Nola Metro Grand Reference Opinions

First, there's no doubt that Avalon and Wilson are well built, well thought out designs. They are quite different sounding. No one would confuse a Nola for a Wilson or an Avalon, etc. These are distinctly different sounding approaches.

Having carefully audited a long list of speakers at the price point, I went with the Metro IIs. If you've ever heard Quad 57s at their best, then add remarkably potent bottom end with very detailed top end extension that refuses to be strident or painful at high volume even with less than stellar recordings, then you have a Metro II. The upper bass/lower midrange, or the broad midband, is the heart of music. It's the specialty of the 57. There's little about either Avalon or Wilson that reminds me of the best virtues of a Quad 57.

There's no doubt that Avalon has better driver integration than the Wilson, IMO. However, the Nola is absolutely seamless. Remarkably so.

Another appealing virtue is their abilty to sound full range at low volume. They don't need to be pushed to deliver. I'll assume that the open baffle midrange has something to do with this. It's difficult for me to accept more conventional designs having become accustomed to a boxless midrange. I'll add that just about any incarnation of a dome tweeter irks me now after living with the ribbon in this speaker.

My room is 16' x 21'. I have them on the shorter wall, 6' out and 7.5' apart. They easily energize the space, far beyond my expectations. Before the Metro IIs I had Nola Viper Ref IIIs, which have double 9" woofers per channel. Somehow, some way, the Metros give nothing up to the Vipers in perceived energy. The Metros have as much kick and are faster. An upside is that I'm quite happy with 50 watts of quality tube power.

Happy hunting.

Hmm well G maybe not completely --but having owned Avalons(Ascents and Eclipse) and comparing via my own demo disc on the Nola's my opinion starts with OK at CES--mind you with Nordost top of the line cabling! slightly harsh at RMAF to poor at last Newport--they were playing the Beatles at full volume--honky and boomy.
Mr and Mrs Nola need to up the Ante to get Moi onside--sorry to be the party pooper.

I call it as I hear it.

Des

I heard the Baby Grand Nolas at RMAF last year. Walking down the hall outside the room, I was drawn in by the very dynamic and clean sound being put out, as they were really turned up with a track from Gladiator playing, a big sounding orchestral piece with which I was quite familiar.

Walking in, I was struck by how open and clear the presentation was, full of crisp dynamic attack and a good top to bottom balance. However, once I sat down, all the magic was gone. The very large baffle and array of drivers are mounted fairly high up compared to where the ear is situated when sitting. And because of the line array approach, all the goodness was now shooting overhead.

It looks like the Grand may not be subject to the shortcomings of its baby brother, as the array of mids and tweeters looks to start closer to the ground, allowing your ears to be on axis when seated. If that's the case, they'd make for one heck of a system that would offer up almost unlimited dynamics.

I also heard a few Wilson models at the show, and none of them sounded quite as good as the Baby (while I was standing at least). The Nola is one of the few open baffle speakers I've really liked. If they could only move that second woofer of the Baby to a position above the mid/tweeter array and bring the array down, to seated ear level . . .

Luvs2listen: This is one of the problems with listening critically at audio shows. Either the room is too small or too large for the particular speakers, or too badly treated, or listeners are too close to the speakers, etc., etc.

Good points Vladimir.

Nola's room at RMAF was good sized, and seemingly well treated. Like I said, when standing, the speakers sounded fantastic, no sense of overhang or room bloom, or funky reverb from bare walls and tile floors. Granted, it was a little larger suite than most people have for a dedicated room, but they are large speakers, and had no problem filling not only the room with sound, but the hallway outside as well.

It's just that the array approach, especially with ribbons, creates an almost laser beam dispersion in the vertical direction. As long as my ears were in line with the array, everything was there. But when seated on one of the provided banquet chairs (which put your ear higher off the floor than a typical lounge chair or couch), the diminished detail in the highest frequencies was immediately apparent. I was seated between 3 and 4 meters from the speakers, and from what I can remember, my ears were still below the lowest tweeter, perhaps in line with the upper woofer.

The fact that the array in the full on Grand Reference starts so much closer to the ground is a huge benefit. I've no doubt at all that the only shortcoming I could find in the Baby is thankfully absent from the Grand.