
The last Avalon I reviewed was an Eidolon
Diamond.I subsequently purchased it as my
reference loudspeaker, and it lasted through
a house move and almost a decade of regular use,
which is quite an achievement for the reviewer
exposed to a constant stream of new products. These
Denver-built speakers have a common thread of
design consistency which seems to assure production
longevity. (Indeed, the Eidolon is still made, though
likely to be supplanted by a similarly priced but
rather different speaker,the Compas which is currently
in preproduction.)Though undoubtedly still costly,
this £8,000/pair Idea
is a rather less expensive proposition. It’s a neat,
well proportioned, slim floorstander, very much in
the Avalon idiom, and might not prove particularly
tempting in terms of presentation or outright power.
The specification describes a two-way design with
a pair of 180mm (7in) bass/mid units operating
in parallel and crossing over to tweeter with a
25mm (1in) ‘ceramic’ composite dome (believed
to be magnesium oxide on magnesium), a custom
version of the Eton HD28-1. The lower frequency
Eton drivers’ sandwich cones have Kevlar skins on
a Nomex honeycomb core, topped out by a small
aluminium dust cap, and with nicely open die-cast
frames and well engineered motor systems. The
tweeter has a die-cast faceplate, a cast cavity for rear
absorption, and a neodymium magnet. The dome
diaphragm is protected by a vestigial wire grille,
and the unit is well buried in a felted absorptive
recess. The crossover is at a lower than usual 1.7kHz.
Impedance is a nominal 4ohms and the specified
sensitivity is a little above average at 88dB/W,
notwithstanding the lower impedance. The Idea
stands 90cm high, plus a trio of nonlocking
exponentially tapered stainless steel spikes.
Somewhat depending on how the measurements
are made, it’s a trim 21.5cm wide, but its canted
front and rear tilt make it a quite deep 36cm. A 50
–300W power range is suggested, and I wouldn’t
use less than 50W myself. I bashed it around a bit
with the D’Agostino Momentum’s 250W and found
it held on really well at high power, delivering fine
stereo on large scale. Though quite compact, it’s
built solidly enough from multilayer MDF, and
weighs 28kg (60lb). The spikes elevate the speaker
an inch or so, allowing the low frequency vent in the
underside to drive the floor boundary correctly.
A heroic degree of cross-bracing plus the complex
slant geometry ensures that the speaker has a low
coloration signature with minimal resonance.
Acoustic damping fills the internal voids, leading to
a desirably over-damped yet extended low frequency
alignment and also the suppression of standing
waves. Electrical connection is by a single pair of
shielded clamping Cardas terminals, wire and spades
only; no bi-wire experiments are therefore possible,
or indeed desirable. The quite excellent veneer is well
figured top cabinet grade. The Idea works best with its
custom grille leftin place and its assets hidden. It’s
designed so that the music emanates from the general
region ratherthan being visually associated with
working parts.If a grille is a well designed and integral
part of the acoustic concept, it does help the speaker
portray a more convincing soundstage, thanks to
less visual distraction. As previously found with this
class of Avalon, removing the grille can be a disaster,
as numerous aspects of the sound deteriorate: one
quickly learns that the grille is an integral acoustic
component. It’s actually quite instructive to remove
the grille here, as the subtle tonal balance and very
well focused perspectives are thrown into disarray;
the soundstage appears jumbled up and the natural
timbres of musical instruments are severely warped.
It certainly sounds louder with the grilles removed,
but don’t be fooled into thinking that louder is
necessarily better. Here the acoustically absorptive
grille helps control diffraction and shape the power
response, the former associated with image depth
and focus, and the latter with natural timbre in the
room setting.
Sound Quality.
It took me a few moments to re-acclimatise to the
Avalon sound, which some may find sounds less
airy and expressive in the room acoustic, due to the
specific enclosure diffraction countermeasures. At
first I was surprised that it could play so loud and
operate so deep into the bass, until I remembered
that the pair of bass drivers were equivalent to a 9-
10inch unit, and I subsequently also confirmed a
usefully higher than average sensitivity.
Focus was simply excellent, pin-point, with great
stability for different sounds and showing very fine
coherence in the overall output. Image depth was
also remarkably good for this price range. Timing
was well above average and it drove a bass beat with
both clout and depth. The upper bass sounded a
little forward in my room, but low frequencies were
correctly tapered and continued evenly to below
30Hz, which was most impressive. Rock replay was
well above average, while classical material was quite
excellent, with crisp dynamic definition and with
very good expression.
I found it very easy to settle back and allow this
mellifluous loudspeaker to take the strain, enjoying
the musical flow alongside the engaging illusion
that this wasn’t machinery at work. It was highly
informative yet detail was not thrown at the listener,
and it really does convey a high proportion of the
audiophile Avalon sound.
Lab Report
The dense enclosure showed very little sign of
resonant coloration, and the enclosure was almost
silent when playing music. The on-axis frequency
response was notable smooth, if slightly down-tilted
towards higher frequencies – an Avalon characteristic
set in context of the overall power response in order
to aid natural perspectives.
Measured sensitivity was quite high, 88.5dB/W
(a fraction above the claimed 88dB), and the speaker
gave a notably even ±2dB on-axis frequency response
from 50Hz to 22kHz. Low frequencies extend to
45Hz (-3dB) and 38Hz (-6dB), intentionally tapered
to match low frequency room gain more evenly.
(Note that correct bass tuning is only achieved when
the speaker is placed on its spiked bases as this sets
the acoustics of the down-firing port. The latter also
had negligible higher frequency leakage coloration.)
Specified as a 4ohm speaker, in reality it’s a 5ohm
load. While not too taxing for solid state amps, it
does dip to 3.5 ohms at 150Hz, and also in a broad
region around 6kHz. The 1.7kHz crossover between
the drivers is nicely symmetrical for the two vertical
axes, so the in-phase target response between the
drivers is well aligned towards the seated listener,
despite that wide spacing. Comparison was made with
both the tweeter
felt and the grille detached. The resulting response
measured and sounded awful, very bright and
highly coloured. Those absorption components
are an integral part of the loudspeaker design. The
lateral off-axis output decremented smoothly, albeit
showing some small underlying features such as a
mild prominence around 1.5kHz, which is faintly
audible, and some ripple up to 4kHz .
The averaged room responses showed good low
frequency integration; if mildly strong around
100Hz, output continued down to 25Hz. The
important 200Hz to 5kHz range is excellently
uniform, while the smooth taper to higher
frequencies is well controlled by the low diffraction
design. (That final 27kHz peak is inaudible.) The
excellent stereo depth and transparency can partly be
seen in the very fine waterfall decay response which
is near minimum phase, has very little diffraction
ringing and excellent decay rates. High in-room
sound levels of 108dBA are possible from a pair.
Conclusions
This is a smaller and much less costly Avalon than
the Eidolon Diamond with which I’m more familiar,
yet it has some innate and initially recognisable
characteristics which are a function of the design
strategy. It has the recognisable Avalon character and
while this is delivered on a somewhat smaller scale,
that character provides a very high degree of coherent
imaging, very fine perspectives, and an overall musical
believability which is rare at the price, and redolent
of much more costly designs. You do not hear drivers
or cabinet or bass tuning at work, just a mellifluous
coherent whole. It sounds particularly good on both
middle-of-the-road and classical material.
It doesn’t sound too loud or artificially exciting,
and doesn’t have obvious bass or spot-lit dynamics,
but its sound is all of a piece, and delivered involving
performances with all kinds of music. It’s by no
means second best, and simply works on smaller
scale for smaller rooms –and not that small: in truth,
it drove my 25x35 foot room pretty well.
Compact but perfectly formed, the Avalon Idea
is imbued with a deep thread of natural timbre
and musical performance, and teaches us just how
good stereo sound reproduction can be. Highly
recommended.
HIFICRITIC Loudspeaker Results
Make Avalon Acoustics
Model Idea: moving-coil floorstanding,
damped floor port loading
Price per pair From £8,000
Finishes Hand laid veneer, quilted cherry, curly
maple or figured walnut
Size(HxWxD )90 x 30 x 36.5cm
Type Two-way, 2x175mm bass/mid, 25mm HF,
quasi-line loading
Sensitivity for 2.83V
88.5dB/Wmeasured(per 8 ohm Watt)
Amplifier loading 5 ohms typical, 3.5ohm min: average loading
Frequency response, axial
50Hz to 22kHz ±2dB (listener axis)
Frequency response off- axis
Good plus, see graphs and in-room
Response Bass extension 38Hz for -6db (27Hz in Room)
Max Loudness, in room
108 DBA For Stereo Pair
Power rating (max, min) 300W, 25W
Placement Floorstanding, custom tripod of stainless
steel spikes; for near free space location