18^th January 2024 · Avalon Acoustics

Vimberg, Fyne and Avalon at Audio Therapy

For obvious reasons I only ever keep 1 pair of loudspeakers in my demonstration room, but earlier this week I took it upon myself to take advantage of the beautiful winter sunshine and take some photographs of a selection of them all together. I posted this photograph on my Instagram feed and Facebook page and since then I’ve received some great feedback from both existing customers and also new potential customers. I’ve posted plenty of images of these speakers before but it’s the first time I shown them all together in the same image.

Pictured from left to right we have the Vimberg Mino, Fyne Audio F1-8S, Avalon Acoustics PM1.2 and the Vimberg Amea. The image should hopefully show a sense of scale and it serves to highlight the size of both the Vimberg Mino – they stand at 1280mm, and the Avalon PM1.2 which are 940mm tall, usually when people see both of these models in the flesh the Mino are much larger than people expect and the Avalon are much smaller.

When I founded Audio Therapy in 2017 Avalon were the first speaker brand I dealt with and they have remained close to my heart since then. They are an American company based in Denver and here in the UK they are brand which flies almost under the radar, something which Avalon has no issue with as they thrive on being the underdog. They are a magnificent speaker brand and over over the past 7 years I’ve introduced them to a lot of people, it’s a common theme that if an Avalon gets under your skin no other brand of speaker will do.

Sonically the PM1.2 is a very refined, natural sounding speaker, they have an almost seductive quality to their presentation, they have scale and bass weight to belie their size and they will happily go toe to toe with the Mino. My favourite element of the Avalon sound is their ability to create an incredibly real, almost palpable soundstage, 3d holographics and dimensional space is rendered like almost nothing else – in a serious system with a pair of Avalon you can almost walk around the musicians.

Vimberg are a German company and are manufactured in the Tidal Audio factory just outside of Cologne. The Vimberg range was designed by Jorn Jancsak, the founder and owner of Tidal Audio. Vimberg was conceived as an affordable range of speaker (the Amea start at £15,500, the Mino starts at £32,000 and flagship Tonda starts from £41,000), which compared to the Tidal range I guess it is, but all things are relative! The standmount Amea is a great option as well, for those who can’t accommodate the Mino (either physically or financially) it’s every bit as good as the Mino, just in a smaller form.

Sonically, the Vimberg models are all very strong loudspeakers, one review described them as invisible audible messengers and that is very accurate, they have a level of clarity and purity which many people will never have experienced before, when integrated into a good system they are incredibly captivating to listen to and with some time put into their set up they literally disappear from view, they are effortless in the way they present the music

I’ve customers with Vimberg at every level of their range, Tonda Diamond, Mino (and Mino Diamond) and the Amea and in each case they are used in a system which I’ve built from the ground up, every element of these systems is Audio Therapy from start to finish and the resultant performance is outstanding as I’m control of every element of the system. I frequently see systems on my travels that are curated from a number of different places and they can often sound contrived as a result, not because any single element is poor or wrong, but I frequently see different parts of a system simply fighting against another.

Fyne Audio are a relatively new addition to the Audio Therapy portfolio and are based Glasgow so they are much closer to home. I concentrate on Fyne’s F1 Series which is their flagship range of speakers and keep 3 of the 5 models from this range on demonstration. The F1 Series is a big sounding loudspeakers, very natural, lot of weight and an almost Avalon-esque soundstage. They are a very easy speaker to like and are completely fatigue free with their presentation, since the £12999 F1-8S arrived at the start of December 2023 they have been the only loudspeaker I’ve used in the demo room for my own listening, which is a big complement given the models standing either side of them. At £13000 they are still a lot of money but they are actually incredible value given how they perform.

These are not the only 4 loudspeakers here at Audio Therapy, I’ve other Fyne Audio alternatives (plus some Vintage models coming soon) and the brilliant Epos ES14N as well

The demonstration room is always available if you would like to come for a listen – it’s there for people to use and of course home demonstrations can be arranged as well. Typically most customers visit me in the first instance and we spend an afternoon listening to a variety of options based on requirements and budget and then a more focussed home demonstration/trial is organised so you can explore the same items in the comfort of your own home over a more extended time period. Part exchange is no issue either.

Please get in touch if you have any questions.