Posted by Joe S on April 11, 2003 at 16:19:49:
In Reply to: And I thought horn/SET guys were wild... posted by RobP on April 10, 2003 at 13:06:08:
...as the only speaker I considered before buying my M1s were the AV Duos. Interested enought to audition them in two different systems. And yes, I'm the guy who can't get peaks above the low 90s with Wolcotts.
The Duos driven by either an Art Audio Jota or LAMM M1s were dry, grey (lacking tonal color) had a mid/upper bass s*ck-out that robbed the music of warmth and forward momnentum, and they shouted at odd times when the frquency of the vocalist's notes matched some resonant frequency in the horn causing the occaisional note to artificially project as though shot from a cannon.
OK, given all that, they do have some incredibly compelling strong points. They were marvellously transparent, moreso than the Sound Labs actually - due to the minimal crossover I suspect and the low mass of the compression drivers. (There is a lot of stuff in the SL crossover / interface module and it definitelyy filters the music robbing it of some transparency compared to the Duos.) They are unbelievably dynamic. (The SLs are good for stats when it comes to planars but they don't even hint at the dynamic contrasts of the Duos.) They put the musicians in the room with you in a very much a "they are here" fashion. (This stands in stark contrast to the SLs more "you are there" laid back approach that paints the hall on the other side of the room and lets you listen into it.) This also translates into image size as the huge SL actually puts smaller voices on the stage before you. The Duo gets voices and instruments to much more lifelike sizes in spite of their smaller drivers and overall size. Overall this speaker can be incredibly exciting to listen to.
BUT, the greyness of colors and the mid bass s*ck-out that robbed the music of pace (dynamic but poor sense of forward momentum - very strange) and the vocal resonace cannon shots that stood out like a sore thumb (at least to me) made it a non starter for me. Once you got past the sonic pyrotechnics the speakers particular flaws were just too actively irritating. I really wanted to love the Duos, but couldn't live with them.
The ideal speaker between the two? There is no such thing. It depends upon your priorities. I think the best would be the Duos with an integrated bass, no horn colorations and a better sense of tonal color. In some ways I think the Duo as is is closer to being a fully realized product that gets closer to the sound of live music. But the Sound Lab is the more liveable speaker, as it is more forgiving, has a better integrated (if a bit overblown) bass and lets you ignore its deficinces and get lost in the music - provided you are not hooked on dynamic jump and excitement at all costs (the Duos forte).
This rather less than glowing assessment of the Duos should at least help put my own previious posts on my Mls in some proper context to asseess and better understand where I'm coming from.
The fact is speakers are the most flawed components in our systems. Compromises here are always acute, easy to hear and vary wildly from speaker to speaker. I think these are two of the best, but I still hear lots going wrong in them. In spite of that most everything else is total junk and there isnt anything else (except the Trios) that I would even consider owning. But thats just my opinion...
And while I'm offering up opinions I have to say to the webmaster that the fact I had to edit this message to replace the u in s*ck-out with an * just to get this message to post is b*llsh*t.
joe