Nola Metro Grand Reference Opinions

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.

Hmmm,

Interesting comments so far. I know the tweeter height relative to your ear position can be critical with some designs. I have the Avalon Ascendants currently but feel that I may be giving up some transparency on the upper end with this design. Show conditions can be troublesome and as mentioned I am using the basic rule of thirds with my current system with acoustic treatments and getting a pretty good sound with this set up. If anyone knows of a dealer that stocks the Nola Metro and Wilison or Avalon or other contenders I would like to know. Since I live in the Northwest my dealer options are limited. Thanks.

You're about to jump in the deep end of the pool. This is the price point were many of the more established designers begin to use their top shelf parts and materials in a system that touches their core statement of design.

At this level the only audition you can trust is over time in your own home.

You have been living with a system that pays close attention to time and phase. The other two systems your interested in are quite different from Avalon. Other established brands that share the same priorities with Avalon are Theil and Vandersteen.

The next level up at Avalon begins with the Indra three way but actually it's their venerable Eidolon Vision and Diamond. Avalon doesn't do the MKII, Special edition, yearly update. They are about to announce something in January 2013. I'd hold of for a few months if I were you and check their website.