The Avantgardes will love you long time.

Long time, baby.

Sorry Alex. I didn't mean to presume. It's just that 5 figured numbers were being tossed around on this thread like so much salad. If you aren't in debt, then you are in the catbird seat, because everybody else apparently is.

It sounds like your electronics are already very good. I agree with you, however, that the PS Audio amplifiers may not be the best for Avant-Garde speakers. I doubt that noise would be an issue -- after all, you would only be moving the volume control in sixteenths of an inch. More of an issue would be tonal compatibility, since the DUOs AND a solid-state powerhouse might combine to tip up the upper midrange/lower treble. PS Audio makes very clean-sounding amplifiers, and they certainly are as neutral as most other solid-state amps, but it is the combinations that produce the uncomfortable exaggerations, not the isolated components themselves. Every time I have heard the Duos or Trios, they have sounded best with amp/preamp combinations that tend to sound laid back in other systems. Single-ended Triodes are great with the Avant-Gardes, although Kevin Deal had his Duos (Upscale Audio) hooked up to some very powerful Atma-Sphere tube amps one of the times I was up there, and they sounded terrific.

Good luck.

Quote:
If you aren't in debt, then you are in the catbird seat, because everybody else apparently is.

I am!

You know that the US distributor is changing. Make sure you're comfortable with the new guy before you plunk down the larger. Dealing with Germany without a US distributor can be a pain.

Dave

The best I ever heard the Duos sound was with the Cary SET monoblocks. They are quite expensive, but nowhere NEAR as expensive as the Lamm models (which I have not heard with these speakers). I almost bought the Duos, but, again, the Triangle (both the Volante and Magellan models I ended up with) had the same immediacy with more natural sounding bass. It is difficult, as I hear things, to get the bass on the Duos integrated naturally into the rest of the mix. A lot of the problems are with program material, true enough, but we are all stuck with the software, like it or not. If a system only sounds tolerable on the best 10% of one's software, what good is it? I love my entire collection of LP's and CD's, and I want to hear them all.

For me, this has always been the most difficult issue to deal with when I have gone shopping for upgrades. Which changes will allow me to enjoy the most music, not necessarily the 100 best recordings?

But you are still young, so I am sure that (with the vast fortune JA pays you) you will easily recover from your temporary monetary indescretions. Besides, being young and handsome, you could always whore yourself out to some rich ol' fat broad for a few months. Demand half the payments in gold and silver.

We ugly old farts, being no longer marketable, must live prudently when times get hard (and we don't). It's gonna take more than a few clicks to get me in shape for the flesh trade...

Sorry, Alex. You lost me on this one. Remember, I am culturally illiterate. I only watch TV to gauge market sentiment from the meatheads at CNBC, and to root for the visiting team (hate the Dodgers, Lakers, and Kings). Who is this guy and what is he staring at? I like the chair in the background, though -- if I'm not mistaken, that's a gold frame on it.