Avalon Eidolon Diamond vs Revel Salon 2

Maybe ex dealers / reps have gone deaf from too much listening??? Or have caught that terrible affliction, analyzitis--must be very painful; perhaps a good reason for a negative attitude?

Disagree with Rushton. I still have the ascents and they are side by side with the eidolons. The ascents by Hansen don't go high enough nor do they go deep. But they are more coherent and do not thin out as much as eidolon when driven with trl Samson (the only thing that has enough power for them). Image size and body are slightly superior.

If there's a problem with Avalon speakers its the need to have someone who actually knows what they should sound like properly locate them. I heard a pair of Eidolons set up correctly only once years ago at dB Audio's second location on Shattuck Ave, In Berkeley California.

I remember they were driven by an Ayre V-3 with Cardas cable but little else. Subsequent installations at shows and other stores never came close to the dB Audio setup.

Bo1972s accounts with Avalon are completely understandable. While Avalon provides fairly detailed setup instructions not knowing what should sound like is a huge handicap. I guess this could be said of any speaker.

From memory I thought I had mine dialed in until someone in the industry with this familiarity moved them about eight inches back and less than two inches wider apart which created a substantial improvement.

Many dealers sell the brands they have. These days the prefer what delivers the most money. I am only interested in the best sound for a client. Ayre has not the same quality as Pass Labs. Stage is less wide, and less deep. The sound realism is not in the same league as Pass Labs. With Avalon you get a smaller stage in dept and in wide wenn you use Ayre. Wenn speakers use faster speaker units, you will get less acoustic problems. Speed is the key to sound realism and less acoustic problems.

The words "thin" and "thin out" are exactly what I was pointing out about the Avalons. The words and concept is said in above many times, because it is true.

For some folks this thinning exposes more detail (or APPARENT detail) and makes them feel like they are hearing more, so they are more convinced by the presentation. As for me, I have never heard muted trumpets, unmuted trumpets, violins, oboes, operatic sopranos and tenors sound as thin and borderline screechy in real life, especially when played at realistic volume levels (and I don't mean screaming levels, I don't listen to rock). This includes demos by Avalon themselves, Avalon dealers, Avalon importers, Avalon home user systems, and tests in my place.

It is a sound that many find compelling, so we will read more "my Avalons are SPOT ON tonally", "my Avalons using this B.S.XYZ cable don't sound this way" in posts after this one. Despite that previous above, and upcoming below baloney, this is the general house voicing and it is well known in the industry. If it appeals to you great. My comments about the Revels were to point out that their voicing is richer, which is positively a fact. The Revel voicing is more like the Rockport voicing.

The sound of the 2 speakers is quite different and in the same system you would clearly hear this.

I have no horse in the race, I currently own neither. As usual, beware of posters who own only one or the other piece of equipment, look up "internal dissonance theory". When someone owns it they automatically gravitate toward the attitude that their love object is perfect. Better to find the guy who is not satisfied with anything and can quickly name the faults of everything. A curmudgeon like that will tell you what to look for and hold back nothing.