Alon Circe vs. JM Lab Mezzo Utopia


What are your views on the following two systems:

(1) Alon Circe's for front L and R, Alon LCR Grand center, Alon Thunderbolt

(2) JM Lab Mezzo Utopias for front L and R, Utopia Center, and Revel B15 for sub.

my listening biases are: like smooth, "British" silky highs while being very revealing at the same time, like strong, visceral bass, and, like most people, like a big, wide, deep soundstage.

thanks!
eieio

Showing 1 response by duddley

The Mezzos should please you if your other components in the chain also deliver your stated preferences. Mezzos are revealing, so if any of your components, or interconnects lean towards the brittle, dry or etchy side of things, that's what you'll hear. They are NOT romantic; However, they can be spooky real when properly fed. In my experience many speakers with "silky" highs are actually imposing a signature distortion on the music. It can be pleasant, especially with recordings that benefit from this sort of "treatment", but in the final analysis you end up missing detail, presence, breath, imaging i.e. reality. I guess the price you pay for accuracy is Garbage-in = Garbage-out. In any case, the bass is strong and accurate as well - very fast, too. No peaks or dips I can detect, although they are not the last word in depth. What you get is powerful, rich and linear but you can go up to the Utopias for even deeper bass with the same character. Finally, the Mezzos (and utopias) are a steal right now. Mezzos used to list for $14K, and have been reduced to $10K in order to clear inventories before the new version is released. You can find them used for $6k on this site and others.

I have no experience with the Alons.