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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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uberwaltz OP
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Stereo5.

Yes I know you did, lol, I read your thread here from back then when I researched the gibbon8!

I would agree they are very musical, best I can describe is they do not seem to add or subtract anything. Nothing shouts out like wow, hear this bass or treble etc.

They just get on with the job.
Polite is a decent description and maybe not ideal for rock but right now they are a refreshing change from the Triangles. They are excellent still imho but are definitely an acquired taste as they are very in your face and immediate if you understand.
Be interesting when the 936 show up.
3 way speaker battle!
rc22
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I know it’s late, but I did hear the Elac  Adante floorstander and large monitor a few months ago.  Not to my liking I am sorry to report.  Especially the tower.  Boomy, sloppy bass. To me, an unrefined sound.  Room and speaker/seat placement were less than ideal so i’m sure SQ could be improved upon.  I also heard persona 3f in same room.  They were in a different league in terms of refinement.  They too were not at their best due to set up/room.  IMO the problem for the Elacs ***that day, in that room and to my ears***is that they did NOT sound surprisingly good for a speaker half the price of the $10k personas. They sounded like a speaker with a much much lower price tag.  I have no idea how they sound compared to other 5k speakers as i’ve not been auditioning any.  I did hear some proac D30R last week that were just under $8k ( I think).  The proac and the Treo CT are the 2 best $8k speakers i’ve heard so far.
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uberwaltz OP
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Never too late my friend
ProAc have been on the edge of my radar for a while but you have to cull the potential suspects at some time or another … lol.
We will see how the Focals fare once here and hopefully can step off the speaker merry go round for a while
rc22
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Great MJK avatar, btw.  Caught APC concert in 2000.  Was great.   Went to a John cougar Mellencamp concert about three years ago. found out puscifer played the theater the night before. I almost cried  for having missed that opportunity.
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Thank you
I love the new album as it has a mix of older type material and some newer more catchy stuff, great to hear new stuff after so many years!

Saw APC about 2 years ago at Rockville.

Waiting for new Tool album now.
And rumoured to be working on a new Puscifer album too, guess his creative juices are now on full throttle!
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