Avalon Eidolon Diamond vs Revel Salon 2


A knowledgeable industry insider with zero affiliation says the Diamond is still the more musical. Revels fanfare in industry rags has been so overwhelming; can this possibly be true?
ptss
Yesss, including there own spikes. Every brand has his own properties/talents. This is how I work, I think and work in tools. First I Always want to know the properties/ talents of a tool. ( speaker, amp, source, cable etc) Also at shows and at other distributers it never convinced me. The sound and individual focus I never found good enough. Because within the wide and deep stage the focus is not that sharp. In real it is smaller and superior in how touchable a voice or instrument sounds. I never liked the sound of classical music played on Avalon speakers either. Sound of a violin in real is so much more emotional and warm. As it is a lot more direct and touchable.
Sorry, just cannot disagree more with Bo1972's assessment of the image specificity and timbral accuracy of the Avalon Acoustic Eidolon, Eidolon Diamond or Isis speakers.

This ability in the Eidolon, for listening to classical music, is what drew me to these speakers, and keeps me with them. The same with the timbral accuracy in reproducing acoustic classical instruments. My primary listening is classical (both large scale orchestral and small ensemble chamber) and acoustic jazz.

I've lived with the Eidolon for over 10 years, with tube electronics (Atma-Sphere amps and Aesthetix phono), and I have been hard pressed to find another speaker as tonally accurate or as specific in its soundstaging and imaging.
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My experiences with Avalon's...Ascent, Eidelon, Diamonds and Transcendent, are much more in line with Rushton. The set-up has been crucial. Subsequent to owning the Diamonds I heard a pair at an audio shop. Due to, what I believe was inadequate amplification and insufficient break-in, the Diamonds were outperformed by a pair of Arcus sharing the same electronics and space. The demo left me uninvolved, whereas, had I not already owned them, they would not have been up for consideration. I have heard these speakers offer a variety of audio characteristics from detail and pin-point imaging to a muddled, overly soft presentation; an anemic bass to a deep growling bottom end; huge exaggerated imaging to realistic venue depiction.
Experiences, such as these, have emphasized the need for less judgement of any individual audio product, especially at shows. Fine-tuning through ancillary equipment, tweaks and room placement often eke out more of any components potential.
I have a friend ( client) who has still Avalon speakers. After many different parts in his set he has the best 3d and touchable image I ever heard from a Avalon speaker. I heard a lot of Avalon speakers and demo's. But...my image at home is superior in 3d and also more palpable. This level I never heard from any Avalon speaker in my life. Last month I was with my set at a big audio show, Many shopowners told me that they never heard such a tochable image in there life.
Following on Siddh's comments above, I've found that the Avalon speakers are exceedingly revealing of everything in the audio chain ahead of them. Yes, how they are positioned in the room is important, but more important is to recognize that they will reveal everything about the audio system in which they are placed. Assuming the power driving them is appropriate, you will clearly hear every change, every difference, in the components earlier in the chain.

A big mistake with Avalon's is to assume you can drop them into a system and will then hear a nice positive sonic improvement by their presence. The system IS improved, but because they are so revealing of what else is in the system, what may previously have been masked will now be laid exposed.
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