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| Letters -- May 2003 Acapella Violon May 19, 2003 Editor, Do you know who is reviewing the Acapella Violon 2001? I am just an ordinary person who is curious about these speakers. Bill Ross Mantle is reviewing the High Violon. The review is scheduled to appear next month. Matching speakers and amplifiers May 16, 2003 To Ross Mantle, I read your editorial on amplification power ("Less Power to You"), which was very interesting. I have a question I hope you can answer. When you match a speaker to an amplifier, shouldn't there be a balance between the two? In other words, if you have a very transparent-sounding speaker, shouldn't the amp be warm-sounding and vice-versa. I'm trying to get a good match for the Revel M20s, which are very revealing. The Musical Fidelity 3.2 integrated amp was a bit on the lean side. I'm thinking of the Creek 5350SE, Unico integrated, or the Parasound P3/A23 combo. I'd appreciate your comments on this subject. Rich Obviously, matching speakers with amps is critical. I generally recommend starting with the amp and then choosing a speaker that sounds good with it. You are going the other way, but that's OK. Sometimes it comes down to balancing complementary flaws in components, though I like to think of it as choosing a speaker that is good enough to reveal the strengths of the amp, and no better. All the amps you mention are well regarded, though the only one that I have heard personally is the MF 3.2, and that was under show conditions. As I recall, it's a gutsy, sparkly performer with a lot of energy on top. The Revel M20, which I have also not heard personally, is a two-way monitor with an aluminum-dome tweeter. Since metal-dome tweeters can be unforgiving in the highs, I'm guessing this might be your problem. Possible solutions, assuming you want to keep the speakers and first tried to turn down the M20's tweeter control, are to either roll back the treble presence somewhere else in the system, or get a less aggressive amp.You can tame treble with power cords, the old Shunyata Viper is an example; interconnects such as the Transparent Ultra, Ecosse, or Cardas come to mind; speaker cables, like Cardas Neutral Reference or the old Hex 2C; a different source, Primare or Copeland CD players for example, or a tubed CD player or DAC; or a tubed preamp. My bias for tubes is showing, but I suspect that the other solid-state amps you mention are not going to solve your problem (the THX certification on the Parasound makes me cringe), while a tube amp might. Of the ones on your list, the Unico gets my vote, because it is a tube/solid-state hybrid. There is a universe of push-pull pure tube amps that also fit the bill. More interestingly, the sensitivity of the M20s is 87dB anechoic, which could put it at 90dB in-room, so you just might be able to venture into triodes. A nice example would be Howard Lee's Connoisseur SE-2, which is in the price range of your MF 3.2 and sounded fantastic on JMlab monitors (similar to the Revels) at the recent Montreal show....Ross Mantle Show coverage May 8, 2003 Editor, I really enjoyed your coverage of the Montreal Son et Image show. I agree with the assessment of the Codell Audio system praised in the SoundStage! coverage -- it sounded great. Hopefully you'll have something to say about it in your next installment -- it was ultra audio to my ears. Patrick Carter
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