Alon Speakers

hi just want to say stay away from krell.way way overpriced and over rated.

You might also consider McCormack DNA amps. Very musical solid state amps with lots of power to control bass, etc. Used prices are all over the board, depending upon budget and power requirements. Steve also supports his amps well.

I have a pair of Alon Lotus Elites that I am driving with a Rogue Stereo 90 tube amp. Prior to this I had an Aragon 8008 and I actually brought the Rogue home to compare. Once I heard what was happening from the mids on up I sold the Aragon. Bass, well the Aragon was probably a tad more controlled if you will. The Rogue also has a nice feature... you can switch between Linear and Triode tube mode.

Right now im using Mackie SRM-450 Powered Monitors. These are more musical than I expected. Tons of power, I could blow the block away, like a real concert. They also have several switches for contour, and some other things, i forget exactly. But till I get a decent amp or amps, I have been using these. I didn't really think the Adcoms were enough. the Alons are not a highly effecient speaker. They do need power to drive them. I was using the GFA555 that I bought new, and then i got another used, supposedly with no problems. But the guy swapped an output transistor, power transistor, with a wrong one, and it fried then amp. so, I got it fixed and sold it, then also sold mine. I figured they need something better. They were $3500.00 speakers, and my amp was about maybe $1000.00 on the high side. I figured it was a mismatch. My Preamp is Audio Research SP9, which i do like. So, the Alons are like brand new now, and sitting idle. I listened to them with a friends Van Alstine modded hafler Amp. Sounded nice, but similar to my Adcoms. Ray

Alons do sound very good with tubed gear from VTL; I also heard them with Aragon amps (back in the day, they were known as the poor man's Krell) and felt the sound to be very good as well. The IVs have that big woofer that might need a little more control than you can get from a tubed amp; I think the Forte that John suggests might be a good possibility. Unless you're in a huge room and play at ear-splitting levels, the Forte, as a Class A design, has a lot more power than its rated 50 watts (it doubles as the impedance halves) and should suffice. In fact, I heard a Krell KSA 50 Mk II, another 50 watt per channel Class A design, play the Alon IVs years ago with no problems.

Ray, I'm not sure how much power you need, but if you can get by with 50 wpc, you can't beat a Forte Model 4A amp, goes for around $500 on the used market, but will beat many more expensive amps sonically.

Cheers,
John

the alon ivs are great--huge soundstage, very musical. they don't seem terribly fussy about electronics--a good friend of mine runs his with a marantz avr and they sound fine--i'd try 'em out with some m0re modest gear before you pop for a vtl.