Nola Metro Grand Reference Opinions

Good points Vladimir.

Nola's room at RMAF was good sized, and seemingly well treated. Like I said, when standing, the speakers sounded fantastic, no sense of overhang or room bloom, or funky reverb from bare walls and tile floors. Granted, it was a little larger suite than most people have for a dedicated room, but they are large speakers, and had no problem filling not only the room with sound, but the hallway outside as well.

It's just that the array approach, especially with ribbons, creates an almost laser beam dispersion in the vertical direction. As long as my ears were in line with the array, everything was there. But when seated on one of the provided banquet chairs (which put your ear higher off the floor than a typical lounge chair or couch), the diminished detail in the highest frequencies was immediately apparent. I was seated between 3 and 4 meters from the speakers, and from what I can remember, my ears were still below the lowest tweeter, perhaps in line with the upper woofer.

The fact that the array in the full on Grand Reference starts so much closer to the ground is a huge benefit. I've no doubt at all that the only shortcoming I could find in the Baby is thankfully absent from the Grand.

Hmmm,

Interesting comments so far. I know the tweeter height relative to your ear position can be critical with some designs. I have the Avalon Ascendants currently but feel that I may be giving up some transparency on the upper end with this design. Show conditions can be troublesome and as mentioned I am using the basic rule of thirds with my current system with acoustic treatments and getting a pretty good sound with this set up. If anyone knows of a dealer that stocks the Nola Metro and Wilison or Avalon or other contenders I would like to know. Since I live in the Northwest my dealer options are limited. Thanks.

You're about to jump in the deep end of the pool. This is the price point were many of the more established designers begin to use their top shelf parts and materials in a system that touches their core statement of design.

At this level the only audition you can trust is over time in your own home.

You have been living with a system that pays close attention to time and phase. The other two systems your interested in are quite different from Avalon. Other established brands that share the same priorities with Avalon are Theil and Vandersteen.

The next level up at Avalon begins with the Indra three way but actually it's their venerable Eidolon Vision and Diamond. Avalon doesn't do the MKII, Special edition, yearly update. They are about to announce something in January 2013. I'd hold of for a few months if I were you and check their website.

The announcement is a new Avalon speaker, the Compás, as shown on The Audio Beat.

Good points above and thanks for the tip on the new Avalons. Whatever I do, some travel will be involved to find a suitable dealer. Any suggestions would be appreciated.