Avalon Eidolon Diamond vs Revel Salon 2

Yes, the ceramic Avalons can disappear and image really well. But, tonally, they are thin through the mids right on up to the highs. I am involved with many, many concerts listening directly to unmiked horns, drums, piano, strings. Sorry, they don't sound that thin in real life.

This is the type of speaker I call an "audiophile speaker", and they do those audiophile checklist things: image, disappear, depth, detail, image, detail, bass, detail, top end extension, detail........but the sound of real instruments take a bit of a back seat, yielding a lot of detail, which making a speaker a bit thin-sounding enhances.

Float things in space, give lots of detail, that floats audiophiles' boats. Did I mention the detail?

The Salon 2 camp is busy listening to MUSIC, not dissecting the sound of speakers, or the SOUND coming out of the speakers, which is what the Eidolon Diamonds are good at. The Salon 2 reminds you of music, not hi-fi. The Avalons are one of the several examples of speakers using the Accuton drivers that sound thin and resonant to many listeners. I never thought they could sound natural until I heard the Estalon. That's an example of a speaker using Accuton but with the naturalness that the Eidolon Diamond miss.

I own none of the speakers in my post so I have no built-in prejudice.

The Revels give you music. The Eidolon, sound. Big difference.

Avalons do have their charms, the airy imaging, clarity, and a similar character top to bottom.

But they absolutely have a sound, which is one of being leaner and colder than the Revels, and the OP wanted a comparison.

This "sound" can be tiring to many, though plenty of warm tubes in front of them can help.

This "sound" (as opposed to some speakers having very little of their own "sound") is likely a reason, or the reason, they don't make it to mastering studios, which the Revels have. This is also why I prefer the Salons. My experience has been that most folks who don't like Avalons don't like them for this exact same reason, the lean colder sound. However, my posts are not intended to be Avalon "slams". They are more refined and more seamless than the vast majority of speakers including those 2 big currently very popular brands that are so hot on the market right now.

Agreed, more than 50 sets of top tier speakers in my career. 10 sets of transducers right now. Can't make the mistake of narrowing down to one set of colorations when you are in the business. One is used to check another, to check that, and so forth.

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.

Yes, Bo1972, we know you have superhuman hearing and can hear things differently and better than normal humans with the best human hearing. You have told us of your superior ability many times. I am surprised you have not been hired by musicians, musical instructors, and loudspeaker manufacturers. Given you have such gifts, it is amazing you remain so humble about them.

Where can I hear your system? If I sold all audio I own and bought your system components I would save hundreds of thousands of dollars AND have better sound!