Heard the $325000 Acapella's Sphaeron excaliburs?

Dmurfet, did the plasma tweeter stand out as better than the rest of the speaker. I have not heard the new Violins, but this was the case with them previously. It was also the case on the Campenelles (Sp?).

Excess just what is excess. I guess that depends on your disposable income and what you choose to spend it on. If you are Bill Gates just what do you spend your disposable income on. $325K speakers maby. Is this excess you bet. But it has already been said, tell the average person you spent $1500.00 on cables for your stereo. They will think you are nuts.

My system is yes half of my annual salery. I for one would not trade it for anything in this world. Ok I would like to upgrade a few things but it comes down to disposable income which I don't have right now.

If you are living within your means what does it matter wether you spend 5k or 325k on speakers as long as they bring enjoyment.

Michael

Duane, the plasma tweeter in the Acapella's is not a compression driver. Go to the Avantgarde website and learn why they don't use compression drivers either. Horn doesn't always mean compression drivers. But compression drivers done well sound great. I have a friend with an ALE compression multidriver system that's incredible. Why do recording studios use TAD compression drivers if they are so bad. These are people who listen for a living. There are great and poor examples of just about all types of drivers but it's dumb to say all box speakers are no good or all planar speakers are no good. Every type has it's advantages and disadvantages. I've had Sound Lab A-1's and Quads and some great box speakers too but at the moment I think my Avantgarde Trios are way better but still not perfect.

tbg - I'm not sure if one part was better than another - I have only heard this pair and would be difficult to compare. I do think that that a lot of headroom made the normal vinyl clicking and popping even more pronounced. The K-S cables did seem to reduce this effect, but what one man calls low noise another calls rolled out high frequencies - I don't know enough to know the difference!

I just heard the $48K/pair High Violin MkIII in Southern California. The other components were Einstein 60 wpc tube monoblocks ($25K/pair), Einstein tube preamp (I forget how much), and Accustic Arts CD transport and DAC ($11K). Each component sat on a $1500 isolation platform. Throw in cables, line conditioners, racks, room treatment, and miscellaneous, and we were at around $150K.

I was curious to hear the exotic, much talked-about plasma tweeter. Certainly as a conversation piece alone, the plasma tweeter on the Acapella is unsurpassed. The plasma flames glow a beautiful pink-purple inside their impressive polished gold tweeter horns.

Plasma is the superheated, ionized, fourth state of matter that:

1) Cuts through steel like a hot knife through butter;
2) Will eventually enable nuclear fusion to be harnessed as an energy source; and
3) Produces the sweetest, smoothest, most ethereal and spacious treble I have ever heard.

I played some 80's and 90's recordings (classical and pop, from Bach to Basia) that I previously thought were well-recorded, and they sounded great on this system. What previously sounded like an excellent recording of a violin, now sounded like a live violin. I could hear Itzhak Perlman breathing between notes.

But then Brian, the owner of the system, played some more recent demo recordings, and the soundstage suddenly doubled in width and depth. Instruments now seemed to be playing from 45 degrees to each side of the speakers, almost from behind me.

Although the plasma tweeter gets all the attention, the rest of the speaker (horn midrange and 2 woofers) is superbly executed as well. Words like "sumptuous" and "elegant" came to mind as I focused on the midrange, and "authoritative, fast and tight -- amazing for 60 wpc" as I focused on the bass. The tweeter is fantastic but not "too good" for the rest of the speaker.

The only downside I heard was that for a few moments, the tweeter would make faint crackling noises, apparently the result of microscopic dust particles getting zapped in the plasma. Brian said that the speaker had just been unpacked after returning from CES. I only heard the crackling noises for a total of about 1 minute in 3 hours of listening. Those three hours went by far too quickly.

So now I am back home in my apartment, listening to my $3K system (homemade plywood racks, no fancy platforms), hoping the sound will start to improve toward the end of this bottle of wine. Life is good.