Avalon Eidolon?

Merlin might be right - building my own might be an entertaining thing to do..
It would need at least 1x15" paper cone bass driver, a dome mid range or 2 (I like the ones on my Dittons), and perhaps a pair of ribbon tweeters.. My Dad's a cabinet maker which may help..
But it sounds like there's just as many options building them - then there's the difficulty of bespoke crossovers..
Mebbe I need to speak to Wilmslow Audio - how do their speakers rate compared to "real" ones?

 

JBL apparently have some new models coming along, with 12" drivers and a twin plane horn compression tweeter, supposedly less money than K2.

Or big standmounts and a Pair of Velodyne DD subs?

 

If you're going to build them yourself....

you might as well do it properly

 

4350 not good enough for him eh?

The subs are nice though - must be 24" ers! EV?

 

Avalon Opus Ceramique and Eidolon Diamond

A few weeks ago I heard the Avalon Opus Ceramique and Eidolon Diamond at a dealer.

His room was quite big (6m x 10m??, maybe longer) and was acoustically treated according to the dealers ears.
I do believe in ones own ears but when it comes to acoustics I am defenitively for measurements.
The Opus Ceramiques were driven with the Pass Labs X.. equipments. The loudspeakers were nearly in the middle of the room (5 m from the front wall) and the system was treated with all accuracy and "love" the dealer could have.

I heard mostly (and unfortunately for you) classical music. The sound (timbre) was "natural" (I mean what I would expect from earing the instruments live) and never disturbed me in anyway.
Very interesting was the fact that the loudspeakers gave me the impression of building a very nice soundstage a few meters behind them. I was never conscious of having loudspeakers in front of me except when I opened my eyes.
Sometimes though I would have prefered to have a higher (vertical) soundstage and also I had quite some concerns about the "clarity" and positioning of the instrumental groups. I know I am very critical, fussy und spoilt on these points but after all these Avalons cost about £20K.
Solo instruments (several of them for example in Strawinsky's Rite of Spring) didn't appear neat and clear enough over the orchestra for me. I could somehow hear the different instrument groups were but also not clear enough as I am used to. Another and last concern I had was the intensity of the very low-frequencies: In this big room I had the feeling of lackness of extended bass.

In the same room but on the other end was the system with the Avalon Eidolon Diamond.

Above is how the system was set up. (click on the foto to enlarge)
As you see it is also based on the Pass Labs units (X0.2 and XA160) and Transparent cables.

The timbre of the Avalon Eidolon Diamond was for me like the Opus ceramique. They didn't give me the soudstage behind them but may be because they were placed "only" about 2 meters from the front wall. The sound was more stronger but concerning the "clearness" and positioning of the instrumental groups in the orchestra I didn't hear better results than with the Opus.

The point is, if what I found was lacking in the sound was coming from the speakers or from the rest of the system. I don't know anything about the sound quality of Pass Labs neither about the cables and CD-player used (if you don't believe in cables then forget it ). Also the room acoustics could have influence in this.
One thing you though have to consider when buying these loudspeakers: have a big room and treat it acoustically. Don't forget that best results will be archieved only when all the other components of the system are at a very high level. This implies some not indifferent "investment".
Any way when listening to loudspeakers at the dealer don't forget to take notice of the other components of the system otherwise you may have very unpleasant reactions when you hear the loudspeakers at your place.

After the visit I came back at home with a confused mind. I couldn't understand why after such an accurate and detailed treatment in every aspects from this dealer, the sound was for me still lacking in some points.

regards

titian

 

Yes, I think they're the 46cm EV units. About 500quid each. Ta-on also offer an 800litre "sub woofer" cabinet for this driver. I'd be interested to know what they drive it with.

 

Joel,

It's very orange! I am sure the setup would sound miles better if the orange colour was toned down a little.

 

Sounds like the Eidolons won't have the thwack I'm looking for - cheers Titian!

Funny thing is though, that I disconnected my speakers yesterday, cleaned all the contacts, made sure the switch on the back of the Bryston was switched to "balanced" (it was halfway between that and single ended, doh!!!), put it back together and had a listen...

And then I realised that the sound had been a bit duff before - a combination of dirt and finger trouble had muddied up the sound prompting my thinking that I needed new speakers... Now I'm happy again - it sounds bleedin' grand.. Can't imagine replacing the Dittons (apart with mebbe those Westlake-a-likes Joel posted... they'd look great in my room, with 6'6" ceilings and ancient beams!)

 

These are serious Hifi and then some, music removing tools of the first order, top quality build though and those down firing drivers, whoo where's me slippers

 

Cheers Tony!
I'm getting the impression more and more that they wouldn't be for me!
And to think someone down the pub was trying to sell me both a pair of Kef ref107s and a pair of Infinity Kappas today!

 

Len,
They are very good speakers in their own right, if you Like hifi thats all.

 

I like hifi interms of having a believable sound-stage, i.e. the approximation of being there; but what I don't like about "hifi" stuff is that boom'n'tizz that seems to be fashionable, and overt politeness so that the kick drum doesn't slam into yer kidneys, and the snare into your chest..
I think I prefer rock'n'roll to hifi!
Mebbe I'm a closet flat-earther

 

I think THESE are what I need!
Though I could probably do without the crappy cdp thrown in, or the 1650w of Yamaha amplification (I've already got 1200w of Bryston..). And at £17000 they do seem to be having a giraffe..

 

Well maybe a tad the other way Len

 

for what its worth I've heard the diamond tweater in a set of Martin Design Coltranes a number of times and there are really impressive. Such a huge difference, (10K, maybe), to normal tweaters that it not true. If I were in the position to drop the cash on a set of car priced speakers then I'd be looking at ones using that diamond dust as its simply brilliant, all imo.