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Focal Aria 936 / Elac Adante AF-61 / Von Schweikert VR-33 , impressions, thoughts?

Thinking of upgrading my speakers and in the past have just gone with what I thought was a great deal, sometimes that worked, more often it did not!

Have a shortlist right now of those 3 speakers.

Focal Aria 936
Elac Adante AF-61
Von Schweikert VR-33

Presently using Triangle Altea ESW speakers.

What am I lacking right now? Possibly some lower bass, the Triangles are superb in the mids and upper registers but you can definitely tell they are  a little limp below 40hz. And at the end of the day even though I consider them to be fantastic speakers, they were after all only 2k brand new so there are likely better options out there to consider.


So thoughts and impressions on those 3 speakers or any serious contenders in the same sort of price bracket, I am looking at used examples only so think 3k max.

Will be driving them with an Ayre AX-7E integrated which I will NOT be changing anytime soon (famous last words I know!)

Thank you
uberwaltz
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Thank you all for assistance in my questions and yes here is hoping they are all I need them to be too.

The wife is getting very good at helping me unpack hifi equipment...lol
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,491 posts
 
Congrats Uberwaltz. Great choice!
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Thanks Shadorne.

Now its that horrible waiting game for them to arrive!
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Well I could not resist and while waiting for the Focals I saw a pair of DeVore Gibbon 8 for sale at very fair price and bought them as I knew no matter what they could have a home in the second system.

But of course I had to hook them up in the main rig first....

Well first impression was nothing too special and could not really put my finger on it until I examined a little further.
The speaker s/n specify L and R and I had placed the L on my seated L position, this placed the tweeters to the outer edge of each speaker.
A quick Google check of a few images all showed them set up with tweeter in so L on speaker meant L from the amp forward.
Swapped them round, fiddled with toe in a little and tried again.

Whoa! It was like I had plonked down a totally different pair of speakers, now the muddled soundstage and presence was gone replaced with a great dynamic projection of the music without any one area calling attention to itself.

I sat and listened to a complete Joe B album then some Prince, then realized I should be doing work around the house...lol.

The Focals are going to have their work cut out when they arrive!
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,571 posts
 
@uberwaltz……………………………………

I had a pair of Devore Gibbon 8 speakers back in 2011.  I drove from Rhode Island to Annapolis, Maryland and back home (800 miles) on Dec30, 2010 to pick them up from an Audiogon member.  I paid 1800.00 for mine back then.  I felt they sounded best on Jazz music.  The bass in my living room didn't go that low but I had great luck integrating a Paradigm sub into the system.  For whatever reasons, it worked really well.

I had the set up for about a year before selling off the speakers and sub as I felt the highs were a little too polite on Rock music.  They were a real fun speaker though.  They are extremely musical speakers and I am glad I got to experience the Devore sound.  I got to talk briefly with John Devore in the elevator at RMAF last year. He is a very nice guy and invited my wife and I up to  their suite to listen  to the  0/96 speakers.  If I ever set up a third system, it will be either the Devore 0/96 or 0/93 speakers with a nice Line Magnetic integrated amp.

The Devore speakers  really sound more like music than speakers if you know what I mean.  Enjoy!
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