Acapella Triolon Excalibur speakers at RMAF 2007

I am Teajay's friend who heard the Acapella speakers. I would like to first say that I have never heard these speakers prior to this weekend. My preferences in music are classical and jazz in that order.

I thought both of the systems were very good. I knew the larger Acapella's price but had no idea that the entire system was 600K and find this shocking. While the one Pavarotti track I heard was sublime on the Triolons, the rest of the music was also very good. I also heard the high Campaniles and found them equally as impressive as their larger siblings. I was happy to finally hear the FM acoustics amp and preamp and they seemed to have a better grip on the speaker. I think I could have been just as happy with the smaller speaker at only 89K and the FM acoustics electronics at about 85K and add your own front end and cables. My thoughts were after spending about 20 minutes in each room and they are not conclusive at all.

I must say that I also enjoyed the MBL room when they finally would turn down the music. On some tracks, the music was driven to insane levels and I had to leave the room. I must say that the MBL's do some things so differently in the imaging department that I felt I was part of the live event. I kept wondering if their imaging would wear thin in the long run. They played the same Pavoratti track that I heard on the Triolons and it definitely sounded more real on the Triolons. On other music, the MBL was simply amazing. My initial conclusion was that I would would love to own these speakers but that again was only after about 20 minutes. It would be a lot of fun to have about 250K burning a hole in my pocket to have to decide between the smaller Acapella system and the MBL System. Other choices with that 250K could be a Ferrari or a nice boat or even a house! Decisions Decisions!

A previous poster to this thread found the Apogees at the show lacking in bass. As a refurbished Apogee Scintilla owner(using the same Australian ribbons), I agree with that statement. I don't think the room was nearly large enough to allow the speaker to sing. I have my Scintillas 6 feet from the back wall! The Scintillas to many audiophiles have sufficient bass for the classical and jazz that I listen to. I must say that I found Fcrowder's post quite interesting from someone who is quite intimate with both of the Acapellas. My report was really a first glance from an admiring audiophile. Bob

I've heard an earlier Acapella model - I believe the Campanile(with plasma tweeter and horn) at a fellow goner's home when he was doing a Galibier turntable setup for me

very impressed with the presentation
natural, full bodied, very engaging
the horn had interesting imaging without any shrillness normally associated with a horn

he was in the process of getting his Triolon model but they had not arrived yet

it was a very nice evening listening to a cost no object system Einstein electronics, galibier table

these speakers fully filled the room
very impressive

I listened to both the Triolons and Campaniles on Friday and twice on Sunday. On Friday the Triolons sounded good, but not quite as impressive as when I heard them in a personal setup in Norway a few years ago. The tonality was very lifelike with amazing transparency, but the bass seemed overblown, slightly loose and lacking in dynamics. As Fcrowder said it is possible that the woofers were still breaking in, but I would be more inclined to think that the Einstein OTLs were just not capable of providing strong enough grip on the four 10" woofers. The Campaniles in the other room were driven by an FM Acoustics solid state amp and the sound was much more dynamic and alive. When I came back for another listen on Sunday afternoon, for whatever reason the Triolons sounded much better, in fact what I heard was simply breathtaking! The bass was still loose but I got so involved in music that it didn't bother me anymore. I really can't think of a better loudspeaker system for huge spaces.

Based on what I was told by Acapella's Hermann Winters, the smaller Violons are identical to the Triolons from 800Hz up as they use the same crossover components, midrange driver and the amazing plasma tweeter. I heard them on several occasions and other then the MBL 101Es they remain my favorite speakers for a more typical listening room.

Mark xiii- it doesn't sound as if our listening impressions are that different. In comparing the construction of the Campanile Highs to the Triolons, there are many similarities but also some distinct differences. Probably the single defining difference is that the 4-10" SEAS drivers in the Campaniles cover the frequency range from 20-700hz while in the Triolons, a part of that range (170-700 hz) is covered by the new horn which employs a 12" woofer which is horn loaded. This very much changes the character of the mid bass making it faster, more dynamic and better controlled. In addition by allowing the SEAS drivers to focus on a smaller frequency range, it reduces IM distortion and improves the efficiency. The Triolon bass cabinets are somewhat larger, mainly deeper, and better damped/braced and moving the plasma tweeter from between the two sealed woofer enclosures and each side of the Campaniles seems to reduce acoustic breakthrough from the woofers from causing any smearing of the high frequencies. In general the Triolons are about 300# a side heavier than the Campaniles, most of which is in the woofer cabinets. The tweeter and smaller horn appear to be the same as you mentioned. Internally, I have no idea if there are parts changes except that the crossover must be more complex to account for the addional horn and is now divided between two enclosures. I can also say that bi-wiring or tri-wiring the speakers makes a rather significant improvement over using the jumpers provided.

Like you, I find certain things that I like about using a really good transistor amp on the speakers, particularly with respect to bass contol, bass slam, dynamics and top end extension, but am willing to sacrifice some of this and accept the somewhat looser (some would argue more acccurate bass)that is produced by the Einstein OTL's if that means that I get the top end and midrange of the OTL's. As you have heard both the Einstein OTL's and the FM Acoustics at the show and recognized their different strengths, what would your choice be for driving a set of Triolons?

Fcrowder: Having listened to different OTL amps (Joule Electra, AtmaSphere and Einstein) I would generalize that although they do so many things right, bass is simply not their forte. The Triolons need something capable of controlling their woofers, and it certainly must be a tube design as I can't think of a solid state amp that would not take away something form the midrange (although the $80K FM Acoustics amp was pretty nice...).
If I were to select a single best amp for the Triolons, my choice would be the 200 wpc 300TL transmitter tube based Amber Wave monoblocks. They were demoed in one of the rooms upstairs and I could not find a single thing that I didn't love about their sound. Bass control and dynamics better than any monster ss amp, the midrange, treble and soundstaging like the best single ended triode and at the same time an amazing transparency. All of that with a pair of $6K worth of medium sized monitors! I think that these are THE AMPS for the Triolons. All things considered, at $44K they also seem to be a "bargain" compared to two pairs of Einsteins required for the Triolons.