This system has given me heaven and hell. When I first unpacked my Acapella Violon they did not sound as in my dreams. I must really point out that you have to give your system time to evolve.
After eleven years with the Acapella Violon I bought the Marten Mingus Quintet and a new journey is started.
I've always had a turntable in my system, but this year I went a litle bit further to draw more music out from my system. I've got the vinyl under my skin now, it sounds so wicked. But why stop with one turntable? The Bergmann Magne was irresistible. Then I also needed a new cartridge and my choice was Kuzma Car-40.
I do not know the best way to describe the sound of my system.
It's fast and dynamic with high resolution, they low is controlled, 3D and depth of soundstage are good, maybe I lack a litle with if I should criticize anything. The ion tweater give you a very lifelike presentation.
Since I've changed to Marten Mingus Quintet the soundstage has grown and the bass is improved. The ion sweater is good, but I do not feel that I miss it. I'm still in break in process. It feel like this is going to be really good!
My friends who are not intrested in music and hifi, there first comments was "Now I undesrtand why you are so hooked on good sound reproduction". This is one of the best mark I can get for my system.
Amfibius heres a link to Audiodata subwoofer http://www.audiodata-hifi.de/products/soutien2-4.html
It does not look like a subwoofer, but it sounds like one :-)
In my system the powercord is the cable that affect the most. Thats why I'm interested in if there also could be some affect on the Acapella.
Cables is a funny thing, in some system they make wonder and in some the do nothing. My Acapella are not sensative for speakercables, the difference is minimal. But when I've the Focal Diva Utopi Be the where extreme sensative.
I also live in house with open planing, but I've got my litle corner in a extension of the house, but it's open to the rest of 1st floor. We seems to have a lot in common, but you live in the south of the world and I live in the north :-)
By the way, I'm very exited by your vinyl upgrade.
Mickep thank you for your observations and for mentioning Audiodata - I will look them up. My own listening room is HUGE - the system is set up in one corner of an open plan area with kitchen, dining, and living area in the same space, measuring the full length and width of the house.
I have the Acapella silver power cord - it was supplied with my Violons along with the standard power cord. I swapped the two and can NOT hear a difference. I mentioned this to a friend who said that the effect of power cords is negligible if I am getting good power in the first place. I have never heard a difference with power cords on any of my other components.
Yes, I do keep my Acapella close to the side walls. Comparing to other speakers I've had the Acapella is not so sensitive to first reflection, but my right wall do affect my soundstage. My left speaker is not affected by first reflection. I feel the best way to deal with first reflection is to break the soundwaves, not to absorb. I also feel that it's a good thing to break up soundwaves behind your listening chair and to absorb at your right and left side of your listening position.
Your observation is quit right, low frequencys is more radial and high frequncys is more linear.
When I measured my listening room it responded well after that I moved around my speaker for nine months. I now have +/- 3db between 37-160 Hz. The setup of my system is absolutly crusialy, I do not cut corners:-)
In Sweden it's a lot of talk about room acoustics, I think it's a litle bit of a hype. Everybody blames the room as soon it do not sound good. Acoustics is importent, but it does not solve every problem. A good steup of the system and some room treatment and you can relax and listen to the music and not your system.
A German company called Audiodata makes a subwoofer that according to rumor will be suitable to Acapella Violon.
Amfibius, have you tried to change the powercord to the Acapella? What I understand it will do a difference, I'll probably try with JPS Analog AC.
Mickep don't worry I am sure your English is a lot better than my Swedish :) I had to do a double take when you used the decimeter unit ... we never use that here! From the measurements you have given, it seems as if your speakers are too close to the side walls but I suppose that can't be helped.
Try this experiment: the Violon allows you to hook up one driver at a time. Now take turns hooking up the tweeter, midrange horn, and woofer. Now walk around the speaker and listen VERY carefully, you will hear that the tweeter has a narrow cone of radiation. The midrange horn, less so. It is the woofer which has the widest cone of radiation.
Given that the woofer outputs up to 800Hz I was quite concerned about first point reflections. Before my shelf "grew" to its current height I had the first point reflections tamed with a piece of strategically placed acoustic foam.
By the way, my friend and I have measured the speakers flat till 200Hz. Below this, the room starts to influence the frequency response in a big way. However, it definitely goes down to 30Hz and then drops steeply off at about 24dB/oct below this.
30Hz - 800Hz is a lot to ask of a single driver! To put it in perspective, that is six octaves of music ... compared to 4 octaves that the midrange horn has to handle, and 3 octaves for the acclaimed plasma tweeter (if we assume we can't listen beyond 20kHz). So in other words we are asking the cheapest driver in our speaker to handle the widest frequency range of music. That cannot be good.
So I am planning to add a custom made subwoofer which will relieve the woofer of duties below (say) 80-100Hz. That should clean up the lower midrange quite a bit.
Amfibius: I think the pictures lies a litle, my speakers is not symetrical in the room. My left speaker has only 2dm to the side wall, but the wall ends in front line of the speaker. The right speaker has 6dm to side wall. I've got 2m to the front wall and about 4.5m to the wall behind my listen position. There is 3.2m centrum to centrum of the speaker. My listening chair is 3.5m from front line of speaker. If I move closer to the speakers I'll sit in a dip of the low frequancy and it will not sound good.
It took my about nine months to find the right location of my speaker and listening chair. I'm a very slow listener :-)
By the way, excuse me for my poor english "I'm learning from a book" :-)
Thank you for your response Mickep. I think that amp matching with the Violons is pretty critical - on one hand it likes a lot of power, but on the other it is so revealing that any second rate amplification will stand out like a sore thumb.
I see that you have your Violons positioned very similarly to mine - out into the room, with plenty of clearance from the side walls. I have also found that they sound better when listened up close. I was afraid that they would lose coherence (given that the drivers are spread a fair way apart) but they gain even more depth! At the moment, my Violons are 1.5m from the front wall, and 2m from my listening chair, in a 8m long listening room. Just as an experiment, try pulling your chair closer and let me know how you go :)
I also live in Sweden as EliotSwede, he is actually a friend of mine. He is fully responsible to the view I've got from my listenings seat.
It has been a quest for the right partner to these beautiful creation that makes the music present it self with athority and still preserve the delicate feelings and varitions in complex music.
I started out with Audionets AMP II G2, 200w monoblocks. These sounded constrained with the Acapella, but with my VSA VR 4 Gen III HSE the where a perfect match.
So I started listening after a new poweramplifier. In my house there was a long row of celebritys. Both valves and solid states was on the list.
Audionet AMP II MAX has the power with gentle touch. People that listen to my system quit often comments on the absence of solid state and horn sound. They think it sounds like valve and electrostatics.
I'm all wired up with Acoustic Zen, exept my VPI Aries 3 to Audionet PAM V2 RIAA. This is my priority number one at the moment, to find proper cabeling to the vinyl.
Another Violon owner! Welcome to the club! That makes it four of us on A'gon (Kellyhighendaudio, Kotjac, EliotSwede, and myself). Brian Ackerman's system seems to have disappeared from A'gon.
It is interesting to see what amps people are using to run the Violons. So far on A'gon I have seen: Jadis JA-80, Jadis JA-200, Jadis SE-300B/Belles 350A (bi-amped), Wavac HE-833, and my own (first used Cary CAD-805AE, then now Cary CAD-211AE). Yours is the first system I have seen running off solid state amplification. How does it sound? And have you tried other amps with it? What cables are you using?
