The only pair of Abbeys that I have heard are Mike Galusha's set. They are not exactly stock. He has added additional bracing to the cabinet and lined it with No-Rez. I am not sure what wire he used. He was discussing changing the brands of capacitors in the crossover at one point, but I do not know if he has done that yet.
He certainly does not use them with a Pioneer AV receiver. He has three types of tube amps (one pair of SET, one push-pull and a pair of Atma-Sphere OTL) that he uses in rotation. Differences between the amps are readily apparent.
I do enjoy the sound of the higher efficiency of the Abbeys. The dynamics are some of the best I have heard. The Advents that I modded have a similar overall sound to the Abbeys for a much smaller price. They do need more power and do not have the dynamics, but they do play deeper. They are also quite a bit less expensive if you are into DIY.
Similar sound can also be found in the
Audio Kinesis line of speakers. Duke has worked with Earl Geddes (that is Duke and Earl together in the large picture I posted earlier) His speakers do have a bit more WAF. I know of one friend of Mike Galusha's who bought a pair of Duke's Jazz Modules after hearing the Abbeys. I believe he also loved the sound of the Abbeys but did not want to have to use multiple subs.
