Duevel

Hi, I have repeatedly listened to the Bella Luna & the Venus at a dealer's. I liked the Duevel sound, considering it one I could live with.
They were paired with KR (tube)/ Symphonic Line (ss) and Klimo electronics (tube). If memory serves, cables at all times were Nordost and sources were a Symphonic Line and a Copland cdp + a Clearaudio ref TT playing through a battery powered Clearaudio phono unit.
Imaging was good, with open sound -- air around instruments (s/thing between a dynamic & a stat). Midrange shone particularly with tubes while bass & dynamics were more evident with the ss. I listened to classcial mostly; the overall effect here was involving & pleasing, i.e. not fatiguing and putting music above shortcomings. I found both speakers a tad bass-shy. The Venus presented a more coherent ensemble the slight bass shortage in the room "tying" with the rest of the presentation and being subjectively less evident. The Bella Luna, while superior (IMO) in all respects, clearly evidenced bass shyness in the room -- I suppose, more due to the quality of the rest of the sonic spectrum reproduced than to the implementation of their "passive" sub (the box under the chinese hat:)).

Don't forget that while large, I cannot whether the room was optimised for these speakers...

I've been told that placement for "reasonable results" is not difficult & they play in smaller rooms.
Also supposed to be easy to drive; I humbly disagree. Easy to produce sounds out of, maybe. But to drive well and enjoy full potential, quality current is needed IMO.

Actually, the design of these speakers intrigues me a great deal. They are a horn-loaded omnidirectional design, and so will overcome one of the problems that seems to plague many omnis - namely, low efficiency and poor dynamics.

The lawsuit-happy company whose name rhymes with "blows" has given omni-type speakers a bad name. But high-end loudspeakers that have omnidirectional radiation (such as Huff, Shahinian, MBL Radianstrahler, and Wolcott Omnisphere) are outstanding at several things, including timbral richness and long-term listening enjoyment.

Research published in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society and elsewhere has demonstrated that the ear finds a rich, diffuse, tonally correct reverberant field to be subjectively pleasing. Relatively few loudspeakers do a good job with the reverberant field. Most of the speakers I carry, and most of the other speaker I tend to recommend, do a very good job with the reverberant field.

The Duevals are a most innovative approach to giving you a richly energized reverberant field. I've heard some excellent horn systems in the last couple of years - very lively. If the Duevals combine that liveliness with a correctly-done reverberant field, they are well worth taking seriously.

The importer for Duevel is Ted Lindblad of The Audible Difference. Ted is as passionate as they come, and I have a great deal of respect for his audio opinions. You can contact Ted through his site at www.highendaudio.com.