Spendor SA1 & AVI ADM 9.1T

[matthewpiano]

Nicely balanced review Igglebert. I'm very pleased you are enjoying your new purchase so much but it is so nice to read a review that states the considerable talents of the AVIs without completing slating traditional hi-fi seperates.

 

[Anonymous]

Messiah:
Nice review Igglebert

Do you find now that you have no thoughts on upgrading?? No worries about cables??

Indeed, my thoughts have turned to NAS storage, Blueray, TVs, Macbooks, iPads, Genelec 6010a.....oh dear. Looks like the toys budget isn't redundant after all!

 

[Anonymous]

matthewpiano:Nicely balanced review Igglebert. I'm very pleased you are enjoying your new purchase so much but it is so nice to read a review that states the considerable talents of the AVIs without completing slating traditional hi-fi seperates.

I've had and enjoyed traditional hifi separates for about 15 years, not including my dad's kit. There's a huge amount of enjoyment to be had but I would urge others to at least consider actives before parting with money.

As Messiah says, you can forget about cables

These days, if I want to hear a warmer and easier sound, I use the EQ on either iTunes or Airfoil. 99% of the time I leave it flat but occasionally I like to add or take something away from material that lacks or suffers from, well, less than ideal production judgement

 

[Zubkabera]

"The AVIs seem to deliver all of this for £1,125. Is there a catch?"

Hi Iggle,

I am happy you are enjoying the AVIs, however as you've mentioned your initial impression on AVIs without the sub was not that great, that's exactly my feelings were when I first auditioned the AVIs 9.1 (not the TT) version beginning of 2010, I had high hopes that it will sound as good as any under 5K kit but I was wrong, it lacked the depth & weight in bass and mid-range was also too bright. So then I went to a multi-box solution with Dynaudio Focus 110 with Roksan Caspian and DM, I am happy with this solution.

You also need to make correction on the price 1125 is excluding the sub and sub costs 800 so 1925 in total

I am not sure if TT has much improvement over the earlier version but will definitely give it one more round of test with sub in a bigger room.

 

[Craig M.]

johnnyjazz:igglebert:johnnyjazz:I,ll make a small wager that this time next year he will be telling us how good his ATC SCM 50s are

No chance. No chance at all. Ugly, over-priced lumps! Oh, ok iggle, the wife wants an active system for the largish spare room (less wires etc), now based on your quick review i don,t think i will be auditioning the ATCs any time soon

happy to be corrected, but i didn't think iggle had heard scm50s.

the above looks more like an avi opinion...

 

[Anonymous]

If you buy through Bartletts Hifi they are slightly cheaper than buying direct from the Avi website, I bought the sub for £760.00 delivered just before Christmas. And I think the 9.1's are also slightly cheaper to.
Nick

 

[Craig M.]

Zubkabera:
You also need to make correction on the price 1125 is excluding the sub and sub costs 800 so 1925 in total

igglebert doesn't have the sub, so the price is correct.

 

[Anonymous]

Nice to hear that you're enjoying your 9, Iggle. Good luck with the wedding - hope all goes well. An excellent review; before I decided to go down the active route the SA1s were on my shortlist so it was interesting to hear your thoughts on them .

Nick21, yes, I got my 9s from Bartlett's for £1070. The savings bought a refurbished Airport Express. How are you getting along with yours, by the way?

 

[Anonymous]

Zubkabera:
"The AVIs seem to deliver all of this for £1,125. Is there a catch?"

Hi Iggle,

I am happy you are enjoying the AVIs, however as you've mentioned your initial impression on AVIs without the sub was not that great, that's exactly my feelings were when I first auditioned the AVIs 9.1 (not the TT) version beginning of 2010, I had high hopes that it will sound as good as any under 5K kit but I was wrong, it lacked the depth & weight in bass and mid-range was also too bright. So then I went to a multi-box solution with Dynaudio Focus 110 with Roksan Caspian and DM, I am happy with this solution...This raises a good point. Living in the land that produces some acclaimed active speakers, I have to say I don't like their sound, too forward for me, but then they are studio monitors.

The ADMs may be good speakers (they're not available here), but the same rule applies as it does to any speaker: if you don't like their take on the sound, they aren't suitable for you. From what I've read of the AVI sound, it probably wouldn't suit me either, being too dry as is the wont for many British speakers at the moment. Also, while I wouldn't disagree that active crossovers are better theoretically than passive, that doesn't stop passives sounding better than actives, because, as I said, it really depends on the voicing of the speakers, not the type of crossover.

 

[Anonymous]

I love the speakers and sub! And the Aex works a dream, mine also came from the refurb store £57
Nick