I know the Ocellia's pretty well. I currently own a full Ocellia system:
- Ocellia 30 Calliope SIGNATURE TWIN Tweeters. The speakers are bi-wired and directly hooked up to the amps. No crossover except for the one inside the Piezo tweeters.
- The latest Ocellia Quaero signature preamplifier and separate phono stage with Ocellia step-up transformer
- The latest Ocellia Quaero Signature 300 push-pull amps. 15 watts, 16 ohm load.
- All interconnects,speaker cables, and power cords are all silver reference.
The owner/designer of Ocellia now lives in Montreal (and happens to live 20 minutes away by car) and I am very familiar with the sound of Calliope 16, Calliope 20 and 30. Ocellia SET 300B, Push Pull 300B, and EL 34 amps.
Concerning the power requirements of my Ocellia Calliope TWIN Signature speakers, despite some of your assumptions that this would be a match with a 7 or 8 watt 300b SET amps, it all depends. I have a room that is 20 feet x 22 feet with an eight foot ceiling and using a 7 or 8 Watt SET AMP will not suffice whether in my room or even the Ocellia designers smaller room. Let me explain, I listen to a wide variety of music fromn digital to analog from jazz, rock, pop, classical, opera and everything in between. The Ocellia 300B push pull amp (15 watts) where better able to control the PHY 12 INCH DRIVERS better than the Ocellia 300B SET amp. It sounds more dynamic and more rhythmic. However, if you have a smaller room and/or you only listen to opera, small chamber music, small jazz trio, then you can get away with using a 7 or 8 watt SET. As far as using a higher powered SET pumping out more than 15 watts (think 211, 845), why?? I think they might be overkill. Also, forget about using flea powered SET (45, 2A3) on the Ocellia's, they won't cut it. Can't control the 12 inch drivers.
Concerning the difference in sound with the Ocellia 30 (with PHY-HP 12 INCH driver) against Ocellia 20 (with PHY-HP 8 INCH driver). Yes, the Ocellia 20 sounds faster. The Ocellia 30 while it may appear that they soudn slower, they sound more fuller sounding and more natural sounding than the Ocellia 20. But, both of them have the same type of house sound, which is naturalness, devoid of any nas The ty lowther shout or brightness. The type of speaker you would prefer will be dictated by the size of your room. The Ocellia 20 will prefer a medium size room to work its magic while teh Ocellia 30 needs a bigger room like mine. Take note, the Ocellia 20 can be mated to an SET AMP. I have tried Ocellia's 300b SET amp and it is nice. Keep in mind, my comparison of the 20 and 30 is baded on the newer designd cabinets (circa 2010 for the 30 and 2011 for the 20). The Calliope 20 is now designed with 2 piezo tweeters in each speaker and hence called the Calliope 20 TWIN
With regards to the sound of the new Ocellia 30 Calliope TWIN signature(with 2 piezo tweeters in each cabinet) against the old Ocellia 30 Calliope signature coax (the piezo tweeter in the middle of the 12 inch PHY Driver), the TWIN is better in sound than the coax. You hear more detail, more low level detail with the TWIN. Overall soundstage is the same with TWIN or Coax but I find that the TWIN is more rhythmic. The designer of Ocellia, Samuel Furon, lent me the Coax speaker for 6 months and it allowed me to get familiar with the coax before changing them for the TWIN (The cabinet we where using where for teh TWIN, so it allowed me to see which sound I liked). I think it is worth getting the Calliope 30 TWIN than the Calliope 30 coax. By the way, all my impression where with the SIGNATURE VERSION cabinets which are heavily braced more than the regular cabinets.
As far as bass between the 20 and 30, I do not think the bass is lower in the 30 (12 inch driver) versus 20 (8 inch driver). The bass sounds fuller. What I notice is that the 20 (with the 8 inch driver), the decay , to me, sounds shorter. The 30 (with the 12 inch driver) sounds like the decay holds on longer. Don't ask me why. Also, for some reason, analog sounds better than digital on the 20. With the 30, analog and digital sounds equally good (but I love listening to analog more). Again, don't ask me why analog sounds better than digital on the 20.
With regards to adding a subwoofer to either the Calliope 20 or 30, WTF are you trying to do??? To me, the bass in both the 20 and 30 are satisfying enough if you give them the proper room. There is no subwoofer that can match the speed of either the 20 or 30. You are gonna ruin the sound. If you require deep deep bass then I think you are missing the point of what the designer of Ocellia is trying to convey! Ths is not the speaker for you. My advice, get yourself a Lamhorn 1.6 with the AER MD3B driver (no...not the shitty AER MK1 driver that comes standard with the Lamhorn). The AER MD3B has potent bass and I think IT is deigned for bass freaks like you. And drive the Lamhorn with Tenor amps (owned the Lamhorn with AER MK1 driver and AER MD3B with Tenor 75 watt OTL and Tenor 150HPS HYBRID OTL). The Lamhorn 1.8/Tenor combo will satisfy the soundstage, bass freaks. But you will miss the nuance, emotion, naturallness that Ocellia brings to teh table.
Concerning Tonian Labs, never heard them. But remember, Samuel Furon of Ocellia and Bernard Salabert of PHY-HP have collaborated together. They both have the same take on the type of sound they want. The Ocellia cabinets are an extension of PHY-HP's sound philosophy. If you like the PHY-HP sound, then the Ocellia cabinets are an extension of the sound. Keep in mind, I am speaking about the new Ocellia cabinet design of 2010 and 2011 only!!!
