potential giant slayer amp from av123.com
Mar 27, 2008 at 2:53 PM Post #3 of 77
impressive frequency response... will look further into this.
 
Mar 27, 2008 at 4:13 PM Post #4 of 77
It sounds interesting for what it is, but all I found was a spec sheet and a discussion on a board hosted by the manufacturer. I need pictures! Seriously, has anyone taken delivery on one of these yet? Has the designer explained how he's getting those kinds of specs at that price. It doesn't appear that the rest of his products would necessarily fall into the "best buy" category. Pretty expensive stuff.

Not much to respond to here...

Tim
 
Mar 27, 2008 at 4:15 PM Post #5 of 77
Quote:

Originally Posted by tfarney /img/forum/go_quote.gif
It sounds interesting for what it is, but all I found was a spec sheet and a discussion on a board hosted by the manufacturer. I need pictures! Seriously, has anyone taken delivery on one of these yet? Has the designer explained how he's getting those kinds of specs at that price. It doesn't appear that the rest of his products would necessarily fall into the "best buy" category. Pretty expensive stuff.

Not much to respond to here...

Tim


What he said
tongue.gif
 
Mar 27, 2008 at 4:28 PM Post #6 of 77
Quote:

Originally Posted by kejar31 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
What he said
tongue.gif



And to be brutally honest, I find myself pretty skeptical. A class A amp with those kinds of specs for <$200? If it was a new technology, if someone came up with a class D all-digital can amp, for example, and they were showing mind-boggling price/performance, I'd probably be a lot more inquisitive. I have personal experience with the kind of sound that technology can deliver on the cheap. I also have personal experience with the kind of sound class A can deliver on the cheap and, well, this just seems a bit unlikely. But I'll tell you what - I'd love to be wrong.

I don't know the designer or the company though. If they have a great rep for this sort of thing, I don't have the benefit of the faith and interest that would create.

Tim
 
Mar 27, 2008 at 5:14 PM Post #7 of 77
tfarney,

av123 has a very long history in the audiophile community and almost all their products compete with components typically selling for much higher prices

they do this by producing/selling high volume ID from their factories in China and Columbia with designs originating in the US

this is not a new company and you can find plenty about them on the net, including pro reviews from reputable publications

they also employ some top engineers, their latest subwoofer design for example (MFW 15) was created by Mark Seaton(legend in the bass community and apprentice of near demi God Tom Danley), retails for $599 and competes with $3000 + subs

I'm obviously a fan of their products and won't pretend otherwise

their website boards are no more/less biased than any other company, I would suggest those looking for some impartial info check out AVSforums and/or some of the pro reviews

as far as price, again, think volume the likes of which most headphone companies never see
 
Mar 27, 2008 at 5:27 PM Post #8 of 77
As a guy who is into home theater, av123 has a tremendous rep for coming up with gear that raises the bar in hifi gear. While they have some expensive items, they still are at the top of the value for money in their respective categories. Their speakers compare favourably with traditional brands costing 2x-3x as much, and now they are targetting electronics in a big way with amps, preamps, etc. Mark Schifter, the president, was previously the founder of Audio Alchemy who's standalone DAC offered the performance of high end DAC's 5x the price back in the day when CD players were the primary digital source. Their MFW-15 $599 sub is competing in sound quality against subs that cost upwards of $3000

I have no av123.com products, but I can vouch they really changing the landscape of hifi, home theater with their product offerings. If anybody can offer a class A headphone amp for $200, they can do it.
 
Mar 27, 2008 at 5:58 PM Post #10 of 77
Thanks for the heads-up -- I like some of the AV123 stuff but found their site impossible to navigate and couldn't find the amp you mentioned at 149.00 or anywhere near it. Do you have a direct link to this info/pre-order page that gets you past the extended love-in of the users' forum?

best,

o
 
Mar 27, 2008 at 6:28 PM Post #12 of 77
I'm always skeptical of revolutionary new products that no one has ever seen or heard. AV123 has an incredible hype machine and fan base. It would be nice, however, to see objective evaluations from independent sources, and not name dropping and promo-talk about how their $xxx products "outperform" un-named $xxxxxx products. The long-awaited amp (their x-amp was announced two years ago, and they took pre-orders, and never delivered) may end up being a great product. But I'd personally like to see less mindless fan-talk and more objective information. But who am I to stand in the way of a well-oiled hype machine?
 
Mar 27, 2008 at 6:45 PM Post #14 of 77
Certainly, one should be skeptical when it comes to vapour-wares. The whole idea of preordering a product unseen turns me off big time...even here on this forum as it happens a lot. They do make some very high value products though admittedly and the objective measurements they posted do look very impressive. I like idea of the monitoring circuit which cuts off output on startup.
 
Mar 27, 2008 at 6:47 PM Post #15 of 77
classicalguy, if you want objective evaluations they're just a few clicks away, i've already posted where you can find them

they also offer no questions asked returns on all their products so you can try before buy

hype machine is pretty derogatory considering the success (both independant reviews and sales) of their product lines

but hey, free speech and what not, I guess you can refer to them in any manner you choose despite never having experienced their products
 
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