Acapella vs. Avantgarde

In response to Fernando's comments, with respect to the Violons, the comparison is probably accurate but will be influenced by the amp driving the Acapella's. Midrange purity is better with tubes, low bass and speed improve with an appropriate solid state amp. The comparison becomes increasingly less accurate as one moves up the Acapella line first to the Campaniles where the midrange horn goes down to 500 hz and even more so with the Triolons which have a bass horn that goes down to 170 hz. In each instance as the bass cut off moves lower there is a concommitant increase in speed, bass impact and midrange purity. I think that the common thread with all the Acapella speakers is the plasma tweeter which is by far the best tweeter that I have ever heard including the diamond tweeter used in some of the Martens, the tonal purity and the seamlessness of the very different drivers. The AG speakers have a different set of strengths but are equally credible. In the end, as you move up the Acapella line, you begin to close in on the areas where the AG's are very strong keeping the areas where the Acapella's are strong.

I had the pleasure to listen to Fernando's wonderful system last weekend and I was really impressed with the overall speed, dynamics and bass slam of his Unos. In these three areas the Unos sounded better than any other Avantgardes I ever heard. I think that it had a lot to do with Fernando's room, which, unlike the listening rooms in the U.S., has a very rigid structure built of brick, stone and concrete. My listening room is a typical American construction, which I believe is responsible for a relative lack of low end speed and dynamics, not only with my Acapellas, but any other speakers I had before (including the MBL 101Ds, known for their exceptional speed and bass dynamics).

As far as the Acapella vs. Avantgarde question goes, having listened to the Duos and Trios on several occassions and owning a pair of High Violons, I find the Avantgardes to be better in the frequency range covered by the Violons 10" mid-woofer (800Hz and below): they are fast, dynamic and in the right room can sound very visceral with amazing impact and well defined leading edge. They are so good in this respect that the slight lack of low end extension and slight discontinuity in the upper bass are something one could easily live with. The Violons don't quite have such explosive dynamics and the amazing speed, but their bass seems a little more of a piece, is pretty tight and nimble albeit it doesn't quite have the slam and gut moving impact of the Avantgardes. From 800Hz up and particularly in the treble (the plasma tweeter is unbelievable), the Acapellas are hard to beat, with gorgeous, very realistic tone, amazing presence, transparency, tons of natural detail and superb extension. The Avantgardes are not quite as tonally dense and sound relatively less refined, but are still better than almost anything else on the market.

Now, the perfect speaker would have the Violon's section from 800Hz up, the Avantgardes' big horn to go down to 200Hz and a great woofer system (perhaps the AG bass-horns) for the bass. One such system already exists (although it uses standard woofers): Acapella Triolon Excalibur. Unfortunately it retails at $145,000...

Thanks for your responses Kotjac and Fernando. Kotjac, your comment about the Avantgardes being superior from 800Hz and below is very interesting indeed. So is your comment about the selection of amplifier being critical.

I suppose this raises the obvious question - would the Violons benefit from being bi-amped? I know the Violons have bi-wirable speaker posts. I am assuming that this seperates the crossover from midrange/tweeter and subwoofer modules, with the crossover frequency being 800Hz. Do you think the Violons would benefit from say, my Cary's driving the mid/tweeter and a seperate amplifier (with volume control) driving the subwoofer module?

I ask this, because I know a guy who specializes in making custom plate amplifiers.

Yes, the Violons can be bi-amped, however the overall coherence of the sound will suffer if the amps used are quite different. Remember, the crossover point is high at 800Hz, which means that the amp driving the bottom section would work pretty far into the midrange. A plate amp would definitely be a very bad idea.

On the other hand the high crossover point means that the amplifier driving the top section would only see frequencies from 800Hz up. This opens up a lot of doors, including the option to use 300B SETs. Finding a solid state amp that would offer a seamless blend will not be easy, but it doesn't mean it's not possible. After all the Violons are already a mixture of three different driver technologies and I'm still amazed at how seamless and coherent they sound.

One thing I have to stress is that even though to my ears the Avantgardes sound better below 800Hz, the Violons are still superb in this area.

Okay, I have finally managed to audition every speaker I have mentioned in this thread. I started the journey in February when I made the first post. I just returned from my trip to Sydney, where I heard the Acapella Violons and the Avantgarde Uno's. I have already heard the Duo's (see above). Here are my impressions.

Uno's: sound just like the Duo's. The dealer initially had them hooked up to a pair of Audio Note Soro SE's and it sounded absolutely terrible. I thanked him for his time and was about to walk out, when he suggested to try a Graaf OTL power amp. So I sat down again and let him make the swap. Let's just say that the speakers now sounded acceptable. The nasal quality was gone, the dynamics had improved, and the sound was more natural. I was pretty impressed.

The next day, I visited another dealer and listened to the Violons. A Metronome CDP and a pair of Wavac 805 SET's were used - chosen because they are roughly similar to my Cary 805's.

When I walked into the room, the dealer had some music playing softly. Let's just say that my jaw dropped - the sound was so pure, so clean, so effortless - it was like nothing I have ever heard before. It made me realize that all other speakers sound coloured by comparison.

The midrange was married very effectively to the tweeter. I was looking for a seam where the midrange meets the tweeter but I could not hear it, despite knowing exactly where it is. At the top end, the midrange almost matches the tweeter for speed, and gets a little bit lazier at the bottom.

The bass was inadequate though. Not very loud and rather boomy. I suspect this was more the fault of the SET than the speakers themselves. 55W of SET isn't quite enough.

So, I ordered the Violons. They will arrive in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I need to think about how I am going to drive them with my own meagre SET's ...