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Acapella vs. Avantgarde

I currently run a Cary CD-306, Cary SLP-05 preamp, and Cary 805AE monoblocks with a pair of ProAc D38's (see system). The combination is sweet and involving, but the combo just does not boogie when asked to play a large orchestral piece, by Mahler/Wagner/Shostakovich. When the volume is turned up, dynamics are poor and the system starts to sound compressed. I suspect that the 50W Cary's simply does not have enough guts to drive the ProAc's, so I am considering replacing them with a more efficient speaker. Since most SET afficionadoes love horns, this led me to look into Avantgarde and Acapella.

I live in Melbourne, Australia. Avantgarde is available through a dealer here, but he does not have any in stock. The Acapella dealer is in Sydney (a plane flight away). I am looking to spend A$30,000 - which will buy a nice Avantgarde Duo, or a secondhand Acapella High Violon.

I have read plenty about the dynamics of the Avantgardes, but my concern is if they have horn coloration. Also, how do they image? Are they sensitive to room placement?

Would the Acapella High Violon's be a better buy, considering the pair I can potentially get my hands on have been heavily discounted? I have read that Acapella's suffer from disjointed sound because of the three different driver technologies (plasma tweeter, horn mids, conventional woofer). How much is this a problem? And are there any room placement issues? Given that the Acapella's have lower sensitivity (91 dB/W/m) would I be achieving a real upgrade by moving from the ProAc's?
amfibius
amfibius OP
282 posts
 
Kotjac, I have heard that the Einstein OTL's are the best solution as Acapella themselves use it. However, they suffer from a very serious drawback - you can't get them in Australia!

In any case, since I last wrote I have already ordered my Cary CAD-211AE's. Hopefully that should be enough. If not enough, then I will (gulp) have to bi-amp them.

Gregm, I already have biwirable speaker cable so it won't cost me extra to bi-wire if I wanted to. In fact it would cost me extra to mono-wire them as I would have to buy a new pair of cables. The credit card is about to jump out of my pocket and run away screaming from all the punishment I have meted out to it!
kotjac
13 posts
 
Yes, the Einstein OTLs are great with the Acapellas but the combination of the Jadis 300B SETs and the solid state Belles sounds as good or even better than the Einsteins so I'm sure that there are other amps out there that would provide a great match. The 211AE's definitely seem like a good choice.

Good luck and please keep us posted!
amfibius OP
282 posts
 
Well the speakers arrived yesterday. You can see a lot of pictures here:

http://www.stereo.net.au/forum/index.php?showtopic=3088&st=0

Also more pictures in my virtual system.

I was very surprised when I hooked them up to my Cary CAD-805AE amps. I was expecting to hear lean anemic bass, but surprise surprise - there is actually more bass than my ProAc D38. And the bass has an effortless sound to it as well. Too bad that i've already ordered and paid for my new amps, because i'm starting to think an amp upgrade may be unnecessary. But it would be interesting to see what improvements the CAD-211AE will bring.

The other interesting observation is that these are 91dB/W/m - less than the ProAc's (quoted at 92dB/W/m). Yet I don't have to crank the volume as much to achieve the same loudness.

I was chatting to my neighbour this morning and she said that she didn't know that I could play the violin so well. I just grinned. Little does she know :) Tonight she will find out how well I can conduct a symphonic orchestra!
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Amfibius, what speakers are you talking about. The picture postings don't work.
amfibius OP
282 posts
 
Oh sorry TBG. I just realized that you have to be a member of that forum before you can see the pictures. I was talking about the Acapella Violons.

UNFORTUNATELY, yesterday one of the tweeters suddenly became much more quiet than the other one. Even with the volume control maxed, it only barely manages to put out enough volume. The size of the plasma flame is also a lot smaller. I made a panicked call to the dealer, and he suggested that I change the valves. As I lack the correct Allen key, I am up early this morning so I can visit the hardware store the moment it opens.

*sighs*
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