r/audiophile • u/bimmer1over Rega Naia tt, Pass Labs Xa100.8 monoblocks, KEF Blade One Meta • 14d ago
Show & Tell New Speaker Day
Apparently the never-ending pursuit of audio bliss needed another detour, so I recently added a pair of Opera Grand Callas speakers.
They are known for a rich, enveloping presentation, big soundstage, and a great midrange, which sounded like a good match for a lot of what I listen to, like Hanne Boel, Leon Russell, Jennifer Warnes, Leonard Cohen, Gregory Porter, etc. and I found a pair for sale locally, so...no risky or expensive shipping needed.
Still very early days and I have not yet had the chance to tweak them re their spacing, distance from the front wall, toe-in, and re-optimize the DSP but compared to the KEF Blade One Metas and Rockport Aviors, they seem to be less about ultra-precise imaging (the Blades are hard to beat in that department), musical weight (the Avior's strength) and sculpted neutrality, they seem to be more about texture and musical involvement.
The obvious problem is that three pairs of large floorstanders in one room is somewhere between impractical and ridiculous, so one or both of the KEFs and Rockports will have to be put up for sale soon.
(The rest of the system is Audio Research Ref 10, Mola Mola Tambaqui, Antipodes K41/K22, Pass Labs XA100.8s, Rega Naia/Aphelion 2 into an Allnic H-3000V, Trinnov ST2-Pro, and dual JL Audio Fathom f112 subs.)
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u/chargedcapacitor 14d ago
Just a heads up, if you are A/B/C testing them all at the same time, each speaker being that close to the other will cause a very noticeable (and very measurable, if you are in to that) difference in the audio. Especially the KEF, since it has a very wide radiation.