Tis a sad, sad day...

Try the GMA' Calypso or the Ridge street audio speaker that is a 2way. Iwas worried when I replaced my 14year Paragon love affair speaker with the GMA's but can truly say the the Calypso are better in every single way.Good luck in your search.Cheers Dennis

I dont if it helps but my friend has the same Alon speakers and went to Tannoy speakers (forget model but they list at $7500 and they really sound fantastic....cheers

Why don't you take Magnepan into consideration?

Chris

Bummer, I was going to recommend these:
Snell K7 $1,250
or their bigger brother:
Snell J7 $1,800

I think they would go well with tubes. Hand made in Massachusetts.

In my experience that once you go with an excellent open baffle design it is very hard to go back, There are open baffle designs that will work in a small apartment but as you know you will have to pull them out from the front wall when you want to listen. I would look at the Plutos by Linkwitz. That particular design may work very well and is inexpensive to boot.

Lennychen,
I'm glad to see that you are settled in your Hong Kong apartment with a system to enjoy. I also still have my Dulcets powered by VAC Musicbloc tube amps. I can't imagine solid state sounding any better. You are correct in that the Dulcet need to be pulled away from the back wall a bit in order to balance the bass and fill out the soundstage. I'm sure that with a little tweaking of your room and system, you'll be able to come up with an enjoyable sound system. Also, remember to use the best interconnects, power cords and speaker cables in order to extract that ultimate final sound quality. Enjoy your Dulcet.

Well, I just wanted to try to finish off this thread (thanks for reminding me).

I ended up with Reference 3A, specifically the Dulcet model they have described here: http://www.reference3a.com/dulcet.htm

Hong Kong is a small place with small apartments, so I figured large speakers wouldn't go well here. These mini monitors are truly outstanding given their size. Very open and clear, and well defined bass. However, speaker placement from the rear wall (as they are rear ported) and in the room and stands seem quite crucial to get best mix of soundstage, clarity, and bass definition. I have yet to finalize the best position, as I have just moved into a new apartment.

They are very transparent (almost as transparent as the open baffle design in the Alons) and go well with tube amplifiers. But I have a feeling they go even better with solid state, because I used them with a solid state for a short while before going back to tubes. (Also, from what I've heard, it seems that the mm de Capo i goes even better with tubes...but this was somewhat out of my budget.) Well, I shall I have to wait until my tube amplifier calls it quits to take it up another notch.

Overall I'm happy with the Dulcets and I would definitely recommend them if you're looking for an Alon-ish sound in a small space.

Alon backwards... www.nolaspeakers.com
My hometheater set-up has Alon speakers.

Just returned from a week in South America. Sherod, thanks for your advice. I'll do my research and try to get a listen to both of these.

If you're going with monitors or mini-monitors, for a small place in Hong Kong, go with the Reference 3A Dulcet mini-monitors or the Decapo i monitors. I think you'll be happy with either of these without sacrificing what you had with the Alons. I have the Dulcet and am very pleased with their musicality. Good luck.

Thanks everyone, for the support and well wishes. This is why I love the community at Audiogon!

I would really love to stay with Alons, but Hong Kong is a much smaller and crowded place (think Manhattan)...hence I'm not sure where I will be living can accomodate such large speakers. I think it would be more practical to move to quality full-range bookshelf speakers or mini-floorstanders. A sub could be added to help with the bass later, if needed.

Any suggestions in the bookshelf realm that are open? Does anyone know about the Nola Mini's? I'm really not looking to spend more than $2-3k.

Thanks,

Leonard

Another vote for staying with Alon. The closest you will come to the Alon sound is with planars, and even then the sound will be quite different. Alon's have a certain soundstaging and imaging that is quite unlike anything else out there, again, planars come closest. Any box speaker will sound relatively closed in once you've become accustomed to the Alon sound. You should also try the Nola website, Alon is now called Nola, virtually the same speaker line, Carl still in charge.
Moving up in the Alon/Nola line is also quite ear opening, the Alnico drivers are really quite fine.

I'm with Sbank. Stay in the Alon line and upgrade to remain happy. Good luck and best wishes in your move to Hong Kong.

I have owned a pair of Alon Circe's for about 4 years now so I know where you are coming from. The Alon's are very underrated. I have been looking at possible replacements for a year now and nothing I have heard for under 25k has been a clear improvement over the Circe's.

Good luck on your move and hope that you find audio bliss in HK!

Randy

Sell the rest of your U.S. system before you go and buy everything new in H.K. Zu has a very large presence in Asia, much bigger than here and a much better speaker than the ones you sold. I have some Chinese tube equipment that is both excellent and cheap here in the States. Have to assume it is even cheaper there.
I agree with Jaybo, shop over there where high end is flourishing.

Len,

You might want to post another thread inquiring into the typical pricing & sales tax rates in Hong Kong. If equivalent gear there costs more than at home, you might be better off bringing something with you.
I beg to differ with your original assumptions. It's not that expensive to ship overseas, and if you have original packing, & insurance, you are unlikely to have a problem w/damage. Sure, it happens sometimes, but a small % of the time. I've sold speakers and shipped them to Korea by Fedex and BAX Global with reasonable cost and no trouble.
That being said, there's a pr of Alon IIs on A-gon for $925. A big improvement over the Is, and would be fine w/your amp. Make it an upgrade day, not a sad day! Cheers,
Spencer

I still prefer the 805s with vintage MC240 amps. They're still the best sounding combo to me.

While I have never owned the N 805s, the best I ever heard them sound was in a store in Ft. Worth being driven by McIntosh, but sorry I do not remember model. I do remember they had a pair of 802 in the same room being driven by.....opps, not sure. But I do remember on female vocals the 805s sounded better to my taste. Good luck in your move and happy listening.

I sympathize, Leonard. I have had to say goodbye to speakers I loved. My experience tells me that it is very possible you will find new ones to care for, though--I did--and don't forget that you have made a buyer very happy too.

My lost speaker love was a pair of ESS AMT-1s back in the mid-seventies. They had a wonderfully open upper range, and I mention it because you might enjoy speakers with the Heil tweeter that made it possible. ELAC and Oskar are the modern manufacturers that come to mind.

I hope you will remember your Alons warmly, and never feel the need to compare your memory of their sound with the sound of your new ones, to the disadvantage of the new.

wait until you get to hong kong before doing anything. they have lots of audio/video stores.