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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
amfibius OP
282 posts
 
Essentialaudio, the dealer demo'ed the speakers with Wavac 805's (55W SET's). I asked for these amps because they are "sort of" similar in power to my Cary CAD-805AE's. I know people recommend Einstein OTL, but unfortunately these are not imported into Australia. The dealer carries the rest of the Einstein line, but specifically not the OTL's. Which is unfortunate.

Tbg, is this the website for Exemplar?

http://www.exemplaraudio.com/

Can't seem to find anything about the Statement amp there. In any case, I don't think it's available in Australia which rules it out.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Yep, I doubt if they are sold there. The website is exemplaraudio.com but it is not very up-to-date.
amfibius OP
282 posts
 
After getting some advice from several people I will upgrade my Cary CAD-805AE's to the CAD-211AE's. 50W to 110W - should be enough. I hope!
gregm
3,409 posts
 
Hi Amfi
He told me that the best result was always obtained by mono-amping,
Yup, well, that's also the most ruinous solution.
...and has something to do with the design of the Acapella crossover
Now that, I find difficult to understand. The xover dislikes multichannel amplification enclosures:)??

I'm sure you'll be fine as decided.
Another thought is, simply, to use any something for the bottom; try it using a borrowed Behringer and start out with 4order LR, see (hear) what happens. Or, simply, just passively biamp for now.
Cheers
amfibius OP
282 posts
 
Greg, why is mono-amping the most ruinous solution? I would have thought that it would be cheaper to mono-amp than to bi-amp?

I found it rather difficult to understand why also. That is why I asked for the crossover schematic but the dealer was (understandably) unable to supply this. When I get the speaker, I will be measuring the impedance and dissecting the crossover so that I can get a better idea how best to drive them.

The dealer also recommended NOT biwiring them. I am one of those people who considers biwiring to be, well, unproven. But his comments were a little puzzling.

In any case, my current plan is to simply get the CAD-211AE's. IF I find that that is not enough, there is always scope to borrow a CAD-500MB to try bi-amping (as per my plan above).
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