Avalon Idea Loudspeaker (Hi-Fi+ 84)

Avalon’s new loudspeaker has one drawback that we’ll get out of the way quickly; the name. Calling a loudspeaker ‘Idea’ almost gifts every writer, commentator, blogger and forum denizen a healthy succession of puns. It’s almost like painting an archery target on one of the drive units. That being said, if the major drawback is the name, you know you are onto something very good indeed. And also, I’d wager that this could be considered Avalon’s Big Idea for the future of high-end, so maybe the name’s not that bad after all.

This is the cheapest of the back-swept Avalon models. In fact, now that the NP Evolution 2.0 and Symbol loudspeakers are gone, this is the entry-point in the whole Avalon range. Not that £7,900 is ‘cheap’, but when you start to factor in speakers like Time and Isis, a loudspeaker that costs less than a family car can seem like the nursery slopes for Avalon.

It’s a two-way, three driver loudspeaker, with a pair of 177mm Nomex/Kevlar composite cone bass units coupled to a 25mm ceramic dome tweeter with a neodymium magnet. Aside from cabinet volume and weight, this last is the big external difference between this speaker and the more upmarket models; the others use an inverted Tonagen ceramic dome tweeter, while this one is said to be proprietary, but looks very similar to the Eton model found in the NP Evolution 2.0. This meant a completely different approach in the crossover.

It also allowed a significant redesign of the internal architecture of the classic Avalon cabinet. This has meant the loudspeaker can be smaller, thinner and considerably lighter than previous backswept models. And it’s here that I find the biggest operational criticism of the Idea kicks in; the speaker uses the usual rest-on spike-cones found in the bigger Avalons. On more weightier models, the sheer mass of the speaker gives that cone a rigid connection to the floor, because there’s no way a cone is going anywhere fast with 1/10th ton of speaker resting on its flat base. At a shade over 27kg per speaker, the Idea is light enough to make those cones a little more mobile. I’d prefer long, screw-in spikes in place, although in fairness the Ideas didn’t even wobble in use. It has the usual Avalon arrangement of a vent (not a port) pointing into the floor and a rear mounted Cardas terminal block for a single set of spade-lugged loudspeaker cables.

Avalon conservatively rates the Idea at 88dB sensitivity with a nominal four-ohm impedance, and a power rating between 50-300 watts per channel. But that doesn’t mean the speaker is a comfortable load with any ol’ amplifier. Like the Transcendent before it, I think this loudspeaker is most comfortable being fed from a solid-state amplifier, one with a bit of meat on its bones. Although I’ve heard the self-same pair of speakers played with c-j tubes at the Whittlebury Hall National Audio Show, for me, the Devialet D-Premier and the Edge G6 power amp really hit the spot; the Karan and Muse electronics distributed by the importer Audiofreaks would work well here too.

I can’t help feeling that Audiofreaks almost scored something of an own goal at the National Audio Show. The Idea sounded good, very good in fact for a small room, but the use of a c-j Classic 60 power amp meant the Ideas were running in low gear. With solid-state amps in place, the Ideas seemed to blossom out. In short, if you are judging your findings based on the NAS system, you have no Idea what this speaker is capable of (you see what I mean about the name… it’s an almost irresistible temptation).

What the NAS event did show is how well the Ideas work in smaller rooms. With the exception of the now sadly defunct NP Evolution 2.0 (and to a lesser extent the Transcendent), most Avalon floorstanders have struggled to fit snugly into many UK homes, if I’m really honest about such things. While many of us have listening rooms large enough to accommodate a loudspeaker that works best with at least a metre between it an the nearest wall, and a good 2.5m between the speakers, these requirements can stump many a city-dweller who may have the funds and the interest, but not the living space to accommodate the demands of an Isis. In fairness, recent Avalons have become increasingly less demanding in their need for space, but that didn’t prepare me for the Idea.

This might sound insane to our American counterparts (unless they happen to live in places like Manhattan), but I’ve seen very high-end systems in listening rooms as small as 10’x12’ and 12’x16’ is not uncommon in the cities. And it’s to these rooms that the Idea brings the concept of high-end down to earth. The Idea is one of the most room-friendly loudspeakers made in the high-end today. While it’s not a boundary design, it seems to release so little energy to the rear and sides of the cabinet, you can use it very close to the wall without complaint and as long as you keep clear of the corners and their propensity to bass-boom, it will sound fine. It benefits from a precise and logical set-up, but is untroubled enough by such things to rank low in the obsessive-compulsive stakes. The speaker is also light enough to be moved around in experimentation, without recourse to trolleys or piano moving folk.