EVENTS

Avantgarde-USA sponsors occasional demonstration events/workshops that allow interested music lovers to hear Avantgarde Hornspeakers in dealer showrooms (or facilities rented especially for the occasion) while being able to intimately interface with the firm's principals.

The last event took place November 13 & 14, 2002 in NYC - click here for an independent report. Prior to that, we hosted an event May 4 & 5, 2002 in the Newport Beach Marriott Suites.

Over this two-day weekend period, Avantgarde-USA set up an optimized system around their hornspeakers and conducted successive closed-door demonstrations with subsequent question-and-answer sessions between their principals and the audience.

Punned proprietor Jim Smith with the attendees: "You probably all came here to be reminded how hornspeakers sound like this (cups his hands around his mouth) and prove us wrong, didn't you? Raise your hands."

And half the audience did.

At the end of each of the demonstrations, Jim would ask again. "Well, have you ever heard hornspeakers like these?"

No raised hands now, case closed. Avantgarde hornspeakers simply don't make honking noises. They render music with the most compelling emotional projection this side of a concert hall, Jazz club or Rock arena.

Despite being packed in a sturdy outer carton that surrounds a foam-packed solid wooden crate with yet more foam inside, one AUDIOPAX Model 88 monoblock arrived for this event mysteriously abused. One of the crate planks protected by dense foam was loose even though it had been secured with multiple threaded nails when packed. Did the FedEx delivery person enviously study the Brazilian origin sticker of the AUDIOPAX Model 88 amps? Was he outraged that some people actually get to live in a place as exotic and tropical as Brazil? Did he kick this shipment down a flight of stairs in disgust and then jump up and down on it like a crowd-pleasing pro wrestler in the ring?

We will never know. More importantly, whatever extreme abuse this amp suffered in transit to arrive in its crate as badly smashed up as it did, it worked flawlessly as advertised. When Avantgarde claims that their AUDIOPAX amps are made of sterner stuff than the proverbial dainty High-End tube amplifier -- you know the kind; they flicker fearfully when you look at them askance -- they're not lying.

Recalls designer Eduardo that he once listened to the "Battle" track of the Gladiator soundtrack during a loudness abuse session when the phone rang. He had to step outside the house to hear the person on the other end of the line. When he finished the lengthy chat, he returned to his listening room to find only one speaker working. Afraid that he might have overdriven and blown up the partnering amp, he noticed instead that the speaker cable to its speaker had come undone.

Running a transformer-coupled tube amp under severe and prolonged signal without a load attached traditionally spells sudden death for any such amplifier. When Eduardo reconnected the speaker cable, his amp continued to play without any sign of distress. (Don't try this at home!) This proves yet again that conservative but inspired engineering on single-ended tube amplifiers obliterates myths of eccentric behavior as surely as the Avantgarde hornspeakers dispel diehard notions about cupped-hands colorations.

Check this page regularly to remain informed about upcoming events.