Combining speakers, amps and a DAC, this is a fine ‘just add source’ system, says Andrew Everard

British loudspeaker company AVI doesn’t ‘do’ reviews: just as it abandoned the manufacture of its excellent hi-fi separates some years back in favour of a rather different approach, so it’s now pursuing a philosophy all of its own when it comes to the marketing of its products and how it thinks they should be used.

It has very few dealers these days, preferring to sell direct from its website to consumers, and is a passionate advocate of music stored on computers – and preferably Apple computers, for which products it seems to have an enthusiasm bordering on the fanatical.

So why so few dealers? And why no reviews? Simply, the company says, it needs neither, and the majority of hi-fi shops and magazine reviewers don’t ‘get’ what it’s trying to do, being too tied up with what it sees as ‘legacy hi-fi’ – i.e. conventional hi-fi separates – and what it describes as the ‘audiophool’ attitudes involved in such thinking.

That’s a pity: given the interest of readers of this magazine in exploring music online, whether it be downloads or the streaming of rare and otherwise unavailable recordings, and the fact that unlike most audio magazines we have a monthly feature dedicated to such content, I would have thought the company’s products would make a very good ‘fit’ with these pages.

Particularly appropriate are the speakers at the heart of AVI’s current range, the ADM 9.1: this design combines active crossovers with onboard amplification and high-quality drive units and enclosures, and also has the benefit of built-in digital-to-analogue conversion and remote-control input switching and volume adjustment.

It sells for prices starting from £1125 a pair delivered in Europe, or £1175 delivered worldwide, and according to the ‘unsolicitored’ testimonials on AVI’s website, has quite a following.

For that reason I have requested review samples on several occasions, but haven’t even been granted the courtesy of a reply, despite explaining that position: in fact, you’re only reading this review because my colleagues on What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, faced with similar stonewalling, went out and bought a pair. I was able to borrow the speakers for testing when they’d finished with them.

Buy a pair of ADM9.1s and what you get is a pair of solid-looking and impeccably finished ‘bookshelf’-sized two-way speakers, using a 16.5cm paper-cone mid/bass driver and a 25mm silk-dome tweeter. They’re available in a choice of finish, with real wood veneers – the cherry of the review pair, or walnut – or high-quality piano gloss black or white available at the standard price, and rosewood veneer at a £50 premium.

Inside, the speakers each have a 75W amplifier for the tweeter and 250W for the mid/bass driver, according to AVI’s specifications, and ahead of these is an active crossover.

For those unfamiliar with active speaker designs, that means the amplifier driving the tweeter is only handling those frequencies destined for that driver, and that for the mid/bass unit only lower frequencies – AVI says the crossover point is at 3.4kHz.

The ADM9.1 is a true active design, unlike some lesser-powered speakers which use a single amplifier per enclosure, located upstream of the crossover.

The left speaker has all the input connections – two optical digital ins for the onboard 24-bit/192kHz-capable digital to analogue conversion (an electrical digital input is available as an option), and a single stereo analogue input on a pair of conventional RCA phono sockets.

The analogue preamplifier takes its feed from these inputs, and is connected internally to the left-channel crossover and amplification, and via an output socket and 5m interconnect supplied with the speakers to the single input on the right speaker.

The left speaker also has an output for a subwoofer, AVI offering a matching active subwoofer, with 25cm driver and 200W amplifier, for £800 delivered in Europe, £850 worldwide. It’s available in satin black or white, and is apparently built so solidly that I could dance on it while carrying a very heavy person on my back, which a) would be a rather strange test to which to submit a piece of audio equipment and b) must mean it’s very strong indeed.

Supplied with the ADM9.1s is a package of cables – the speaker-to-speaker interconnect, a mains cable for each speaker and an optical interconnect with Mini-TosLink adapter, plus the remote control. In fact, the only thing missing seems to be a couple of batteries to power the handset, but I don’t think one should read into this any belief on the part of the manufacturer that it’s leaving the battery choice up to the consumer with the potential of an audible effect on the sound of the speaker system!

PERFORMANCE
The size and design of the ADM9.1s, and the publicity material on AVI’s website, suggests the speakers are as at home on stands in the living room as they are on a desk in the study. So as well as testing them with a variety of conventional sources, ranging from a Naim DVD5 and Cambridge Audio Azur 650BD players to a Sony SA-CD machine – all used as CD transports – I also connected them up to my MacBook Pro laptop in the main listening room, as well as taking them upstairs and running them on my wife’s iMac computer in the study.

Downstairs I placed them on substantial Atacama speaker stands, upstairs they sat either side of the computer on the desk; with the conventional sources I tried both analogue and digital connections, and with the computers used optical digital hook-up using the outputs ‘hidden’ in the computers’ headphone sockets. That’s why AVI supplies a Mini-TosLink adapter.

Wherever you use the AVIs, they certainly sound impressive: contrary to a lot of the online hype surrounding these speakers they’re not paradigm-shifting, life-rethinking or the only one true way, but the sound they deliver from what are after all very compact enclosure is quite remarkable.

There’s focus, clarity and free-breathing expression, whether you listen to small-scale chamber or solo instrumental recordings or larger forces, and they also have the ability to go as loud as anyone could sensibly want in a domestic environment with any signs of stress or limits being reached. Instead, the speakers just go louder when the volume levels are raised, yet still have enough in reserve to handle the dynamics of even large orchestral pieces.

They also deliver a persuasively focused and well-proportioned soundstage when used at conventional listening distances of a few metres, and even when used close-up on a desk astride a computer manage to avoid that ‘big headphones’ effect. There’s space, air and ambience in the sound, and no sign of excessive brightness or spit, even when they’re listened to ‘near-field’.

In fact, the only drawback when they are used in a conventional standmount configuration is some lack of bass extension – after all, even the manufacturer’s specifications show them as being down 6dB at 60Hz. AVI’s explanation is that the ADM9.1s deliver real, controlled bass rather than the boom available from – well, just about every other speaker on the market, according to the company.

I take the point, but would suggest that any listener whose taste in music involves a large amount of organ or orchestral content would be well advised to consider a subwoofer, whether it be AVI’s dedicated model or one of the many active subwoofers available on the market. Indeed, if I were buying these speakers I’d consider a subwoofer essential, although this does mean we are now thinking about a £2000+ speaker system.

I like the AVI speakers a lot, but then having heard the original AVI ADM9 model on which they’re based, I was pretty sure I would before even embarking on this review. And I can see why they appeal to so many users, and not just those following the dogma of only using them with Apple computers.

If you’re thinking of spending this kind of money on a conventional amplifier and speakers system, can live with the limitations of two digital inputs and one analogue – or can budget for some kind of offboard switching to expand that capability – and can afford to add that subwoofer, they are a fascinating alternative. I wholeheartedly recommend you take a listen.

AVI ADM9.1
Type Active speaker system
Price from £1125/pr
Drive units 25mm silk-dome tweeter, 6.5cm paper-cone mid/bass
Amplification 75wpc treble, 250wpc mid/bass
Inputs Two optical digital, one stereo analogue
Output Subwoofer
Accessories supplied Connecting cables, remote handset
Finishes Cherry, walnut, piano black, piano white (rosewood £50 extra)
Dimensions (HxWxD, inc connections) 31x20x28cm
www.avihifi.co.uk