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

@uberwaltz...…………………………………..

I don't get it either as I have never had trouble getting bass in my room.  Even the Conrad-Johnson 200wpc power amp I purchased for them didn't make them sound better.  I am clueless why.  The guy I bought them from told me he didn't care for them either, he went back to his Maggies. The speakers I had before them were the Odyssey Kismet Reference.  They had a 7 inch Scanspeak woofer and Scanspeak silk dome tweeter and the bass was astounding.  When my brother heard them, he was looking everywhere for a subwoofer but there was none.  The VSA are the only speakers I had problems with in that room.  If you can listen before you buy, that would be great.  On the VSA forum on Audio Circle, people are always asking if someone in their area has a certain VSA speaker they could listen to and most of the guys are more than willing.  That may be your best bet.

Seeing as you like the Triangle sound, the Focal may be your cup of tea.  I myself can't get past the BE tweeters as they are quite bright to my ears but they may be just the ticket for you.  If I was ever to buy another pair of speakers, I would go with Legacy Audio.  I have loved every one of their speakers that I have heard.  I spent a lot of time at RMAF listening to them. 

Stereo5

Fortunately the aria range does not have the BE tweeters, I think that would end up being too clinical especially with all my Nordost cabling.

The vr33 having a 10" woofer should knock bass out of the ballpark on paper at least.

Not sure if anybody in my area has them but worth a shot.

Looks like no love or knowledge for the Elac so far though.

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.

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.

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 .