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Acapella vs. Avantgarde

I currently run a Cary CD-306, Cary SLP-05 preamp, and Cary 805AE monoblocks with a pair of ProAc D38's (see system). The combination is sweet and involving, but the combo just does not boogie when asked to play a large orchestral piece, by Mahler/Wagner/Shostakovich. When the volume is turned up, dynamics are poor and the system starts to sound compressed. I suspect that the 50W Cary's simply does not have enough guts to drive the ProAc's, so I am considering replacing them with a more efficient speaker. Since most SET afficionadoes love horns, this led me to look into Avantgarde and Acapella.

I live in Melbourne, Australia. Avantgarde is available through a dealer here, but he does not have any in stock. The Acapella dealer is in Sydney (a plane flight away). I am looking to spend A$30,000 - which will buy a nice Avantgarde Duo, or a secondhand Acapella High Violon.

I have read plenty about the dynamics of the Avantgardes, but my concern is if they have horn coloration. Also, how do they image? Are they sensitive to room placement?

Would the Acapella High Violon's be a better buy, considering the pair I can potentially get my hands on have been heavily discounted? I have read that Acapella's suffer from disjointed sound because of the three different driver technologies (plasma tweeter, horn mids, conventional woofer). How much is this a problem? And are there any room placement issues? Given that the Acapella's have lower sensitivity (91 dB/W/m) would I be achieving a real upgrade by moving from the ProAc's?
amfibius
amfibius OP
282 posts
 
Gregm, thanks for your response. I have been in touch with Rob (rwjp), another AudioGon member. We live in the same city and I have met him. He seems to know you.

I took your comments to the Acapella dealer. He said that he has tried amplifying the Violons with the following configurations:

- bi-amped with identical valve top and bottom
- bi-amped with valve on top, SS on bottom
- bi-amped with identical SS top and bottom
- mono-amped with SS
- mono-amped with valve

He told me that the best result was always obtained by mono-amping, and has something to do with the design of the Acapella crossover. He cannot supply the schematic for me to examine myself ... although it may be possible for me to do a bit of surgery once I get the speakers to look at the crossover design. He can't even tell me what the slopes are. ALl that I know, is that they cross over at 800 and 4500Hz.

At the moment I have abandoned my bi-amping idea and will probably upgrade my amp to the Cary CAD-211AE. 110W of Class A/B push-pull. I would like some feedback on whether other members think this is a good idea, or whether I should just buy the Cary CAD-500MB's (500W SS) to put on the bottom?
essentialaudio
1,147 posts
 
Amfibius, which tube amplifiers did your dealer try? At CES Hermann Winters of Acapella mentioned biamping while we were listening to the High Violon Mk IIIs. Einstein The Final Cut Mk 60 monoblocks were used. Einstein amplifiers are used to voice their speakers.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Amfibius, I would encourage you to try the Exemplar Statement amp. I use it on my La Campanellas with great success. Previously I had used the Reimyo PAT 777. I would not suggest using its line stage which can be bypassed.
amfibius OP
282 posts
 
Essentialaudio, the dealer demo'ed the speakers with Wavac 805's (55W SET's). I asked for these amps because they are "sort of" similar in power to my Cary CAD-805AE's. I know people recommend Einstein OTL, but unfortunately these are not imported into Australia. The dealer carries the rest of the Einstein line, but specifically not the OTL's. Which is unfortunate.

Tbg, is this the website for Exemplar?

http://www.exemplaraudio.com/

Can't seem to find anything about the Statement amp there. In any case, I don't think it's available in Australia which rules it out.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Yep, I doubt if they are sold there. The website is exemplaraudio.com but it is not very up-to-date.
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