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amp & preamp for acapella violon

I would appreciate your recommendations for an amp & preamp
to use with my newly acquired Acapella high Violons with the
sub active bass. The speakers are still breaking in and have about 40 hours on them. My initial impressions are superb (specially the midrange horns and the plasma tweeters). I have a problem with the bass as I am currently
driving them with the Audio Aero Prestige single ended mono
blocks which do not seem to have enough power to control the
lower frequencies. The rest of the system consists of:
DCS Verdi/Purcell/Elgar Plus all with the DSD firewire
Hovland pre
Kimber Select 1030 interconnects and digital cables
Kimber Select 3038 speaker cables
various Shunyata power cords

The amplifiers and preamps I have in mind are
Halcro dm58/68 and Halcro dm10 pre
Edge Signature mono blocks and Wyetech Opal pre
Chord SPM 6000 mono blocks and top of the line Chord pre
Audio Research ref 300mk2 and ref 2mk2 pre

If anybody has experience with tube amps like the Tenors or
Vaics or Wavacs or any other high powered single ended triodes (which I prefer) on these speakers pls respond ASAP

Likely additions to the system in the near future will be
either the Clearaudio Master Reference turntable (with the
Clearaudio arm) or the Simon Yorke turntable to replace my
current SOTA Star Saphire & Alphason arm setup. My cartridge
which is the Koetsu Onyx Saphire will stay with system.

Thanks and happy new year to all in advance.
jbaruh
occlusion
5 posts
 
Lucky you! I have heard Acapella Violon speakers with Wavac HE-833 Tube monoblocks, they are magical. Would certainly love to own ones in the future. I would also suggest using the Stereovox LSD-600 speakers cables. Now , I am using the Stereovox SEI-600 interconnects, of course I am very happy with them worth every cents.Many happy hours of music.
jayme's avatar
jayme
52 posts
 
Do not do anything final until you try the Edge NL-10s @ 225/ch. As has been proven at the last 3 THE shows, they can mate well w/many speakers. With my Sonus Fabers---beautiful (I won't even consider tubes, anymore). Give Tom a call at Edge and give 'em an audition. (Of course, I am not affiliated in any way w/Edge).
occlusion
5 posts
 
Recently I heard Acapella Violon High Sub with Wavac 805md,no problem at all. The speakers sound as good as with the Wavac-833. Speaker cables are Stereovox, not biwiring!So you don't need to biwiring cables for the Acapella Violon!
fcrowder
191 posts
 
I own a pair of the Acapella Campanile Highs and have used a number of amplifiers with them, including the EL34 based Wolcott mono's @ 225 watts and more recently the Parasound JC-1's. The SEAS woofers require an extended break in period. Until they do so, they will lack continuity with the other drivers. As they break in, you will notice that the low end becomes more extended and dynamics improve. They are initially over damped. Even after break in you will have tighter faster bass with better control and extension with the latest very fast/ high damping factor/high current solid state amps. I think that 100 watts may be conservative. These speakers love power. You may prefer a good tubed unit on the horns/tweeter but there are a number of solid state amps that yield excellent results with the Acapella speakers, particularly the Parasound and the Edge. I have not heard the Goldmund but would predict that it would also be a good match. Please feel free to contact me if I can be of help.
jbaruh OP
5 posts
 
Thanks to all for your recommendations. The Acapellas are still breaking in ( mainly the woofers ) . So far I tried them with the Halcro and Chord combinations which were good but not extraordinary . I guess I prefer tubes to solid state although I have yet to try the Edge and Parasound amps. The last combination of Antique Sound Labs
Hurricane monoblocks with a Conrad-Johnson ART Series 2 preamp yielded fantastic results so far . I have yet to find a Wavac-833 nearby to be able to audition with the system. I fully agree with Fcrowder that 100 watts may be conservative as I tried the triode mode (100 watts) of the hurricanes and preferred the 200 watt mode because of some
loss at the low end and dynamics with the triode mode.
I will try to keep you updated once I try the other combinations. At present the ART and Hurricane combination is currently driving the system with the Shunyata power cords on the Hurricanes . The front end is still the DCS setup and cabling is Kimber Select as mentioned before.
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