Well, it's been 24 hours since I received my demo pair of AV1's from Danny. After about 8 hours of listening on and off here are my initial impressions:
WOW!!!!!!
Now, a more detailed explanation:
When I first hooked the AV1's up and sat to listen, I though that they sounded good, but not great. At the time I was only using CDs for source material and the AV1's were in the same location as my previous speakers. I ran through my usual references, Roger Waters, Sade, Annie Lennox, Bjork, Allman Brothers, Zero 7, KMFDM, Journey, etc. After listening to this broad spectrum of music I was a little disappointed by the sound. Later that night one of my old friends who was also a recording engineer came over so I could get his impressions. He agreed with me about the boxy sound but we decided to take some time and try different locations for the AV1's.
About 20 minutes worth of tweaking and we hit the right spot. We sat back down, turned down the lights and did some serious listening. After listening to "Roger Waters- Amused to death” we both just looked at each other and laughed. The imaging and warmth of these little speakers was SHOCKING!! We moved onto a Bjork disk to check the AV1's ability to handle transients and timing. Again, at the end we just laughed.
Now, both Ben and I have spent countless hours in front of a console and monitoring our work on ultra high end, custom build studio systems. (Dynaudio's, Genelec, M&K, B&W, etc.) Along with actually hearing the musicians in the studio while we were tracking an album. My point is we both know what music should sound like both live and reproduced.
Now, lets be honest, these little AV1's are not in the same league as a custom designed studio system, but I can say that with the right equipment, and the right source material, they can EASILY get you 75% of the way there.
They may lack some of the refinement and tonal balance of a $10,000+ speaker system, but they have something that’s almost impossible to engineer, a sense of MAGIC. There is something about these little speakers that is hard to quantify. They just sound right, the way you imagine great speakers should sound.
For the money, these are an INSANELY good value. I can easily say that anyone thinking on dropping big money on the "name brand" speakers out there should do your selves a favor and give Danny's speakers a listen. Based on what I have heard from the AV1's, I have decided to purchase Danny's home theater package of 2 AV3's, a AV3S and two surrounds.
Here are a few more observations: CD's sounded great, but when we moved onto higher bit rate DVD Audio (192/24, 96/24) and SACD's the sound quality was incredible. The AV1's totally disappeared and formed a wonderfully wide and deep soundstage. After our multi-hour listening session Ben summed up the sound of the AV1's in one word, "Creamy."
I couldn't agree more.
Update: After another 4 hours of listening I think I've been able to identify this speakers strengths and weaknesses a bit better.
Strengths: Female Vocals especially ranges of Contralto to Mezzo-soprano. For example Stevie Nicks, Sia Furler, Annie Lennox or Sophie Barker.
Weaknesses: Limited bass. Can get a little confused in the highs on very complex passages.
