Avalon Eidolon or Parsifal Encore

Both are great speakers but very different sounding. Your amps are fine partners to both speakers. I run >200W class A amps too. Parsifals are not hugely sensitive design like the Lohengrin or Sarastro. Even at 93db, the added power is noticeable.

IMHO, it is a worthwhile effort to experience a different design with different priorities. I have owned the Sarastro 2s and various Avalons from Opus ceramique, Eidolon Diamond to the Isis. In optimizing them, I gained some understanding in speaker-room interactions, and about my own listening preferences.

The Eidolon midrange has great transient attack but more unforgiving. It does not shine unless proper diffusion is in place. The Verity midrange is fuller sounding and manage to sound good in broader room conditions. The Verity's first order crossover and the broad bandwidth midrange have great transparency. With relatively large overlaps betw the drivers and having woofers on a different plane are quite demanding on setup. The small ceramic midrange in the Eidolon covers a much smaller bandwidth and the dispersion pattern are more even. Veritys are designed to harness room gain for dynamics and Avalons excite the room less. Avalon's cabinets are more inert vs Verity uses lossy cabinets to channel away vibrations. Veritys are relative small size speakers that play big vs Avalons are large speakers with leaner bass alignments by contrast.

It is tough to guess which you would ultimately like better.

Hi, I agree with the other posters, maybe work on electronics. I'd also suggest upgrading your Transparent cable to the newer mm2 versions. This is a major upgrade. Can you move your center channel off your equipment rack? When it's being used it can't be helping (vibes from it right into your gear)

Any power conditioning?

Ever try a different preamp? Then use the theta for movies only....

I own P/Es and have briefly heard various Avalons on a few ocassions. No expert on Avalon here, but my impressions generally mirror those stated by Glai. Very different sounding speakers. The P/Es are a bit warmer and sound like they are noticeably less damped thru the mid-bass.

My guess is that each approach will have its fans, but that most listeners will come down firmly one way or the other.

Good Luck

Marty

I guess my comments were driven by the fact that I love the P/E type of sound and as Marty said the two brands do sound quite different from each other and it is true that folks will gravitate to one or the other - not better or worse, but a different approach. Now if at a dealer you are smitten by the Avalon sound, and you have the finances to make these kind of changes, then why not? You may be one of those for whom Avalon is the right approach, and really hard for anyone to know or tell you otherwise. But still think it is a lateral move, but just maybe the right one for you. Let us know what you decide:)

Hello Edorr,

I would like to share my first hand experience with you. First it may be helpful to give you some insight of what speakers I was coming from. For years I was in the electrostatic camp, I owned Acoustats, 2 pairs of Quads, and then finally a pair of Martin Logan CLS 2-Z. When I was making the move to a dynamic speaker I wanted to retain as much as possible the qualities I so enjoyed with the stats, and add to them the frequency extension, weight and fullness, along with the dynamic authority that good dynamic cone speakers have.

The two speaker systems that caught my ear were the Verity Parsifal (encore version wasn't out yet)) and the Avalon Radian HC. I found a dealer the carried both lines and agreed to let me compare them in my house at the same time. I was trading in my CLS 2-Z so when the dealer brought the Parsifal's and the Radian's to my house he naturally wanted to take a listen to the CLS and make sure they were working properly.

We first set up the Parsifal. Compared to the CLS there was a noticeable drop in transparency and coherence and a hollowness where the upper bass and lower mid(s) meet. We then spent 2 hours trying to position the Parsifal to get their sound to gel. Moving them from side to side, back and forth, an 1" here 2" there, woofers firing to the back wall then firing forward, moving room acoustic treatment. We finally got in the ball park and could hear their promise. Most noticeable virtue was a beautiful transparent upper mid-range. Biggest downside was a lack of coherence and continuity of the drivers and to a lesser extent the hollowness noted above.

We then set out to set up the Radian's. First try we plop them down and they have it all over the Parsifal. Coherence from top to bottom, detail retrieval, and a jaw dropping rock solid transparent sound-stage. Dynamic linearity. I was sold!!! I really wanted the Parsifal to work out because there was around a 2.5k price difference and I was really spending more then I should have at that time in my life.

I've since moved on to the Eidolon and then eventually the Eidolon Diamond. So from my past experience, I would say yeah go ahead and give the Eidolon a try. I have a feeling you are going to be surprised on just how good they are. YMMV

Best of luck to you,

Tom