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AVID thread

groovegrinde said:
I worked for AVID during this time, and Gordon Miller Music was my account. If you want more info let me know
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Wow Groovegrinde!! Gordon Miller Music in Baltimore is where I purchased my AVID's back in the mid 70's when I was a teenager. Gordon Miller was considered a high end stereo store at the time. They had a really neat "exchange" program where you had up to 1 year to bring back a pair of AVID's purchased from them and they would give you full price credit towards the purchase of an upgraded model! This was really great for me! My first pair of AVID's were Model 80a and 11 months later I brought them back and traded them up for the newly introduced Model 110's. I'll never forget hearing them in the Gordon Miller demo room.....I was FLOORED at how clean and open they sounded. I still have them to this day and am listening to them right now as I type this post. They still sound absolutely amazing for their size. I love seeing the surprised look on my house-guest's faces when they hear them. I drive them with a 120 wpc Realistic STA-2100 receiver.

I also vividly remember seeing and listening to the AVID 330's at Gordon Miller. They had that same clean open sound of the 110's but with so much more bass. Being a teenager in the 70's with very limited financial resources, I could NEVER afford them, but I made a vow to myself that "someday" I would have a pair of them for my own. Now, so many years later, thanks to the internet and EBAY, I've made good on my vow and now own a very nice pair of both Model 330's and Model 230's to go with my 110's.

Interestingly, I find so much content online about the earlier AVID models 100, 102, 103's, but so very little about the later models like I have. Since you actually worked at AVID during that time, I'd be ABSOLUTELY interested to hear ANY and ALL info you have to offer!!!!!!! Such as....were the later models less popular or offer less quality than the earlier models? Was AVID's heyday already waning, as a business, by the time the newer models came out? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, I'd be dumbfounded because I listened to and compared ALOT of speakers at the time before buying the AVIDS and NOTHING (at least in my price range) could compare....not even close!
 
Just picked up a pair of 103s off of CL over the weekend for $50. I probably could have had them for less but I was squeezing in picking them up between family obligations and in a huge rush. I wasn't familiar but looked them up here, contacted the guy and had them in my truck in an hour.

My other current speakers are Klipsch KG-4 (looking to move up the Klipsch line though) and Yamaha NS-690. How do they compare to those speakers?

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moparjeff said:
Wow Groovegrinde!! Gordon Miller Music in Baltimore is where I purchased my AVID's back in the mid 70's when I was a teenager. Gordon Miller was considered a high end stereo store at the time. They had a really neat "exchange" program where you had up to 1 year to bring back a pair of AVID's purchased from them and they would give you full price credit towards the purchase of an upgraded model! This was really great for me! My first pair of AVID's were Model 80a and 11 months later I brought them back and traded them up for the newly introduced Model 110's. I'll never forget hearing them in the Gordon Miller demo room.....I was FLOORED at how clean and open they sounded. I still have them to this day and am listening to them right now as I type this post. They still sound absolutely amazing for their size. I love seeing the surprised look on my house-guest's faces when they hear them. I drive them with a 120 wpc Realistic STA-2100 receiver.

I also vividly remember seeing and listening to the AVID 330's at Gordon Miller. They had that same clean open sound of the 110's but with so much more bass. Being a teenager in the 70's with very limited financial resources, I could NEVER afford them, but I made a vow to myself that "someday" I would have a pair of them for my own. Now, so many years later, thanks to the internet and EBAY, I've made good on my vow and now own a very nice pair of both Model 330's and Model 230's to go with my 110's.

Interestingly, I find so much content online about the earlier AVID models 100, 102, 103's, but so very little about the later models like I have. Since you actually worked at AVID during that time, I'd be ABSOLUTELY interested to hear ANY and ALL info you have to offer!!!!!!! Such as....were the later models less popular or offer less quality than the earlier models? Was AVID's heyday already waning, as a business, by the time the newer models came out? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, I'd be dumbfounded because I listened to and compared ALOT of speakers at the time before buying the AVIDS and NOTHING (at least in my price range) could compare....not even close!
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Probably pointless self-promotion but you might enjoy this little collection if you haven't seen it. Not AVID but GMM-related.

I got nothin' on the later AVIDs and defer (of course!) to an erstwhile AVID employee!

https://flic.kr/s/aHskjaNkuL

GMMcatalog by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
 
Copying this from the speaker forum!

So I've had a couple pairs of AVIDs for a while that were given to me by a friend. A set of 102s and a set of 230s. When I got them, I hooked them up and was... underwhelmed. I put them aside until I could do a recap. I just got around to recapping the 230's, and it did clean up the sound a good bit, the mid range sounded great... but they were still off. I put my ear up to them and realized that neither tweeter was working. Tested them, and they are open-- fried.

This model, and others, use a B&G tweeter. Anyone have an old set of AVIDs with blown drivers but good tweeters that you want to part out?!?! :) I found *one* on ebay that I scooped, but still need one more!

Being a local and proud Rhode Islander, I really want to get these locally-made classics back to their original glory. Help AK!!

Thanks!
 
baco99 said:
Hey all - FYI, I will be posting some information about the Model 330 here in the coming weeks.
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Now there's a model you don't hear much about for some strange reason. I had a pair pass thru here years ago and surprisingly to me they bested a pair of much much more expensive Khorus Talons I also had at the time.
 
Hi all. So I'm very new here and I have to share this story. Kind of a long sorry.
So I responded to a cl ad for an Onkyo TX4500 MKii, original owner, in storage for 29 years bla bla yada yada. Nice guy, 74 years old. Went with my daughter (1 hour drive) to the guys house. He had 2 sets of "Avid 100" speakers, tape deck tt and the Onkyo. the stuff was in the garage when we got there and I wanted to hear the stereo just to be sure it wasn't dead. I Connected the Onkyo to one of the sets of speakers and something didn't sound right. I removed the covers to the connected set to find Avid 102's with one tweeter not working. I then removed the covers to the other set to find Avid 230"s with crumbling woofer foams. I switched the fuse from the 230's to the 102"s, cranked the Onkyo and and stood 20 feet in front to listen. I was totally impressed with how it sounded so I bought the Onk and the 102's. I had never even heard of Avid speakers but now I was hooked. When I got home I started thinking that I should have grabbed the 230's but the ad was taken down so I figured someone already got them. Two weeks later they were back up for sale, refoamed. I contacted the guy and he said that he replaced the surrounds himself and now there is "a lot of distortion" Well, I went to give them a listen and sure enough, one of them was wrecked. He put a phillips screw driver through the cone (small hole) and the voice coil was rubbing badly. He said he was going to scrap them and that I was welcomed to take them. I took them home, replaced the foam and repaired the small hole. WOW! These things sound great! Keepers for sure.
During this two week period, a pair of Avid 103's came up for sale for real cheap so I snagged those as well. To make room I'm selling my Polks. They sound terrible compared to the Avids. Now I have the 102's 103's and 230's, all for under $75.00. I'm hooked for sure!
Oh yeah, the Onkyo sounds fantastic too.
 
Absolutely love my Avid 102's. Sound great from top to bottom. I would take them over my ADS 520, but they are just a little too big and vinyl covered for my office. Maybe I will veneer them some day.

FWIW the Avid 102 was the most accurate speaker that Consumer Reports ever tested. I realize that isn't the only yardstick to judge them by, but impressive nevertheless.
 
AVID 102

Just found a pair put out for bulk trash in our area. All the drivers looked in good shape but grills will need redone. Neat idea to use a channel and rubber cord to hold the cloth in place. When checking the fuses for continuity, I discovered that one of the fuse holders had a broken retaining clip...the little piece of metal that is bent backwards to hold the assembly in. So, the fuse wouldn't make contact. I'll post some pics later, but I cut a thin piece of galvanized sheet metal and soldered it to the rest of the fuse clip and voila, holds the assembly nicely in place. Both speakers work, though they sounded a little dull unless I switched to high on the balance pot. I'm feeling a recap may help this out, though I know that the testing placement wasn't ideal. Also deciding whether to veneer these vs the vinyl.

Anybody have a crossover scat for these? I don't have time right now to open them up. Originals with the Philips tweet.
 
Went for a bike ride with my son and saw a pair of these at the end of someone's driveway. Stopped to take a peek and they look in great shape. Told my wife and got the "no way, you've got too many already" look. I have to figure out how to grab these tonight
 
Found a pair of 101's and one of the 8" woofers/drivers is dead. I need a suitable replacement, used or new. I have been searching the interwebs high and low and can only find that perhaps they are Peerless? On the back of the speaker it lists DR129 29050 and probably the S/N 2857605.

Does this speaker work with say a model 100's or is there an appropriate substitute I could puchase? What brand and model would be most consistent with the original Avid 8" in the model 101? Thanks in advance!
 
3D printed waveguides used for this project.

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Chris Yeck said:
Found a pair of 101's and one of the 8" woofers/drivers is dead. I need a suitable replacement, used or new. I have been searching the interwebs high and low and can only find that perhaps they are Peerless? On the back of the speaker it lists DR129 29050 and probably the S/N 2857605.

Does this speaker work with say a model 100's or is there an appropriate substitute I could puchase? What brand and model would be most consistent with the original Avid 8" in the model 101? Thanks in advance!
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Hi Chris,
Welcome to AK! I think that the 101 used a CTS mid/woofer in it?
If you feel that you are not getting much information here then you might want to pop over to ‘the classic speaker pages’ as they have a dedicated forum to Avid speakers.
Have you checked eBay for a spare woofer? They do come up for sale occasionally.
Good luck
 
Helle said:
Hi Chris,
Welcome to AK! I think that the 101 used a CTS mid/woofer in it?
If you feel that you are not getting much information here then you might want to pop over to ‘the classic speaker pages’ as they have a dedicated forum to Avid speakers.
Have you checked eBay for a spare woofer? They do come up for sale occasionally.
Good luck
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Thanks for the advice!! I'll keep checking eBay and hopefully one will show up. :)
 
spok said:
Here is a link to the Classic Speaker forum and a complete Avid product brochure including specs

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=4123
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I love looking at those old brochures and seeing how they brag about their product. One thing I didn't realize was that the Avid 102's were not all that efficient. I have the full makings of a set of Avid 102's in the closet and a drawer. I like the Philips tweeter and have it in two different sets of speakers that I own. Couple that with a two way design with a 10"woofer and I would love to really here these if I ever got around to a full assembly (I have the cabinet dimensions but no cabinets).
 
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