The high-end is dead...
It was suffocated in its sick bed by the maturation of digital audio. Digital leap-frogged all of the high-end problems and pretensions and dropped superior dynamic range, frequency extension and accuracy, plus exceedingly low distortion, into the laps of the unknowing public. We’re not sure exactly when the high-end died, as it had been in such bad shape for such a long time that its death wasn’t immediately obvious. Besides, its most devoted fans, unable to accept that the unwashed masses now had ready access to their club, have continued to believe it is alive and well, in the way that so many of my fellow Americans believe in the continuing life of Elvis. This illusion was aided and abetted, of course, by many “high-end” manufacturers who happily kept the dream alive by providing audiophiles with the most pretentious, bloated and inflated products imaginable, many of which don’t sound as good as what can be bought for a fraction of the price. For years now, the corpse of the “high-end” has walked among us like a zombie from the Night of the Living Dead, feeding off of the bank accounts of the gullible.
 
Meanwhile, one legacy manufacturer of purist audiophile equipment embraced the new reality and worked with it, creating better sound at astonishingly affordable prices. That company is AVI.

When Ashley and Martin (who are, essentially, AVI) asked me to write some content for their web site, I was thrilled. I believe in what they’re doing, have tremendous respect for their ethics and their design approach, and am a very happy user of a pair of their ADM 9.1s.

What AVI has done, in the face of the digital challenge, is bold, creative, and nothing short of courageous: They have swept away a 20-year legacy and an extensive line of highly respected audiophile speakers and components to replace it all with a handful of simple, elegant and exceptionally good-sounding products. In the process, they have taken on the difficult task of explaining themselves. How can a pair of small bookshelf speakers with integrated preamp, amps and digital to analog converter, plugged directly into your computer, possibly sound better than AVI’s own (not to mention everyone else’s) massive, expensive, floor-standing speakers and rack full of audiophile components?
 
That explanation follows, but for now, I have a Mac full of music and a pair of ADM 9.1s in the next room. I’m going to listen.
 
Phelonious Ponk
GrumpyOldArts.com

HDD Audio stands for hard disk drive audio. The website aims to be the number one source of information for people looking to embark upon a computer-based HiFi system, and help people to get the most out of music stored on their computers, iPod, hard drives, etc. We hope to provide advice in plain English as so many other websites perplex newcomers. http://hddaudio.net/punbb/index.php