100w min. high quality power amp, very good tube preamp, bi-wiring crucial or even bi-amping if possible and the results are very, very good with all kind's of music.

This is a very difficult review because these speakers have been in my main listening system for the past 18 years and I really enjoy listening to them regularly. In 1973 I bought a pair of ESS AMT-1 speakers which really impressed me at the time. A couple of years later the Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers came out and they were as good as anything I had ever heard. Talk about buyer's remorse the Dahlquist DQ-10's were not only a great speaker, they were the same price as my ESS speakers. I regretted never buying a pair. About 16 years later I was in a stereo shop and I heard a pair of speakers called the Acarian Alon 1's. I was so impressed I immediately bought a pair. Later I found out the reason I liked them so much was the designer Carl Marchisotto came from Dahlquist and this was a continuation of the Dahlquist open baffle speaker design.

The Acarian Alon 1's have some quirks that made it a difficult speaker to enjoy. First the original woofers were not very good and seemed to blow fairly easily. I read on the internet forums that other owners had the same problem. I went through two pairs of woofers in the first six years of ownership. Later a different pair of woofers from Acarian Systems were offered which I have used for the past 12 years with no problems. They also can be a very bright and forward sounding pair of speakers so they are not compatible with a large number of transistor amplifiers and pre-amplifiers. My Parasound amplifier was a very good match. I am currently using an inexpensive ASL Line One tube preamplifier and a pair of Quicksilver Mini-Mono 25 watt power amplifiers. Using the Quicksilver 4 ohm taps this is a great combination despite only 25 watts. A third problem is the lack of deep bass. I have heard them with a number of different setups and it does not have deep bass. I wonder about some of the reviewer's comments about these speakers having excessive bass because I used an SPL meter to show that it rolled off from 50hz down to 40hz. Bass is almost completely gone by 30hz. Finally these speakers required a very long break-in. If you buy them used this is not an issue.

Now for the good part. When properly set up with the right matching equipment they have a wide open natural sound that I can listen to for hours. The sound I get reminds me of the expensive systems I heard at the home theater shows. I can almost imagine the musicians right there in front of me. This setup allows me to listen and enjoy the music without trying to fix anything. The only thing missing is the deep bass which is a compromise I can now overlook. I think they are much better speakers than the current Nola (Carl's new company) offerings the Boxer ($1,500 plus stands) and the Contender ($3,400). They also cost $1,200.00 at the time as opposed to the current version of these speakers the Nola Viper 1a's $4,000 price.

These speakers show up used on Audiogon and are worth considering. My Magnepan MMG's gave me less problems and are extremely enjoyable even though they require a lot of power. The MMG's would cost new about the same as the Alon 1's would run used. The Magnepan 1.7 and the Vandersteen 2ce Signature are half the price of the Nola Viper 1a's if you want a current pair of new speakers. The older versions were the Alon 1's competition in 1993. Finally I have been living with these for 18 years and will probably keep them as my main speakers for a long time. The sound I get now would be close to 5 stars however because of the aforementioned problems I am giving it only 4 stars.

Lower end compared to smaller speakers.

Power drain and mid to high frequencies.

I picked up a pair of these unusual speakers at a great price. After initially underpowering them, I paired them up with a more powerful amp (120Wx2). When compared to my JMLab Chorus 707's and Vienna Acoustics Haydn's, the Alon's fell clearly short in high-end response. Lower end was noticeably enjoyable, but the overall experience was lacking. I had hoped to keep them as conversation pieces, but I can't justify the investment. I was not impressed.

Similar Products Used:

JMLab Chorus 707's and Vienna Acoustics Haydn's.

Extraordinary value for money, airy mids and highs, holographic performance, lows that you can live with, g

upgradability ! The manufacturer nver answers your emails

For me it is simple. Can I close my eyes and feel that the band or the singer is there ? Can I feel the emotions that the music delivers. I can live without a thundering bass, but I need airy and detailled mids and highs, it is my bread and butter. I was looking for a pair of intermdeidary speakers while waiting for my Merlin VSM's to arrive when I bumped into these speakers, that I did not even know existed ! They were sitting in a corner, covered with dust, but when I heard them, it was love at first listen. In fact, these intermdeiary speakers are going to stay alot longer than I planned and will be in my living room with my 300 and 845 tube SET, however, this baby needs power and it will get plenty of that with the Manley 250 watt Neo Classic monoblocks. If you are on the market for a great speaker at a great price, give the Alon I Mk II a listen, you may keep it for a long long time.... Happy Listening and always enjoy the music...

Similar Products Used:

Silveline Audio Sonata, Merlin VSM, VMPS RM-40, Galante Symphony, Tyler Linbrook Signature, Sonus Faber Amati, Jean Maurer

Transparency, imaging.

A bit lean overall

I passed over the Alon's in my quest for new speakers in the $1-2k range because of the open baffle design, but when persuaded to audition them, they had the opportunity to change my mind.

These are undoubtedly the cleanest, clearest speakers I have ever heard. Voices, cymbals, drums, and everything in the recording is clearly separated in space, and easily localizable. Comparing the PSB Stratus Bronze to the Alon I's side-by-side, the Bronze sounded muddled and confused. I'm telling you, the Alon's throw a huge, expansive soundstage like nothing I've heard before.

OK, so what didn't I like about them? Overall, they sound a bit lean. Don't get me wrong - the bass is there, and tight and tuneful too! It just doesn't go terribly deep (~40Hz?), and paired against a stunning midrange, the overall package comes across a tad lean. I think the best analogy I can give is: imagine the Alon I's as a good pair of open headphones, and you'll have a pretty good sense of how they sound.

I unreservedly recommend this speaker for people who listen to vocals, jazz, chamber music, and general symphonic pieces. They won't find anything close at this price. But for those building a home theater system, listening to contemporary music, and or just want to party, these are not really ideal.

I'd give them 4.5 stars if I could....

Associated equipment:
Sonic Frontiers TransDAC
Acurus L-10
Parasound HCA-1000A
Canare audio interconnects and speaker cables
My 12'x17'x8' living room (home audition)

Similar Products Used:

PSB Stratus Bronze

soundstage, clarity

anything below 40Hz

I bought these speakers used, after having auditioned them thouroughly in the shop. It subsequently still is a surprise, of course, how they are going to sound with your own equipment. Suffice to say, I was not disappointed. These speakers are truly amazing when it comes to fine detail and transparency. You end up rediscovering your whole cd-collection, and yes, you notice musicians breathe or shuffling up the stage. It makes the music so much more life-like in every way. The KEF's in comparison are flat and seem to overfocus on the (still muddled) midrange. To be fair, though, the KEF's were only about $400,- new. As was pointed out in other reviews, subwoofer-like thunderous base is absent, but that tends to enhance listening fatigue anyway.

Similar Products Used:

KEF K140

Holographic imaging, liquid bass, transparent midrange

Missing a little top-end sparkle, demanding load

This is a review update. After living with the Alons for
several years, I'd like to point out some additional observations.

(1) The bass performance is, like everything else, dependent
on room placement. I just moved them to face the side of the room and got a lot more bass re-enforcement. Not too
much, but defintely a richer experience.

(2) Wow, the holography is marvelous. I still listen to new recordings and stuff comes from the sides and behind me. Better yet I can verify in soundtracks that the sounds are placed correctly in 3D space. This is not just an accoustic trick. Its so good its sometimes disconcerting.

(3) When listening to well-recorded movies I can actually detect different 3D soundfields. One soundfield belongs to the actual movie dialog and microphone placement and the background music is presented in a completely different 3D soundstage. Wonderful.

(4) Well recorded piano and vocal tracks are so wonderful that you will just want to lay back and listen all afternoon.

(5) Sometimes I find myself deperately wishing for the high-end sparkle of the Dunlavy SC-1, SM-1 series. I enjoy both
of these manufacturers. Dr. Dunlavy disagrees with the dipole radiator design, but I find it works very well.

I found mind used in Hawaii. Had them shipped to St. Louis. Will never regret that decision.

good luck,

jim burnes

Similar Products Used:

Dunlavy SC-1

Where to start?
With the proper combination of components and cabling, this speaker will elevate your audiophile recordings to levels unheard of at the $1600 price point.

The Alon I excels at tight, crisp, abundant bass and gorgeous holographic
imaging. One of my ultimate audio demo CD's has a choir performing
Festival Te Deum in a medievel church. The choir is in a loft 200 feet in
front of you and behind you is a huge pipe organ. Once my system warms
up you can hear the organ pipes playing 50 feet over and *behind* you.
I also listen to Jazz on it and Diana Krall's recording "Love Scenes" is
absolutely a joy to behold. I recommend you go out and buy this CD right
now if you have a nice stereo or not. Put it on any cut (my favorite is
Garden in the Rain), sit back, relax and enjoy.

I must tell you that the Alon's are an "interesting load" for most
amps and don't really perform to their peak unless they are driven
by a high quality amplifier of 100 watts/ch(into 8) or more. Certainly I
would not try to drive them with any less than a strong 50 watt (into
8 ohms) amp. My original system was an Arcam Alpha 7 CD player (nice)
and an Arcam Alpha 8 preamp/amp. I really love the Alpha 8's rich
character, but it was just a little anemic to drive the Alon I's.

I purchased a BK Sonata EX442 power amp and used the Alpha 8 as
a preamp. The Ex442 is several hundred watts into 8 ohms of very
clean audiophile quality power. It actually preserves the character
of the Alpha 8 sonically. The result was a dramatic expansion in
the size and quality of the holographic sound stage. Breathtaking!

I also noticed that the Alon's are somewhat sensitive to cabling.
This is probably due to the change in inductance of the cable affecting
the load seen by the preamp/amp. An audiophile friend of mine brought over
some very expensive single-crystal copper wiring to biwire the Alon's and
it almost killed the holography. I replaced that very expensive cable
with some very good, but not exotic Tara Labs Prism Omni wire in bi-wire
mode and the results were as I've written above.

I might mention that speaker placement is fairly important. Since the
Alon I's tweeter radiates both in front and behind it likes a nice reflective
surface about 3 or 4 feet behind to bounce off of. I achieved the
best imaging with the Alon I's about 3 feet from the rear wall and 7
feet away from each other.

I picked up my Alon I Mark I's used for $700 for the pair and I'll never regret it.

Good luck to you.

Jim Burnes

Open, dynamic and well balanced

hard to drive. Need a good bit of power to make them sing

I have been looking for a step up to my home theater system for about a year. I took a listen to just about everything in the 1000-2000 range and just could not find anything I liked. I have a pair of SL-600's that run my main listening system and I wanted something for the home theater that would sound as good on stereo playback as what I can have when I sit down to listen to music. Long term I would like to have one system and the Alon's are helping me move in that direction.

In short the Alon 1 Mk II did the trick. Its a good speaker with wide dynamic range that sounds solid and open on female voice, jazz and acoustic material. With the right amp it can do rock and even rap with equal flair. Best of all it can do the movie thing. Clear clean and open is what I think of when I sit down to listen. Keep in mind this is not a speaker for a bass head. Its a mini monitor with a strong bottom end, but nothing that will shake the walls.

My only real complaint or observation is this is not a speaker for the faint of power. If you have a mid range reciever running your home theater like me you may not like the trade offs. Hooking these babies up to the main listening system and they rock and roll. Play a movie, or a decent sound track and as long as you keep the volume decent you'll be fine. You can't turn the volume up to 10 on a mid range reciever. By the time you get the SLP's your looking for your box will be clipping left and right.
With the proper power, 100 Watts at least, you'll have all you need with the Alon.

At this point I feel like I have the speakers I need for the next 10 years. Getting the rest of the system right will have to wait till I have the funds. I would tell anyone who wants the best of both worlds that the Alon can do it all.

Similar Products Used:

Monitor Audio, NHT, Paradigm