Avalon Eidolon Diamond Are they really great?

I have heard them several times in the past few months. I cannot say how they would work with your equipment. But in an all Spectral setup they are a very fine dynamic speaker. They are holographic with tremendous soundstaging and imaging. The bass is not bloated nor one note. You have to get used to them not being bright nor forward, like the majority of dynamic speakers. If you like jazz or chamber music, they are worth the money. As an aside, a friend and I heard the baby brother of the Eidolons,`the Ascendents. We went back and forth between the Spectral and ARC: there was no comparison the Spectral won out hands down. I have the Avalon Radians with an all Spectral setup.

They can sound great, but:

- need a big room
- very finicky regarding placement; must be far from all walls
- ruthlessly revealing of lesser upstream components
- really needs high $ MIT wire

I also recommend Spectral with them.

I have owned Diamonds for almost 2 years and previously owned Eidolons for 3 years before that. Yes, they are that great but Schubertmaniac's comments about them not being bright or forward are very instructive. They are really unlike any other speaker out there (save the Eidolon) and it really confounds some to describe their sound in comparative terms.

They can work well in small rooms (mine is 16 x 21 w/ low ceilings above a garge) but like any other speaker with good bass extention, they will benefit from larger spaces. Because their bass is better contolled than the Eidolon, they require less treatment in my room. I know that many hold the opinion that Avalon needs to be partnered with Spectral, but that is absolutely not true. I use Accuphase (the 50wpc A-50V) but they work great with Rowland and Boulder among others. I am using Nordost Valhalla cable and wouldn't go near MIT and its network boxes.

As far as placement goes, you actually have less problems than many other designs due to the grill and what it does to eliminate undesirable baffle effects. Also the speaker is vented underneath (at the base) as opposed to conventional rear porting. If you want to know what this can mean for room placement, ask any ProAc dealer about the 1.5 and D15. Again though, just like any other high-end design, they will benefit from being away walls. Finally, the baby brother of the Avalon is not the Ascendant but the Opus.