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Re: Beauhorn Virtuoso Ref.

Posted by Eric@Beauhorn on November 11, 2000 at 09:17:25

In Reply to: Beauhorn Virtuoso Ref. posted by adog on November 5, 2000 at 07:52:09:

Well, Jeffery, do you know how to stir up a hornets' nest?

After years of avoiding getting sucked into Audio Asylum, here I am. Someone, who shall be nameless, enquired whether I would respond to one posting yesterday. In my ignorance, I didn't realise just how much had gone before, and stumbled in.

Now I've discovered what has been going on, and there are certainly a lot of issues that have been raised - and a lot of heat and fog generated.

I don't want to get involved in 'negative campaigning' but an important issue has been raised and I do want to answer it fairly. It's the issue of the alleged 'hardness' of the Virtuosos in comparison with the AvantGardes. It's strange, in a way, how the arguments have gone round in circles, with some participants unaware that they should apply to themselves the same advice that they gave to you.

At the September HiFi Show in London, Jeremy B. was good enough to come into our room to explain in person to me why he chose the AGs over our Virtuosos. Jeremy is very happy with his AGs, and that's the main thing. He said to me exactly what he said in his posting to AA. As reported, I did suggest that the hardness he heard originated in his system and was digital in source.

Jeremy found, however that he was completely comfortable with the AGs in his system. Therefore, I wouldn't seek to persuade him that he'd done anything but the right thing. BUT, when this idea that the Virtuosos sound hard is broadcast in such august and influential surroundings as AA, I think it's only fair to examine this assumption.

There is no question that in almost every Lowther driven speaker I've ever heard the treble can be astringent in the extreme. I have a recording of 'Night on a Bare Mountain' which feels like having barbeque skewers shoved through your ears (conjecture on my part). It's suppose to shrill, but this!!

Indeed, I point this out else where in this correspondence, and quote Thorsten in support.

But if we're due credit for anything at all, we're due credit for smoothing out the Lowther top end in our Virtuosos. As Chris Beeching says in Listener July/August 2000, "The upper reaches, including the treble range, are beautifully sweet and clear, too".

So, there's a paradox here, Jeremy's system reveals the Virtuosos to be hard sounding, compared with the AGs. Chris Beeching finds them as sweet as a nut.

"How can this be? I hear you cry"

I've heard Avantgardes on many occasions, and while I've envied their commercial success, I've never felt threatened by their sound. I think they look stunning, but that's rather how I've felt about the sound, in a different way. UNTIL that fateful day...

Chris Beeching runs a pair of Avantgarde Acoustic Duos and has an excellent system, full of glowing glass, that I'm sure he'll write about one day, if he hasn't already. When I took him a pair of Virtuosos to review, we left them in his hall, and listened for a while to his Duos. Honestly, they sounded so good, I could hardly believe that they were the same speakers that I'd heard so often before. I really liked them. I was somewhat concerned. Would the Virtuosos sound better than this?

Chris's review itself tells the story: "The Beauhorns made each listening experience satisfying, even revelatory." And later: "The massed strings in Barber's Adagio and the full orchestra and double choir in Delius' Mass of Life were all presented so well that you could easily get lost and believe you were there..." I don't think you could say that if there were any trace of hardness.

So, Jeffrey, I think you had it in one when you said that it was because the Virtuosos were more revealing than the AGs. This is not to knock the AGs. Clearly, well set up they are very good to listen to, and I could enjoy them myself. But the avid fans of AG ought not to knock the Beauhorns either.

Let there be peace, and as the gentleman said

Enjoy the Music,

Eric

• Ask for a full copy of Chris's review

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