A lot of Avants were sold, so there are quite simply many on the market which dictates price. Moreover the video board is a known weak point in there TVs and costs about 1000€ to exchange.
I did notice it. Quite interesting that it is only for the North American market. I still prefer the classic look of the Beogram 4000 with the aluminium top plates though to be honest. If you download the media kit there is an image of the technology stored inside the sideboard. It looks like there is a beosound essence in there. Does anyone have further information?