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Acapella vs. Avantgarde

I currently run a Cary CD-306, Cary SLP-05 preamp, and Cary 805AE monoblocks with a pair of ProAc D38's (see system). The combination is sweet and involving, but the combo just does not boogie when asked to play a large orchestral piece, by Mahler/Wagner/Shostakovich. When the volume is turned up, dynamics are poor and the system starts to sound compressed. I suspect that the 50W Cary's simply does not have enough guts to drive the ProAc's, so I am considering replacing them with a more efficient speaker. Since most SET afficionadoes love horns, this led me to look into Avantgarde and Acapella.

I live in Melbourne, Australia. Avantgarde is available through a dealer here, but he does not have any in stock. The Acapella dealer is in Sydney (a plane flight away). I am looking to spend A$30,000 - which will buy a nice Avantgarde Duo, or a secondhand Acapella High Violon.

I have read plenty about the dynamics of the Avantgardes, but my concern is if they have horn coloration. Also, how do they image? Are they sensitive to room placement?

Would the Acapella High Violon's be a better buy, considering the pair I can potentially get my hands on have been heavily discounted? I have read that Acapella's suffer from disjointed sound because of the three different driver technologies (plasma tweeter, horn mids, conventional woofer). How much is this a problem? And are there any room placement issues? Given that the Acapella's have lower sensitivity (91 dB/W/m) would I be achieving a real upgrade by moving from the ProAc's?
amfibius
eljaro
27 posts
 
I have not heard the acapella, but I have heard the Uno, the Nano and the Mezzo. The Nano improves on the sound of the Uno. It is much more refined and sounds definitively better. The Mezzo, which is really a Duo with a horn loaded woofer is absolutely fantastic. The bass is very good and I doubt it can get much better, unless you go to the trio/basshorn combination and get the house to fit it in.
The Mezzo, which I would catalogue as one of the best speaker systems you can get today costs in Europe 31500 Euros, in the US probably over $45000. Not cheap, but since you only need 5 Watts to drive them, you save on amplifier hardware. SET works best.
amfibius OP
282 posts
 
Thanks for all your help guys. I found that most people's description of the sound from all 3 speakers I listened to was pretty accurate. Very reassuring that I can trust the ears on AudioGon.

The shopping experience has been a positive one, with all the dealers treating me with courtesy. Only one dealer did not know how to set up the speakers properly which was a bit of a disappointment.

At the moment I am thinking of how to amplify the speakers because I suspect that my Cary SET's will not have enough juice. Probably get a pair of Cary 500MB's to run the bass section because I have heard that the 500MB's are very similar tonally to the rest of the Cary range.

As my preamp does not have dual RCA out, I will have to run an RCA splitter. One pair of RCA leads will run directly to the CAD-805AE. The other pair will run through an analog equalizer into the 500MB. This will help match the gain of the 500MB to the 805AE, and provide me with some ability to tune the bass to my liking.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Amfibius, can you bi-wire the Violons? That's one feature that is missing from the LaCampanellas, IMO.
eljaro
27 posts
 
Again we see how a badly setup of demo equipment can win or lose a customer.
The violon is surely a fantastic speaker and Amphibius will surely be extremely happy with them.
But if he could have auditioned properly set up AvantGarde Nanos, (Unos is an old model now and not available any more) Duos with the Omega drivers or better yet, the Mezzo with the Horn Bass Drivers he wouldn't be looking now for more amp power and would have fast, tight bass to shake up the house.
And we do not use such a bass to do precisely that, but to hear and feel it even at very moderate listening levels.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Oops! Just saw Kotjac's prior post. That answers my question.

Eljaro, it doesn't sound to me like the Acapellas were demoed under the optimum conditions either.
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