Avalon Eidolon or Parsifal Encore


I currently own the Verity Audio Parsifal Encores and am perfectly happy with them. However, a long time ago I heared a phenomenally sounding pair of Avalon Radian HC's, so I am intruiged by the pair of Avalon Eidolon's that is currenlty listed on auction. If I can pick them up at the right price I would consider doing an in house shoot out against the Verities and keep what I like best. Obviously, besides the financial ramifications, this is a big hassle involving shipping heavy boxes coast to coast, so before I decide whether to bid an the Avalon's I am interested in any opinions on how these two speakers compare. I listen mostly to small acoustic ensemble music (right in the Verity's sweetspot), and I use 200 Wpc pure class A monoblocks. Any comments are welcome.
edorr
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.
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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).
A change in amplifier will help, Edorr. As we've been saying, the Eidolons are *very* revealing of everything in the audio chain.

The Eidolons will "float" an image in width, height and depth. But expect the image to be rock solid, with no wandering, wavering or shimmy. If the image is not absolutely solid and tangible, room placement is definitely the next area of experimentation. The Eidolons will enjoy a lot of clear open space behind them. So be sure to experiment with pulling them well out into the room.

Judicious room treatment for fine tuning can also help, but this is not something to do early on in the process.

Good luck with your subwoofer matching experiments. Good move to set the crossover at 30hz. I don't know how the JL113s interface to a system, but as you work forward be mindful that the Eidolons will make the sonic signature of any crossover network audible.

Best of luck to you in optimizing things. Enjoy!