A. Eidolon v. JM Lab Utopia

I'm not sure I can agree that the Eidolons are "difficult to drive." Avalon has had that problem with prior speaker models, but I think one will find that the Eidolons are a lot easier to drive than many assume. Of course, they will take about as much power as you wish to deliver to them, but their impedance curve is fairly benign (never below 3.5 ohms, nominal 4 ohm) and they will operate quite reasonably well on moderate sized amplifiers at lower volumes. When I first got mine, I drove them for a couple of months with a pair of vintage Marantz 9's at 70 watts per channel - could play a live volumes and the bass was soft, but the mid-range and highs were quite good.

Thanks for the comments. I assumet he Ediolons would work well in a large room with a 15 foot cathedral ceiling? No, JM Lab defenders out there?

Of the dynamic speakers I have auditioned in the last two months, the Avalon's are the best I have heard. Even the Avatar sounds great. Their soundstaging is non pareil
and imaging is superb. The transparency is excellent for a
dynamic speaker. The comparison should be to the
other "Lab" company, Sound Lab, in particular the M1s.
See past discussions on the merits of electrostats/dipoles
versus dynamic speakers.

One note: all the Avalons take gobs of power; as anyone
tried the VTL MB1250s??? The Spectral DMA360s(and I love
my Spectral gear) were not enough, particularly on Bruckner and Mahler.

Second note: Setup is very crucial to hear the best out
of them because if not they could sound like very,very
expensive Cerwin Vegas. If you had to place them on the back
wall,forget it, buy Gradient Revolutions instead.

Gladstone, my dealer demonstrated the Eidolons in a 16' x 24' x 10' room and they sounded great there. Not a bit of problem filling that space with music.

The Eidolon is a superb speaker but requires IMHO plenty of high quality power to bring out its best. I found ARC Ref 600 worked best.Sounding staging, timbral accuracy and speed are its outstanding attributes. Only beaten by the
(more expensive) Pipedreams, 7' Reference my current speaker. The Utopia (not Grand) is less refined (ie musical)and the bass is not as 'accurate', but otherwise a great speaker.