Posted by Art Tedeschi on April 10, 2003 at 18:21:16:
In Reply to: And I thought horn/SET guys were wild... posted by RobP on April 10, 2003 at 13:06:08:
Rob,
I can't imagine two different brands/types of speakers at opposite ends of the sonic "taste" spectrum that I admire more than Avantgarde and SoundLab. I have owned SoundLabs since the late 70's (the R-1's and R-2's), and eventually purchased one of the first production pairs of A-1's in 1980 and became a small dealer for Roger West around that time period. I purchased a new pair of A-1's in the mid-90's and must confess that after being exposed to many different systems and loudspeakers (we are lucky to have a number high-end audio manufacturers on the Colorado Front Range), I have never once been tempted to replace the SoundLabs with a different brand.
If you read the posts on this site carefully, I think you will notice that even when some of SoundLab owners with problems seem to be complaining, their tone almost never implies that they wish to replace them with a different brand! I sympathize with those owners (knock on wood), but I believe that the great majority of us have never experienced a glitch (my two pairs of A-1's have operated flawlessly for over 20 years). I must add that these things are NOT fragile or delicate (unlike the musical nuances that they are capable of reproducing). My current pair has been occasionally driven to 110dB+ levels by very powerful solid-state amps with no ill effects over the years.
When mated with quality source material and quality amplification, the SoundLabs come closer to reproducing a musical event than any other loudspeaker in my experience. There's no magic here: The single driver (diaphragm) is lighter than the air around it, and covers the full audio spectrum. The huge surface area guarantees gutsy low-end extension, the height provides for the coherence of a line source as well as vertical soundstaging (you won't hear that from many speakers!), and the 90 degree dispersion eliminates typical electrostatic beaming.
As far as amplification goes, the concensus among most owners on this site seems to be tubes, but I would recommend that you also audition the speakers with quality high-power solid-state amplifiers. I have auditioned the large SoundLabs driven by all the amps favored by owners on this site, and my personal impression is that, while the midrange sonics are pleasant, their overall presentation seems a bit "soft" to me.
Well, that's my 2 cents worth - in conclusion, these speakers have pretty much eliminated all forms of audio neurosis due to the fact that I've never heard anything else come close in all the sonic parameters that are important to me. They have been my last pair of speakers for over 20 years, and nothing's happened to change that opinion.