design and build with it properly, you'll get good results, perhaps an overly
simplistic viewpoint on my part...
 
SCAudiophile said:
Don't ever discount wood as a material, only those who don't know what the frack they are doing with it :D .

Same statement for various types of veneers and stone.
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One of the best sounding systems I've heard, local club member, uses no cabinet at all ! Drivers are pretty much free air.
A bit like MBL.
 
AJ Soundfield said:
One of the best sounding systems I've heard, local club member, uses no cabinet at all ! Drivers are pretty much free air.
A bit like MBL.
Click to expand...

Can definitely believe that...open baffle, no cabinet/infinite cabinet boundary is a well known way, when done right, to build a great speaker!
 
Kuoppis said:
Based on my understanding Beryllium is a metal. Aren’t companies like Magico, Focal and TAD still propagating Beryllium tweeters? Also, Giya use other metal and Harbeth aluminum tweeters.

Guess we’re not completely over that trend yet...


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Click to expand...

Yes. Was thinking of some really bad inverted titanium-dome tweeters of the 90’s.
 
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