AVID thread

[DonQuixote99]

Canadian-owned? Of course they're mint!

 

[YogaJedi]

I own a pair of Avid model 102's and am quite pleased with them. I've owned some fairly good vintage two way speakers of various pedigrees, but none could displace my 102's.

Here's a list of some that tried:

Boston Acoustics A70

Epicure Model 4

New Large Advents

EPI 100's

YMMV, of course

 

[Saul Good]

Avid 102

Kijiji $38. Needed dusting & a tweeter fuse. I like AR, and Advents. I don't consider Avid budget versions. I've read where there was a migration of personnel to/from the three companies. There seems to be similar sensibilities.

They have not been updated -- they've aged very gracefully. I prefer them to Technics SB-e100's for gospel, and bluegrass. I could live with these as a main speaker. No expert tho.

Listened by way of Marantz 140/3200/112, Nikko Alpha 230/Beta 30/Gamma 30, and Kenwood KR-9600 receiver. Vinyl (Dual 1219) went to Nikko, CD (NAD T572) went to Marantz, & the KR-9600 took the tuner top spot. CBC jazz was surprisingly engaging.

Conclusion: Keepers. I won't take $250 for mine. 's all good. :thmbsp:

 

[70's Child]

I just bought a pair of AVID 103's for $10 here in Oz at a thrift shop. They look OK too.. cant wait to get home and try them out.. have been loving reading all your stories and the literature on the AVIDs. Pics to follow

 

[coonmanx]

I have a pair of 102s in need of cabinets. Would really like to build them as I have the cabinet dimensions. Big fan of those Philips tweeters.

 

[70's Child]

your 103's are smokin'! Someone has covered my grills with a black fabric, and they have odd badges. The warranty card is still on the back.

Im about to try them see if they work...

Any other Aussie's with these speakers? Photos to follow

 

[70's Child]

some photos of my Avid 103's.. newbie here.. first time I've opened a speaker box... I opened it because there is no sound coming from one speaker. After snooping around gently I found this damaged purple wire.. could it be stopping any sound from coming out of this speaker box?

 

[mhardy6647]

It certainly won't help it work any better! ;-)

Cut the wire, strip the insulation from both ends, and twist the bare wires together - and try the speaker again. If it works; voila you feexed it!

Also, note the little "FUSE" pop-out hatch on the front panel (that's the speaker crossover and ancillary level controls). Check to see that the fuse is present and that it is good - it is (probably!) only a fuse for the tweeter, but it is still a good idea to check.

We can help with more sophisticated troubleshooting techniques as and if the need arises!

 

[70's Child]

Hi mhardy,

I DID it! I also received exact same advice from a friend and I have just 5 minutes ago tested and the speaker works .. ahem.. it didn't help that I had the mono button pressed in either.. LOL.. slaps forehead.. such a newbie. I checked and replaced both fuses today too.. one happy girl here. Now Im going to funk them up with some new speaker cloth. Im going to go bright orange I think... a lovely 70's look!

 

[mhardy6647]

I think that the grilles might have been available in several colors at one point for those - including orange! (sort of like the roughly contemporary JBL L-100, although the L-100 grilles were foam and not cloth).

Glad you got 'em going; they should sound pretty darned good...

 

[70's Child]

yeah one of the brochures early in this thread showed the 100's I think it was in many other colours. I've just ordered my orange fabric!! can't wait to put it on.

NP: Fat Matress on the speakers!

 

[Nat]

Lemon yellow was another color I think I remember.

 

[mtlmn1971]

I picked up a set of 103's a few weeks back and let me just say OH MY!! These should not sound this good. I have them stacked on my wall of sound and when they play the sound stage is incredible. I actually cannot tell from which speaker the sound is coming from. Count me in as a new Avid fan. Amazing speaker.

 

[notas]

I don't have any real good reason for necroing this thread, but where else am I gonna put all my enthusiasm?

I bought a pair of 103s a year or two ago for my dad not knowing what to expect; played some really low Skream for the seller and got him to drop the price when one of the woofers started to rattle. Once i got around to playing some real music on them i was pretty impressed, but i DID buy them for my dad, so i had to leave them at home and didn't get to fully appreciate them right away...

Fast forward a year or so, and my like-minded friend is in the basement on holiday listening to the 103s. A lightbulb goes on, and he realizes he has no fewer than FOUR avid 102s sitting in the garage of the mouldering property his parents had just bought (it helps that we're from Rhode Island). So we each took a pair, I recapped mine, and wow... every day I fall more in love with them. No, they still can't really play Skream, but "Jazz at the Pawnshop" was a more realistic saxophone than i could imagine coming from a speaker without an actual midrange, and my like-minded friend has gotten good results out of Cowboy Junkies and Regina Spektor. Someone in this thread described them as 'polite,' I'd go a step further and say they're exceedingly gracious :tongue:- always clear my palate after more imposing systems. Back on the 103s, Traffic's "the low spark of high heeled boys" had as lively toms, clear vocals, and detailed piano as a pair of thousand dollar Genelec monitors, paired with a Pioneer sx-303 and a Denon DP 31L - even my 'these cheap bose sound fine' dad was blown away.

In the two way category my ADS L620s do go lower, and sound better with Squarepusher and the like, but for realism and warmth the Avids make them sound silly... and all for cheap as free. Really loving these speakers, and would pick up anything by Avid in a heartbeat.

 

[mhardy6647]

...the ads were considerably pricer than the AVIDs when both were new (and, typically, still today on the used/eBAY market, too). The AVIDs were high value, then and now, a la Polk Audio (e.g.).

 

[notas]

...the ads were considerably pricer than the AVIDs when both were new (and, typically, still today on the used/eBAY market, too). The AVIDs were high value, then and now, a la Polk Audio (e.g.).

Yea, i paid more for the ADS - something like $75 iirc, though they were(are) in excellent condition. I gave my friend something like 40 bucks for the Avids - probably could have gotten them cheaper, but we both knew how good they sounded.
The one thing I'm still waiting for is a matching, intact set of grills... i have one lemon yellow and one dusky brown grill on my 102s, the 103s have matching grills but one lost a serious battle with some kind of bobcat, and my friend is grill-less...

 

[Nat]

If I remember correctly, the grill on the Avids was designed to just contact the tweeter dome and damp it. Or so the salesman said. So it might possibly make the speakers sound better.
Avid had an unusually wide range of colors for the grills. I think the cloth was just stretch double weave polyester, so you could replace the cloth on the frames you have.

 

[Dapper7500]

I have a pair of Avid 102ABs that I purchased new in June 1985. I just pulled them out of the basement, and they are in excellent condition except the foam edges are completely deteriorated, so they sound horrible. I read through the whole thread and didn't see anyone talking about this particular model. Does anyone know anything about them or if they are worth repairing?

 

[Nat]

Certainly they are worth refoaming, and some people would suggest recapping. This won't cost much. Since you bought them, you must have liked them then, and you probably will now. If you have been listening to the tiny lofi things that are now the normal source of music -- ipod docks, computer speakers, and so on -- actual speakers may be a revelation.
Of course you'll need an amp -- did you put yours away in the basement with the speakers?

 

[Octaven]

I have a pair of Avid 102ABs that I purchased new in June 1985. I just pulled them out of the basement, and they are in excellent condition except the foam edges are completely deteriorated, so they sound horrible. I read through the whole thread and didn't see anyone talking about this particular model. Does anyone know anything about them or if they are worth repairing?

Avid captured lightning in a bottle during the 70's with the original 100 series. By the end of the decade, there were lots of new buzzwords in the marketplace... 'phase coherence', 'diffraction', etc. They introduced new models in an effort to regain some traction, but they pretty much fizzled.

Peerless had some operations in the US at that time. They bought, I don't know, either the whole Avid operation, or just the name, and marketed a few new Avid models. If I'm not mistaken, the 102ab's were one of those.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but they used drivers that were pretty much bottom of the line by Peerless standards, and the cabinets were kinda homely, too... I never saw one of the crossovers, but my guess is that it was also cheapened, relative to the original Avid units.

If I remember correctly, your 102ab's had a poly woofer cone that was whitish in color, and a 1" dome that was recessed into its housing..