Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The good:
1) Very good build, finish & color options for the price.
2) Rated @ 100w max X 8ohms (50w continuous). It's efficient & easy to drive with most AMPs / AVRs.
3) Tweeter & Squawker (Midrange driver / woofer) made of Aluminium, materials unseen at this price point. It looks fabulous without the speaker grill.
4) Superb & smooth midrange for the price. Treble is pretty disciplined & sweet.
5) Very good binding posts. Bi-wirable & Bi-ampable, something only the British can understand. Lol.
6) Excellent price to performance ratio.
The bad:
1) Bass port is located at the back of the speaker. Placement may not be as easy as front ported counterparts.
2) Bass a lil' undisciplined (loose) when compared with the earlier generation Mordaunt Short (MS) 902i bookshelf speakers.
3) Sounds very harsh right out of the box. Burn in / running in takes forever. U need to burn them in for at least 100hrs before they reach full potential & are ready for critical listening. Yawn!
I prefer bookshelf speakers over floor standing speakers for the following reasons:
1) Easier to drive with any AMP / AVR.
2) Flexible placement options. It can be mounted on a stand, wall, ceiling or bookshelf.
3) In smaller apartments great results can be achieved when wall mounted with a good wall mount such as B-Tech BT77 B-TECH Ultragrip Pro BT77 - Speaker bracket - black - wall-mountable (pack of 2 ). It saves floor space too. See pix.
4) Bigger is not always better. I have seen cheaper bookshelf speakers sounding more involving than their more expensive & larger floor standing cousins from the same brand / family.
Background:
In 2008, I wanted a pair of bookshelf speakers to use with an Onkyo TX-SR604 A/V Receiver (AVR) in Zone 2 (bedroom) Onkyo TX-SR604 7.1 Channel A/V Receiver (Black). I only had a budget of USD300. After months of search, research & demos it was very evident that North American (N. America here consists of only CA & US) speakers have very good highs (Treble) & lows (Bass) but the midrange (Vocals) almost always took a backseat. British speakers on the other hand is generally more warm sounding because of a more fleshed out / forward midrange. The N. American speakers are more suited for classical and rock music. The British speakers are better at dialogue delivery & any music that had lots of vocals. If cost was no object, then I'd luv to have 2 pairs of speakers in my stereo setup, consisting of a pair of N. American & a pair of British speakers, only to make the best of both worlds.
Performance:
With my limited budget & a taste for warm midrange, I was more & more inclined to get a British brand of speakers. After listening to bookshelf speakers from Klipsch, Mirage, Paradigm, B&W, Wharfedale, Mordaunt Short etc to name a few, I rounded up on the following:
1) Mordaunt Short Avant 902i. It has a 5.25 inches squawker. Rear bass port.
2) Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 Compact Speakers - Pair - Black. It has a 5.0 inches squawker. Front bass ports.
Both the above speakers belonged to the same price point - USD250/pair. The Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 & the Mordaunt Short Avant 902i have very good midrange that budget British speakers are famous for. The differences were more to do with the treble & bass delivery of each speaker. The Wharfedale has a very disciplined
(sweet) treble at the cost of a lil' boomy bass. MS on the other hand has a very disciplined bass at the cost of a lil' undisciplined (bright) treble. The MS midrange is a lil' more transparent & controlled than the Wharfedale. The Wharfedale has a more forgiving / warm sound which has a tendency to sound a lil' dull / boring at low volumes, whereas the MS has a more 3 dimensional, legible, involving, intimate & lively sound no matter what music I threw at it. Over extended listening it was obvious to me that the MS 902i belonged to a very different class / breed of speakers. The fit, finish & materials (Aluminum drivers) were comparable to the Paradigm SE-1 bookshelf speakers which are priced @ USD600/pair.
Design:
In my demos, I've observed that Squawkers (Midrange drivers) with a diameter of no more than 5.25 - 5.5 inches deliver the best midrange. Squawkers above 5.5 inches in diameter will deliver better bass but at the cost of laidback midrange presentation. This is a critical point when deciding on a pair of bookshelf speakers if U are a midrange fanatic like me. The MS 902i is rated to go as low as 55hz & that's pretty good bass for most 2 channel music / presentation. Adding a Subwoofer to the equation sh'd help those with a taste / craving for deep bass & it's a must when watching a movie.
Aluminium drivers if poorly implemented can sound very harsh & it's not a material of choice for a majority of speaker manufacturers. The MS 902i is a fine example of how superb Aluminium drivers can actually sound if used well. What really impressed me about MS bookshelf speakers is its ability to handle 'not so perfect' recordings. Even with really old 60's music, the MS 902i had a way of making it sound 3 dimensional, legible, involving, intimate & lively. The MS' intimate midrange presentation / delivery will initially make it seem like it is voiced for home theatre (movies), but the fact is it's equally capable with both movies & music. It's truly an unimaginable & capable performance from a pair of speakers that cost me just USD250/pair. Most speakers at this price point are either voiced for movies or music. It can't get better than this at this price point & the MS 902i is currently selling in the UK for just GBP100/pair (equivalent of USD150/pair).
It's important that U burn in / run in any MS speakers for at least 100hrs before they reach full potential & are ready for critical listening. The MS user manual suggests 36hrs of run in, but in my experience it takes 3 times longer than that, to open them up to the next level. After 100hrs of use they actually become a different beast / animal. Patience is the key here.
MS Avant 902i Vs MS Aviano 1:
The Avant series is now replaced by the new generation Aviano series. Latest is not always the greatest. I realized this when I had the chance to set up a budget 2 channel system for a friend of mine. B'cos the MS Avant series was no longer in production, I chose the Aviano series & it was to be paired with a Cambridge Audio (CA) Azur 550A amp Cambridge Audio Azur 550A Integrated Amplifier, Silver. The Avant 902i & the Aviano 1 had the same specs on paper. The Aviano 1 was a lil' more compact with a more curvy & stylish facade than the Avant 902i speakers.
The CA Azur 550A amp has 2 pairs of speaker terminals at the back. This helped me evaluate both speakers in real time by switching the speakers using the supplied CA remote control. I was surprised to see that both speakers actually had very different presentation. Unlike the Avant 902i, the Aviano 1 has a very disciplined (sweet) treble at the cost of a lil' loose bass. While the midrange in both speakers were strong / forward they sounded a lil' different from each other. I still preferred the sound of my trusty old MS Avant 902i bookshelf speakers. With the disciplined bass of the Avant 902i also comes a lil' more involving / captivating midrange & the undisciplined treble can be tamed with proper / careful system matching. I have achieved great results by using a Musical Fidelity V-DAC with the Mordaunt Short Avant 902i bookshelf speakers. Together they have achieved a midrange performance / benchmark not expected at this price point. The Aviano 1 has its own strengths. It had more bass, a sweet topend & a clear midrange that sounded very neutral in its presentation of both movies & music.
Conclusion:
The Mordaunt Short Aviano 1 is the successor to the superb Avant 902i bookshelf speakers. Both speakers sound different. The Avant 902i was a master at bringing out smooth midrange in songs heavy on vocals & the Aviano is the 'jack of all trades' that can handle just about anything U can throw at it in typical Mordaunt Short tradition.
Mordaunt Short, a British speaker manufacturing specialist for over 40years, surely knows how to make good quality budget bookshelf speakers at an affordable price. At USD400/pair the Aviano 1 barely has any competition at this price point when it comes to an intimate delivery across the spectrum for both movies & music.
Today if I were to buy a pair of bookshelf speakers, I'd also consider the following speakers:
1) Mordaunt Short Mezzo 1 priced @ USD600/pair. It has a 5.25 inches Aluminium Squawker with rear bass port.
2) Paradigm Studio 10 priced @ USD800/pair. It has a 5.5 inches Aluminium Squawker with front bass port.
Just my $0.02.
Brgds.
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Product Description:
Aviano 1 is a real powerhouse in miniature consuming minimal living space while delivering entertainment by the bucket-load. Its compact 5¼" driver communicates with incredible authority and integrates flawlessly with Mordaunt-Short's highly detailed aluminium dome tweeter. Aviano is an amazing hi-fi and home theatre speaker series combining unprecedented levels of performance, refinement and value. 100% designed and engineered in the UK, Aviano scores instantly with a purposeful, muscular yet refined look and comes alive in any living space. Soft organic contours of the front profile combine with exquisitely finished cabinets in carefully chosen hues.Sold in pairs
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