Beauty is a relative thing, but given that, you’d be a total idiot if you had anything other than wildly lustful thoughts for Rockport’s new $30k wonder-speaker, the Avior. Man, oh, man, is this a stunner or what? Yowza. This is the second time I’ve gotten to hear them — the last time was at Newport, where I got much better pics. Here at RMAF, presented by The Sound Environment, the room was so dimly lit that of the 20 or so shots I took, only these turned out. I got tired of blinding people (sorry, people!). Hopefully it’s enough for you to get a taste.
Anyway, shown here with Transparent cabling, a BAT amp (like at Newport, but this time a $14k BAT VK-655SE) and a $5,100 Electrocomp EC4.8 preamplifier and the $17k MPS-5 from Playback Designs that I played with last year, the Rockports were pretty much ready to pull a Hulk on this room. SMASH! Room/bass issues aside, I can tell you that these speakers sound incredible — and still head up my list for “What I’d Like for Christmas” (they’re also on my poll of reference loudspeakers I’d like to explore — check that out here).
The Rockport website has been recently updated to include the new Avior, so be sure to check that out. By the way, The Sound Environment includes installation in the price for the Aviors. That’s right. Bringin’ the value!
Here’s the specs on my next loudspeaker the Rockport Avior:
- Woofer: (2) 9″ Carbon Fiber (made by Rockport)
- Midrange: 6″ Carbon Fiber (made by Rockport)
- Tweeter: 1″ Beryllium (Scanspeak)
- Internal Wiring: Transparent Audio
- Height: 46.5″
- Width: 15″
- Depth: 24.5″ at base
- Weight 220lbs each (!!!)
- Frequency Response: F3 @ 25Hz and 30KHz
- Nominal Impedance: 4 ohms
- Sensitivity: 89.5dB
- Min. amplifier power: 50 watts
