Kharma CRM 3.2F vs. Avalon Eidolon and Diamond

I've heard Diamonds sounding hard and aggressive in the upper frequencies too and think it's probably related to room setup. The room I heard them demo'd in was too small and had too little sound treatment. From Shubertmaniac's comments, it seems clear that like the Eidolon, the Diamond needs careful room setup.

Flex: where did you here the Avalon Diamonds? I heard the
Diamonds at Overture in Delaware with an all Spectral
setup. It looks like the same room/setup as the plain jane
Eidolons; which sounded at one time terrible (see my
tirades with cfb about the Eidolons). Avalons, in particular the 3 ways, are very tricky to setup
properly.I have the Radians and I am still dialing them in after 5 months of use. The Radians use the MB Quart titanium tweeter, 3.5 inch kevlar/nomex midrange, two 9 inch kevlar/nomex woofers. Midrange is excellent, the bass fairly good and the lower to mid treble is very good, and the high treble is good but not nearly the best I have heard. My Accoustat's high end is sooooo much sweeter! But for an eight year old tweeter design, not bad, not great.
But I would not call it steely or hard, more like a dull sound; same goes with the ceramic, and the diamond not steely or hard, just less dull than the ceramic or titanium.
When I say the diamond was light and airy, this was relative to the plain jane Eidolon and the Radian. I might agree about a ribbon could be better( though the first time I heard the Apogee in 1984 with krell electronics at the original Bryn Mawr stereo store, I almost ran out the door, it was so awful sounding). Same goes with electrostatics.

Shubertmaniac,
I heard them at a north California dealership, which is a fine place but simply lacks the space that Overture has and will freely admit that their showroom space is too small. I've spent over 2 years dialing in my own pair of Eidolons in a difficult acoustic setup, so I'm very familiar with their properties. The Diamonds are less laid back, and more dynamic and resolving, so adequate space and setup are important.

Hello Fmpnd, may I ask that you list the Accuphase, Levinson, and Wadia's CDP models that you listened in your system. Thank you very much

Regards

I haven't followed this thread for a while but if Audiogo2000 is still following it, the front ends I had through my doors for audition were:

Accuphase DP85

Levinson 31.5 and 390S and

Wadia 860