Acapella vs. Avantgarde

Okay, I have finally managed to audition every speaker I have mentioned in this thread. I started the journey in February when I made the first post. I just returned from my trip to Sydney, where I heard the Acapella Violons and the Avantgarde Uno's. I have already heard the Duo's (see above). Here are my impressions.

Uno's: sound just like the Duo's. The dealer initially had them hooked up to a pair of Audio Note Soro SE's and it sounded absolutely terrible. I thanked him for his time and was about to walk out, when he suggested to try a Graaf OTL power amp. So I sat down again and let him make the swap. Let's just say that the speakers now sounded acceptable. The nasal quality was gone, the dynamics had improved, and the sound was more natural. I was pretty impressed.

The next day, I visited another dealer and listened to the Violons. A Metronome CDP and a pair of Wavac 805 SET's were used - chosen because they are roughly similar to my Cary 805's.

When I walked into the room, the dealer had some music playing softly. Let's just say that my jaw dropped - the sound was so pure, so clean, so effortless - it was like nothing I have ever heard before. It made me realize that all other speakers sound coloured by comparison.

The midrange was married very effectively to the tweeter. I was looking for a seam where the midrange meets the tweeter but I could not hear it, despite knowing exactly where it is. At the top end, the midrange almost matches the tweeter for speed, and gets a little bit lazier at the bottom.

The bass was inadequate though. Not very loud and rather boomy. I suspect this was more the fault of the SET than the speakers themselves. 55W of SET isn't quite enough.

So, I ordered the Violons. They will arrive in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I need to think about how I am going to drive them with my own meagre SET's ...

Amfibius, I must say I agree with all that you say based on my listening to both speaker lines.

I presently own the LaCampanellas and tried to use my excellent Reimyo SET with 8 watts. It did it best but is not up to the challenge of an 93 db efficient speaker. I don't know if Exemplar equipment is available in Australia or even if they make 240 volt equipment, but this was the amp for my speaker.

I've also found that the LaCampanellas work better with more power. I tried my 50w Lectron push/pull but they really opened up with my Rogue M-150s at 150w/ch. Not only did the bass response improve but I believe it also cleaned up what little "horn" sound there was. It seemed as though you could hear that 700Hz xover point more prominently with the lower powered amps. I suspect this desire for a little more juice is a common characteristic with the Acapellas. Really a great sounding speaker, though I suspect those who listen to mainly classical may not like how pianos sound. But with jazz and alternative rock the LaCampanellas sound wonderful!

I have not heard the acapella, but I have heard the Uno, the Nano and the Mezzo. The Nano improves on the sound of the Uno. It is much more refined and sounds definitively better. The Mezzo, which is really a Duo with a horn loaded woofer is absolutely fantastic. The bass is very good and I doubt it can get much better, unless you go to the trio/basshorn combination and get the house to fit it in.
The Mezzo, which I would catalogue as one of the best speaker systems you can get today costs in Europe 31500 Euros, in the US probably over $45000. Not cheap, but since you only need 5 Watts to drive them, you save on amplifier hardware. SET works best.

Thanks for all your help guys. I found that most people's description of the sound from all 3 speakers I listened to was pretty accurate. Very reassuring that I can trust the ears on AudioGon.

The shopping experience has been a positive one, with all the dealers treating me with courtesy. Only one dealer did not know how to set up the speakers properly which was a bit of a disappointment.

At the moment I am thinking of how to amplify the speakers because I suspect that my Cary SET's will not have enough juice. Probably get a pair of Cary 500MB's to run the bass section because I have heard that the 500MB's are very similar tonally to the rest of the Cary range.

As my preamp does not have dual RCA out, I will have to run an RCA splitter. One pair of RCA leads will run directly to the CAD-805AE. The other pair will run through an analog equalizer into the 500MB. This will help match the gain of the 500MB to the 805AE, and provide me with some ability to tune the bass to my liking.