Just now seeing these available on Sweetwater. Almost seems too good to be true to have a legitimate 3-way design with that kind of frequency response at that price. Has anyone heard these yet? I'm upgrading in January to Focal Solo6 most likely, but these seem interesting, and the price is right too.

Interesting. I don't get their cream color thing.

Me neither, they come in black though. I doubt I'll get any solid info on these before I make my purchase, but they seem like a cool concept in a kind of barefoot-y way.

I'm sure that you could get both and compare them in your room, sending back the set that doesn't work for you. You'd have to tie that money up on your credit card or something, but it should be doable.

Its quite useful to hear monitors in your space with your material.

HOPEFULLY they will publish a pdf of the manual...

per the manual:

The preamp and crossover are provided under DSP control at 24 bit 96 kHz sample rate.

high frequency: Air motion transformer...response 2.5kHz to around 38kHz...construction uses SPHC low carbon steel with Nd42SH magnet structure. Custom designed 14 pleat diaphragm with +/-1% tolerence.

Midrange: Paper cone blended with carbon and mica...motor is made of certified 1008 low carbon steel. The magnets are Y - 40 GRADE (MIL-SPEC) with a copper shunt cap yielding a 1.6 kg high-power/low-distortion motor structure. Made in Japan. 5.25"

Low Frequency: The magnets are Y - 40 GRADE (MIL-SPEC) with a copper shunt cap yielding a 2.1 kg high-power/low-distortion motor structure. Made in Japan. 6.5"

In Person:

There are two low frequency drivers per speaker, one per side.
They are big & heavy. Awkward to move with speakers on 3/4 sides. The sound is clear; I've picked out vocals I had missed before. It is easy to listen to them for several hours.

I am still in the process or breaking them in, have about a dozen hours of music played through them.

I have a set of those sitting in front of me.
No serial numbers prototypes.
Amazing speakers

Argh! I was so set on the Focal's, but I have to hear these now. Please let me know how they go for the both of you, especially if you get to work on them, and see how your mixes translated! I'm anxious to hear about it.

Any user feedback on these yet?

Hopefully TRS can post more about it as he's a professional.

BACKGROUND:I make music & equipment as a hobby. Despite having gone to "that" music school in florida I went on to a job of quality assurance at an audio equipment company, not in music production. I have only had these speakers for a month but I had them playing for around 4 hours everyday. For 90% of the time I've been playing Pandora to learn how they sound along with recording some vocals/eguitar & playing some keyboard

SETUP: Out of the computer to 1st gen RME multiface to Radial workhorse to Abbeys

Speakers are on stands in a large (20x30x25)A frame room with no treatment(working on it) at least 6ft from any walls.

SOUND: The manual recommends a break in period of 24-72 hours at medium level. On first power up they did sound a bit congested in the mid range, but that has gone away.

I find them very good about bringing out details in music that I thought I knew. Things like the vocals for Interpol always have a grainy bite, or how the whistling on "Home" by ed sharp & the magnetic zeros sounds like it was hitting tape pretty hard.
The amp can get painfully loud, I have it turned to 2 on the back panel & on bass heavy songs I can feel the kick & bass on my chest down to my feet.

When Pandora plays a commercial I have to drop the level quick because it sounds BAD. Almost all sound like they were recorded in a box & are painfully mid heavy.

SUMMARY:I like these speakers alot. They look awesome (I have black gloss) & sound even better. I have found them to be very revealing & transparent. I haven't used them for 8+ hours at a time but in my four hour sessions they've been non fatiguing, even tho I listen to these a LOT louder than I do with headphones or my car.

take place to get some info

Im very interested in these! Looking to upgrade my Focal cm65s which i find a lil hi fi sounding! Did have the twins on my list but this may be the ticket!?

If the crossover is under DSP control is that a digitally controlled analog circuit, like a Euphonix or an RNC, or is that audio passing additional conversion?

JMHO...I'm not too excited about the Avantone Pro Abbey...it sounds like they are probably a good entry in a marketspace and price-point, but...

On the same Sweetwater "Avantone" page, they have the Avantone Audio Mix Tower...a three-way monitor with a footswitch that turns them into a "grot box".

I have been fascinated with Thomas Barefoot's MicroMain35 Gen2 every since he first introduced them, but I couldn't even afford to have a wet dream about them, much less actually own a pair.

But I could see how buying the Avantone Audio Mix Tower and adding a pair of Yamaha's HS series (fake NS10s) to get something functionally similar to a set of Barefoots, although not even close in, well, pick a category.

Hopefully TapeOp (my personal gear "bible") will do a review of the Avantone Audio Mix Towers...

Maybe I will get the opportunity to hear these soon enough, but I went ahead and ordered some Focal Solo6's. I just couldn't wait on the Pro Abbey's to make their way through the reviewer circuit and user feedback period. My Sweetwater guy said he heard them in a demo, and while it was too early for him to really give feedback, something about the tone of his voice suggested that he wasn't super impressed or excited about them, but was being politically correct for Avantone's sake, so I went with my gut

I'm in the process of buying new monitors in this price range.

My local shop has the Abbeys. I heard them against a few other monitors. I quite liked them, but I felt it was difficult to get a proper feel for them as I stupidly didn't bring any music with me. And I felt the room wasn't set up very well with a big wall of speakers with the different pairs all different distances apart. But I can't imagine an easy way for a retailer to set up 20 pairs of monitors.

First impression is that the low end was nice and not overstated as on the CMS65's I went in to test. Mid range seemed a bit dull, but I think at that point I was switching between them and Quested S8Rs or Unity Rocks, so comparison may not be fair.

None of this is very useful, buying monitors is tricky business. And if I were you, I wouldn't trust my opinion as far as I could throw it.

Anyone else try these? I can't find any reviews online.

Anything more on these? Anywhere? Anyone? Bueller???

Also interested in hearing more! Pretty please!

anyone?

Bump

They are the typical phamton product, no one seems to have tried it, no reviews around the web ... no nothing :P

I know a few places that have them in
stock

Sweetwater says they have them in stock.

I'm at the Pro Light and Sound Frankfurt Messe at the moment, saw them today, also heard them (in very poor environment with lot of noise etc) but they got my attention! They sounded very good and detailed and I can't wait tomorrow to check them more precisely (hope with my music that I know how it sounds)..
I'll be back soon with my personal opinion..

Great to hear that, they look fantastic and have been a promising product for such no reviews around the pro enviroment.

I've had my Abbey's just long enough for the honeymoon to be over, and I still love them. The best thing is you can listen all day without getting the unconscious urge to turn the music off. They just sound good when listening to music. I just finished my first major mix with them, and it seems to be the best I've ever done. I guess at every juncture, I made better choices and they added up to a much better mix than I could get with my former Adam A7X's.

Oh, and they look as good as they sound, which is a nice bonus. They actually give you a pride in ownership, not that it would have made me buy a different speaker if they were ugly.

I almost had them MJB!! Went a diff route, a engineer that i trust and is a retailer, told me he know me and they weren't for me. I was so sad. I love their look!! I might go with the tower looking Avantones!
I will say that the Adam A77x where some of my favorite monitors, loved the Low end. But definitly colored but in a musical way.

Do you have any photos MJB? Will be great to see them in action. How do you think they will perform in small to medium sized rooms? How are their sound compared to other mid-high end monitors which have you tested?

As I write a few posts above, I had opportunity to "listen" them in Frankfurt..
So, I gave them my referent sounds and I stand in front of them for listen a couple of tracks, 1-2 minutes of every of 4-5 tracks... All I can say is that they are very good speakers, with very good low end. I really liked what I've heard but definitely the very noisy environment (fair) is reason why I can't really make a serious review.
If I would have to buy some new, 3 way speakers, I'll definitive consider them as well. Of course, with demo in some proper room first (my studio or some other well treated room)..
Maybe it wasn't helpful too much, but thats all I can say.

Here ya go EL-HERALDO, Abbey's in da house.. I'm thinking of getting ISO stands soon.

Meex, of course you can't easily make a final judgement at a noisy convention center, but you can get a pretty good idea of what a speaker sounds like in general. I heard some good speakers, (ATC) for the first time two years back at AES in NYC, even though it was a madhouse, it was fun! I'm glad you like the Abbey's.