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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 4 responses by markxiii

markxiii
109 posts
 
I agree with Docsavage. My experience with the Acapellas (High Violons) is that although they can be driven even by 20 - 30 watt SETs, they need a minimum of 80 - 100 watts to really come to life. If you don't feed them with enough current, they will sound dynamically anemic and the bass will be rather soft and weak. With the right amp, however, these are some of the most life-like sounding speakers I have ever heard. The three different drivers blend seamlessly, it's really amazing. The midrange and the top end is absolutely to die for.
The Duos in many respects are similar to the Acapellas (particularly the life-like midrange presence and microdynamics), but they can't match the Acapellas' plasma tweeter refinement and ability to retrieve the smallest nuances. They are difficult to set up and if things are not right, there will be quite a noticable discontinuity between the midrange and the bass. This can be mitigated (if not completely eliminated) with careful positioning and the right crossover and gain selection on the powered woofers. Using third party subs can bring significant improvements too (for example the TBI Magellan VIII subs are so fast that they can match the speed of the midrange horn).

Both speakers are great, but the Violons are overall a much better speaker.
As for your Cary 805C's, I'm afraid they would not be a particularly good choice for either speaker: not quite enough power for the Acapellas, and too soft in the bass for the Duos.
markxiii
109 posts
 
Amfibius, since your 805AE's are capable of putting out 70 wpc they may actually be OK. Are these Violons the "High" version with a single woofer or the more expensive "High Suboktav" version with two woofers?? The single woofer version is easier to drive, the "Suboctave" model has considerably better bass, but it needs more current to make these woofers moving.

Docsavage, do you mind sharing your thoughts on the Atmas vs. Einstein amps on your Campanilles?
markxiii
109 posts
 
Amfibius, Acapella never made a version with a powered woofer. There are three versions of the Violon: 1) Standard Violon, 2) Violon High, which has extra cabinet bracing, silver wire and premium crossover parts (I believe this version is no longer being made), 3) Violon High Suboktav (Suboctave) which has all the upgrades as in the High version and in addition comes with an extra internal woofer (it is not powered). The Suboctave version is the best of the three with deeper bass and more dynamic presentation.
markxiii
109 posts
 
Sychdeli, can the Acapella tweeter be run directly from a preamplifier?? It has a built in amp, however the input impedance is specified as only 600 ohms. Seems low, but then why would it have an RCA input rather than a pair of speaker binding posts?

As far as the ozone issue goes, a friend of mine rented an ozone detector to see how much gas is being produced and surprisingly he couldn't detect anything about baseline, even after the speakers were running for 6 hours straight in a closed room.
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