Avalon Eidolon or Parsifal Encore

First impressions right out of the box - Positioned in the same place as my Verities.

Damn these things are BIG in comparison with the Verities! But absolutely gorgeous. I could live wiht these as a piece of furniture.

Sonics positive:
The Eidolons throw a larger and more holographic image
The timbre of instrumens appears more natural on the Eidolons
There is more "note decay" and air around instruments on the Eidolons
The Eidolons sound more dynamic

Sonics negative:
These speakers are far more unforgiving than the Parsifals. Distortions on some old favorite 70s live recording are ruthlessly exposed, and sound more harsh than on the Parsifals. So do some high notes on brass instruments that are not played perfectly.

I can see these speakers are very sensitive to anxillary equipment. Note that I am playing them with Bel Canto Ref1000m. My Class A monoblocks have been in the shop for months. I got tired of waiting, so I bought the Bel Canto's as a temporary replacement. Very interested to hear what these speakers do with the class A's. I can also imagine these work very well with tubes.

Unexpected bonus points:
I played a multi channel DVD-A (another stoney evening - Crosby & Nash) and found the Eidolons integrate far better with my Kef 204c Center channel. This is a big plus since I have 100+ Multi Channel SACD's that I listen to quite a bit.

I also think I will prefer to play these speakers without my two JL 113s subs - which can then be relegated to LFE channel only duties. I may even sell one. Need a bit more experimenting to decide on that.

Botton line: very unlikely more listening will change initial impression. The Eidolons are keepers - look for Parsifals on Audiogon for sale shortly.

Keep the posts coming

Try convergent audio , they make ceramics sound more forgiving while maintaining the high resolution

Thanks for the initial impressions!

“I can also imagine these work very well with tubes.”

I think you might be right. My Accuton based Salks were magical when I added a tube Aesthetix Calypso preamp.

Bob

Thanks for your summary, Edorr. Your thought that Eidolons would sound good with tubes is right on target. Great tube amps bring out the best in these speakers in my experience. The challenge is that they do like a fair amount of power. The good news is their impedance curve is fairly easy for many tube amps to handle (minimum at 3.6ohms).

And, you are absolutely correct in your surmise that ancillary equipment is critical. The Eidolons will not gloss over any deficiencies in your source material or other gear upstream.
.

Few more quick observations.

Eidolon has very clear and fast bass. Shines on Jazz ensemble music - very musical basslines.

Lots of depth and great layering of instuments on large orchestral music.

Still some harshness in the treble in particular on old recordings - I suspect this is simply what is on the track.

Nonetheless, the treble is the only area I slighlty prefer the Verities over the Eidolons (may be this is why they build the Diamond). I think my class A's will sound more "liquid" in the highs than the class D's I am using now though. Reluctant to address the issue with high powered tubse because of reliability issues (I blew up a Graaf GM200 OTL amp once and have become a bit gunshy since).

Vocals used to come more pinpoint from the center with the Verities, and seem to be floating in space a but more with the Eidolons (help me out here - is this called "imaging"). I have not done any expirimentation with speaker postioning which I suspect may be the issue here.

First impresssions on playing them with the JL113 two subs (Eidolons at full range subs crossed over at 30Hz) is the subs will probably stay in the stereo system. No discrernable negative impact (i.e. no muddling of the bass) and a tad more foundation (I use Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Tin Pay Alley" from "could not stand the wheather" to test this).