I had the pleasure to listen to Fernando's wonderful system last weekend and I was really impressed with the overall speed, dynamics and bass slam of his Unos. In these three areas the Unos sounded better than any other Avantgardes I ever heard. I think that it had a lot to do with Fernando's room, which, unlike the listening rooms in the U.S., has a very rigid structure built of brick, stone and concrete. My listening room is a typical American construction, which I believe is responsible for a relative lack of low end speed and dynamics, not only with my Acapellas, but any other speakers I had before (including the MBL 101Ds, known for their exceptional speed and bass dynamics).
As far as the Acapella vs. Avantgarde question goes, having listened to the Duos and Trios on several occassions and owning a pair of High Violons, I find the Avantgardes to be better in the frequency range covered by the Violons 10" mid-woofer (800Hz and below): they are fast, dynamic and in the right room can sound very visceral with amazing impact and well defined leading edge. They are so good in this respect that the slight lack of low end extension and slight discontinuity in the upper bass are something one could easily live with. The Violons don't quite have such explosive dynamics and the amazing speed, but their bass seems a little more of a piece, is pretty tight and nimble albeit it doesn't quite have the slam and gut moving impact of the Avantgardes. From 800Hz up and particularly in the treble (the plasma tweeter is unbelievable), the Acapellas are hard to beat, with gorgeous, very realistic tone, amazing presence, transparency, tons of natural detail and superb extension. The Avantgardes are not quite as tonally dense and sound relatively less refined, but are still better than almost anything else on the market.
Now, the perfect speaker would have the Violon's section from 800Hz up, the Avantgardes' big horn to go down to 200Hz and a great woofer system (perhaps the AG bass-horns) for the bass. One such system already exists (although it uses standard woofers): Acapella Triolon Excalibur. Unfortunately it retails at $145,000...
As far as the Acapella vs. Avantgarde question goes, having listened to the Duos and Trios on several occassions and owning a pair of High Violons, I find the Avantgardes to be better in the frequency range covered by the Violons 10" mid-woofer (800Hz and below): they are fast, dynamic and in the right room can sound very visceral with amazing impact and well defined leading edge. They are so good in this respect that the slight lack of low end extension and slight discontinuity in the upper bass are something one could easily live with. The Violons don't quite have such explosive dynamics and the amazing speed, but their bass seems a little more of a piece, is pretty tight and nimble albeit it doesn't quite have the slam and gut moving impact of the Avantgardes. From 800Hz up and particularly in the treble (the plasma tweeter is unbelievable), the Acapellas are hard to beat, with gorgeous, very realistic tone, amazing presence, transparency, tons of natural detail and superb extension. The Avantgardes are not quite as tonally dense and sound relatively less refined, but are still better than almost anything else on the market.
Now, the perfect speaker would have the Violon's section from 800Hz up, the Avantgardes' big horn to go down to 200Hz and a great woofer system (perhaps the AG bass-horns) for the bass. One such system already exists (although it uses standard woofers): Acapella Triolon Excalibur. Unfortunately it retails at $145,000...