The feminine Friday afternoon brigade holding down the fort, with Sonja Baudach to the right, was busy assembling Avantgarde's latest PR project, a custom CD of popular Bert Kaempfert tunes.

Each hallway of this large three-story building with fully built-out basement was filled with expertly sited objects d'art, primarily of Innuit design but also modern glass. Ivette pretended being curator for a moment. Wonderful job, dahlin'!

At the end of one such corridor, Sonja ushered us into the conference room, taking pains to remind us that the spectacular environs were no reflection on Avantgarde per se -- "what do you mean you can't float us a $100,000 custom opening order on 120 days"? -- but rather, a conspicuous advantage of being housed in the showcase building of another enterprise. Not to say that Avantgarde lacks success. Far from it. In relatively short time, this firm has risen to the # 1 position in the global hornspeaker field. It bears remembering though that the market for expensive loudspeakers no matter their stunning performance is small to begin with and not likely to explode anytime soon.


It was easy to imagine visiting dignitaries having none of Sonja's explanations but insisting that these German HiFi folks had pure gold bullion stashed in their Swiss bank account. Unless I fell off a turnip truck at birth, not. But then, first impressions are vitally important. On that count, anyone encountering Avantgarde at their headquarters for the very first time can't fail but to be thoroughly impressed. Even a certain ground floor office was outfitted with its own pair of Unos, indicating that love of music indeed is what makes this Teutonic precision machinery tick.