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Focal Aria 936 / Elac Adante AF-61 / Von Schweikert VR-33 , impressions, thoughts?

Thinking of upgrading my speakers and in the past have just gone with what I thought was a great deal, sometimes that worked, more often it did not!

Have a shortlist right now of those 3 speakers.

Focal Aria 936
Elac Adante AF-61
Von Schweikert VR-33

Presently using Triangle Altea ESW speakers.

What am I lacking right now? Possibly some lower bass, the Triangles are superb in the mids and upper registers but you can definitely tell they are  a little limp below 40hz. And at the end of the day even though I consider them to be fantastic speakers, they were after all only 2k brand new so there are likely better options out there to consider.


So thoughts and impressions on those 3 speakers or any serious contenders in the same sort of price bracket, I am looking at used examples only so think 3k max.

Will be driving them with an Ayre AX-7E integrated which I will NOT be changing anytime soon (famous last words I know!)

Thank you
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kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
I haven’t heard Triangle, but I’ve heard they have a similar French sound. I listened to a lot of Focal over the years before buying my 936’s. I bought them without actually listening to them, in fact. My dealer had the whole 900 series on display except the 936 so I spent about 3 hours listening to the 926 and 948. I’m getting better sound from the 936’s and my F5 than he got from the 948’s and Cambridge Audio stack that packed much more power.
The other speaker that really tempted me was the Golder Ear Tritin 2. It’s a technically excellent speaker, but to my wars it was more clinical and lacked the muscular, physical, dimensionality the Focal brought to the table.
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uberwaltz OP
4,946 posts
 
Another speaker I should consider as I like the Triangle house sound is one of their bigger brothers like the Volante.
Another option for sure.
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maplegrovemusic
981 posts
 
There was a dealer listing the Volante for the lsat year and a half . Have gone unsold to my knowledge .Thinking he is asking too much . Like around $2800 if I recall . I bet he still has them for sale . Somewhere in the midwest .I  have been watching the listings the whole time . Unfortunately he never lowered the price as of yet . 
corelli
386 posts
 
@stereo5I agree, sometimes things do not add up.  It just reinforces the point that your room is the single biggest factor sometimes.
I had a pair of 7" Scanspeak revelators with an aircirc tweeter and high end crossover--the VR-33's gave overall a better performance, including the bass.  So go figure.  I also owned  Magnepan 1.7's and enjoyed them very much.  But they would never perform close to the front wall like the 33's do.

@uberwaltz  I did own a pair of Triangles years ago. I liked them. If memory serves me, I would say from the midrange up the two are not too dissimilar. I think the 33's may be a bit more organic with a sweeter high end however.
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uberwaltz OP
4,946 posts
 
The triangle Volante 260 had a retail of about 6500 so 2500 for a very good condition pair would be fair imho.

But I am still leaning towards the 936 atm.

My previous Focal Chorus 826v were really nice in my room and for the price was hard to beat. Well I decided to upgrade and I actually had a pair of aria 936 lined up from a dealer at 2600 shipped and I stupidly decided to buy a pair of Wilson Witt instead.

Not a mistake I will ever repeat.
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