[Wind Chaser]

Whatever happened to the AV Concert Series?

[Carl V]

died for lack of interest.....I s'pose.

Or it just got lost in the excitment of
the other SP designs.  I'd imagine the
Corporate suits over at SP Tech put
them on the back burner...I mean between
jetting off to St Lucia or Golfing in Carmel,
the usual CEO perks....it musta been hard
to focus on so many models, especially with
all those scantily clad supermodels on the payroll.

Response Audio Ran with it for awhile...as part of their
Bella series.  Nice tube friendly design.

I have the AV-2 Presence....2 different XO.

I always thought the Onwall versions woulda been
killer for a Multichannel/ HT set up.

[Wind Chaser]

died for lack of interest.....I s'pose.

Were they even given a chance?  A offering at that price point would be good for bread and butter.  And by lowering the price of admission, that would create much greater awareness of SP Tech.

[ooheadsoo]

As an owner, I must say that the speakers are very good, but you always end up wondering how much better the SP Tech Millennial Reference series sounds...

[Aether Audio]

Guys,

To clear a few things up about the AV Concert Series I suppose I should let you know what happened.  The fact is that the demand for it just didn't turn out to be what we had hoped, so we "suspended" the line for a while.  We tried to offer a design that would use similar sized enclosures so that we could reduce the number of parts we had to make.  Well... that never really worked out because we had to change the assembly procedure due to the single layer wall construction.  That meant we had to make different parts anyway. 

The upshot is that we really didn't think things through enough because besides all of the above, the enclosures were just too big for the intended Home Theater market.  Most folks want something smaller that is easier to place.  To be honest, they also want something that looks nicer and costs less too.  Oh well... live and learn.  As most of the few owners out there will claim, the original AVs sounded pretty good so in that regard they were a success.  But, the range of their appeal was simply not big enough to warrent continued promotion.

Now as I said, we only "suspended" the product line as we intended to re-engineer new designs that would more successfully meet market demands.  In that, we have a couple of designs on the drawing board that we believe will be more to everyone's appeal.

Just a s "quickie" survey, how many of you would be interested in a bookshelf 2-way design that used *maybe* the same woofer as currently used in our Timepiece Mini (therefore having the same 87dB@1W/1M sensitivity), the same size waveguide/tweeter as the Mini, crossover frequency around 1.2kHz, sealed box response to about -3dB @ 50Hz and... cost $500.00 (or just under) each?  That's not an "Introductory" price either, but rather the standard MSRP.

They would only have standard 3/4-inch wall construction and no hardwood front panel (painted black instead), but they would have real wood veneers on the sides and grill covers would be included with every unit.  Finally, they would be about as close to a Timepiece Mini as you could get from 50Hz on up (i.e., they'd "disappear" in the soundstage and have bullet-proof dynamics).  Since they'd be sealed, they'd have a 12 dB/octave roll off below 50Hz which would make them very easy to mate up with a good sub.

Love to hear your opinions.  Seeing we have yet to build them, nothing is carved in stone.  Oh...and just so you know in case you were wondering about lead times... we would be out-sourcing the enclosures.  We have a vendor that is already making enclosures of the same type and would be using their stock offerings as the basis of this design.  We're not about to engineer another small speaker that we'd have to build ourselves from scratch.   Yes... they are from off shore.  Oh well, if you can't beat 'em... 

PS... For those that might be thinking of it... NO... they will not be available to other companies for modification and/or resale under their own names nor will we approve any such modifications to be done by third-parties after the sale.  No offense intended, but we work too hard just to give it all away for peanuts.  If folks really want them modded or upgraded they should talk to us about it.  This is because besides the above, the waveguide compensation circuit is just complicated enough that unless you are really experienced with it, it's very easy to screw up.  As great as it works when you get it right, it will produce terrible results if you don't.  We don't want product out there that pretends to represent us when in fact it has been screwed up by somebody else.

-Bob

[Geardaddy]

Bob, by the AV series you mean the on and in-wall designs you had planned?

[spence]

Bob,
  Maybe you should start a new thread about your new speaker suggestion. It's liable to get lost in this thread.

[Aether Audio]

Geardaddy,

We presently envision the AV Concert Series to be either a stand-alone enclosure as would typically be used on a stand or as an in-wall design (front baffle only)that would require the customer to provide a cavity in their wall for mounting. 

The on-wall enclosure could be done but then we'd have to design and build the shallow enclosure for that ourselves.  I doubt demand will be large enough in the short term to justify the engineering and development time for that.  Granted, it would be pretty easy in comparison to our present stuff but then we would probably have to finish it too.  Finishing is where the costs mount up so we're not too keen on doing that. 

I suppose if folks wanted them in raw MDF for finishing themselves, we could do that... but I don't want to get into having to finish lower cost products ourselves.  The only way to compete is to have $2.00/day labor available and finishing guys in this country expect 10 times that per hour. 

spence,

Yeah... you're right.  I just jumped on this since it was already up.  When we get the thing near completion I'll start a new one.

-Bob

[Christof]

Just a s "quickie" survey, how many of you would be interested in a bookshelf 2-way design that used *maybe* the same woofer as currently used in our Timepiece Mini (therefore having the same 87dB@1W/1M sensitivity), the same size waveguide/tweeter as the Mini, crossover frequency around 1.2kHz, sealed box response to about -3dB @ 50Hz and... cost $500.00 (or just under) each?  That's not an "Introductory" price either, but rather the standard MSRP.

I think this is a very good idea, Bob.  Considering the state of our economy, you are limiting your market when your prices start at $2500+/-.  This should open things up a bit for you.

[JP78]

great idea bob...look forward to it .  I'd also like to recommend shallow depth in-wall/on-wall unfinished boxes for the custom installer group. 

[bbchem]

Bob, I think you hit the nail on the head, I had a friend who is not an audiophile but likes music enough to hear the differences. I showed him my equipment and he was so floored by the Minis that he told his wife. I told him they could be purchased new for $2500 and he did not comment. This friend and others would probably purchase something with this quality of sound if you told them that they were $999, the pschological point below $1000.  IMHO

Bill

[Geardaddy]

I concur with the idea of producing a cheaper product.  Furthermore, if Bob can eventually fabricate cheap on or in-walls for HT applications, he would have a lot less sleepless nights....

[bhobba]

I think the idea of producing a cheaper version is sound.  When I am able to take delivery of my speakers (the market and my wine sales are absolutely ucky at the moment, so it will proably be at least a year) I hope to demonstrate them to a number of people around here.  The cost of importing them to Australia would proably turn them off at the mini price - but at $1000 I think some would be quite interested - perhaps even some commercial HI FI outfits, a few of which hang out at the local shopping centre a few km down the road (eg Aussie HI FI).  They don't sell ultra hi fi stuff, but may be interested in importing a under $1000 speaker and flogging them off in their shop.  They would be their top of the line model.

Thanks
Bill