[DecibleDude]

 Out of curiosity, and because I'm one of those guys who likes to know specs, even if they aren't always indicative of what you actually hear I have interest in a couple that are needed if you ever mix and match different brands of gear. Does anyone know what the volts output of the preamp above is? I suspect it must be about 2v, otherwise it wouldn't be able to drive my AVA amp to full output, because I believe the AVA amp I have needs just slightly under that to drive it to full rated wpc. Also it would be good to know the output impedance of the preamp because from what I understand it should be 20 to 30 x less than the input impedance of the amp which I believe is around 33k ohms from what I'm told.

 Anyway, Id like to humbly suggest as a huge AVA fan that they revisit the idea of providing specs, not because they're more important than the sound, but because it helps us understand sometimes what we're hearing. I also shudder to think of the potential sales that must have been lost because some people might have thought something was being hidden. This is not a notion I personally subscribe to or I wouldn't have bought AVA in the first place, but I can see where others might.

So it looks as though AVA has a bright future with all the new products planned and apparently new added personnel to move forward and as a fan I'll admit I want to see them get a little more attention in audiophile circles and to that end I've been posting and singing their praises on all the sites I visit. We should all be doing that I think.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Give AVA a call or email them and they will provide the specs you want.  I think that they do lose sales because of not posting specs.  People also want more bling. What they do not realize is that they will pay more for bling and AVA is about good sound and good value.  Frank was never a spec guy and he did not send gear to Stereophile because of that.

[DecibleDude]

Give AVA a call or email them and they will provide the specs you want.  I think that they do lose sales because of not posting specs.  People also want more bling. What they do not realize is that they will pay more for bling and AVA is about good sound and good value.  Frank was never a spec guy and he did not send gear to Stereophile because of that.

 Personally I don't care about the bling aspects of it, and as far as I'm concerned the AVA gear looks beautiful to me, because I kind of like a spartan appearance without endless bells & whistles, but the spec thing does bother me a bit because we're adults and can decide how much weight to place on various specs etc. For myself for example, I don't get hung up on THD, because I've never heard the correlation between it and better sound, but I would like to know SN on stuff. It's my normal curiosity about such things, because when I listen to my AVA gear I hear almost no noise, even with the volume set very high, and having a figure of some sort would give me an idea of how important it is or isn't. Yeah, for me it's just part of the enjoyment of the hobby along with the music listening itself. It also gives us something more to talk and speculate about 

Ironically I guess, probably half the reason I bought this particular preamp is because I loved the way it looked along with the very sensible features it does have.

[jimava]

Hi folks,
This is Jim @ AVA.
Thank you for the feedback DecibleDude. We actually talk about this topic a lot around the shop and acknowledge its complexity. Mithat, from our team, wrote a blog post a while back that frames up our view on measurements and specs pretty well - see below. Having said that, if there is something you need from a compatibility perspective, just give us a call.


https://mithat.avahifi.com/blog/2025/05/on-measurements


Thanks,
Jim

[DecibleDude]

 Thanks Jim, no I don't have any immediate need of the specs to match a different preamp to my AVA amp, or the other way around, but at some future point perhaps in years I might want to, and it would be nice to know. As for the other types of specs that's purely from an Audiophile interest point of view, which for myself at least is part of the fun of the hobby. I'm especially interested in the SN numbers, because listening to my gear the noise seems vanishingly low compared with previous brands I've owned, so naturally I'd like to see if what I hear bares any resemblance to what the numbers might be. In any event I'll take a look at the link you left, and hope AVA will consider adding specs in the future, possibly with educational explanations of what they do, or do not tell us, on this site, or maybe even in your literature. Thanks for the response.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Great Video Jim.  I have always respected Franks take on publishing specs.
I am not a spec guy but some specs I feel are important to know like what is the power of an amp at 8 and 4 ohms.  Can the amp handle 2 ohm loads.  These are important specs needed for speaker matching.

By the way, I have come across people on other forums stating that they were suspicious of AVA for not publishing specs and others say that they would never buy a piece of AVA gear becuase of this.  Too bad their loss but you get my drift.

[DecibleDude]

Great Video Jim.  I have always respected Franks take on publishing specs.
I am not a spec guy but some specs I feel are important to know like what is the power of an amp at 8 and 4 ohms.  Can the amp handle 2 ohm loads.  These are important specs needed for speaker matching.

By the way, I have come across people on other forums stating that they were suspicious of AVA for not publishing specs and others say that they would never buy a piece of AVA gear because of this.  Too bad their loss but you get my drift.

 I agree Greyhound, and I think there needs to be an industry wide standardization of specs that enable people to compare apples to apples with gear, which might include taking measurements at two, or three different points to make things fair. I take Mithat's point that I wouldn't want him to be interpreting one of my x-rays, but by the same token most of my Dr.s have always thrown an xray up on the screen to show me what they're talking about. I just think that the notion that we can't handle the specs is a mistake for all of us. I would love to see specs with brief explanations of what they do, or do not show, while I agree fully with AVA's approach to design where Mithat says he uses specs as a guide as he goes along or words to that effect. I have to assume there's a reason beyond wanting to fudge specs that most companies provide them, and that's because they know not doing so will effect their growth, because of peoples suspicions. I want to see AVA get all the attention they deserve in the Audio world, because their gear sounds second to none in my experience, but I still want to know what's going on under the hood. When I bought my first AVA product the set 120 control amp, I almost didn't, because of the lack of specs, but what ultimately changed my mind was seeing the photos on their website of the neat uncluttered layout under the hood and a couple of reviews. I'm so glad I got it, because it led me to think if their little amp is this good their bigger stuff must be incredible......and it is, but it almost didn't happen because of specs. Well, I'll get off the soapbox, because I don't want to beat the subject to death.