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