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Acapella vs. Avantgarde

I currently run a Cary CD-306, Cary SLP-05 preamp, and Cary 805AE monoblocks with a pair of ProAc D38's (see system). The combination is sweet and involving, but the combo just does not boogie when asked to play a large orchestral piece, by Mahler/Wagner/Shostakovich. When the volume is turned up, dynamics are poor and the system starts to sound compressed. I suspect that the 50W Cary's simply does not have enough guts to drive the ProAc's, so I am considering replacing them with a more efficient speaker. Since most SET afficionadoes love horns, this led me to look into Avantgarde and Acapella.

I live in Melbourne, Australia. Avantgarde is available through a dealer here, but he does not have any in stock. The Acapella dealer is in Sydney (a plane flight away). I am looking to spend A$30,000 - which will buy a nice Avantgarde Duo, or a secondhand Acapella High Violon.

I have read plenty about the dynamics of the Avantgardes, but my concern is if they have horn coloration. Also, how do they image? Are they sensitive to room placement?

Would the Acapella High Violon's be a better buy, considering the pair I can potentially get my hands on have been heavily discounted? I have read that Acapella's suffer from disjointed sound because of the three different driver technologies (plasma tweeter, horn mids, conventional woofer). How much is this a problem? And are there any room placement issues? Given that the Acapella's have lower sensitivity (91 dB/W/m) would I be achieving a real upgrade by moving from the ProAc's?
amfibius

Showing 2 responses by eljaro

eljaro
27 posts
 
Again we see how a badly setup of demo equipment can win or lose a customer.
The violon is surely a fantastic speaker and Amphibius will surely be extremely happy with them.
But if he could have auditioned properly set up AvantGarde Nanos, (Unos is an old model now and not available any more) Duos with the Omega drivers or better yet, the Mezzo with the Horn Bass Drivers he wouldn't be looking now for more amp power and would have fast, tight bass to shake up the house.
And we do not use such a bass to do precisely that, but to hear and feel it even at very moderate listening levels.
eljaro
27 posts
 
I have not heard the acapella, but I have heard the Uno, the Nano and the Mezzo. The Nano improves on the sound of the Uno. It is much more refined and sounds definitively better. The Mezzo, which is really a Duo with a horn loaded woofer is absolutely fantastic. The bass is very good and I doubt it can get much better, unless you go to the trio/basshorn combination and get the house to fit it in.
The Mezzo, which I would catalogue as one of the best speaker systems you can get today costs in Europe 31500 Euros, in the US probably over $45000. Not cheap, but since you only need 5 Watts to drive them, you save on amplifier hardware. SET works best.
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