June 7, 2014 by Michael

Newport 2014. Acapella, EmmLabs, HRS

This was the forth room I visited with the big Canon camera and was featuring the Acapella Atlas speakers [the ones we had in our livingroom], our EmmLabs XDS1 CD / SACD player, and the new Acapella LaMusika integrated amplifier. Cables were mostly Acapella cables [a Nordost ODIN power cord was on the EmmLabs player most of the time].

It was a rare treat for us to have the manufacturer, in this case Hermann Winters of Acapella, do room setup and play DJ. We have a tendency to point the speakers a little more straight ahead, less toed in, for a slightly less aggressive sound but we are always willing to learn new tricks. People liked the sound here very much based on their comments, smiles and thank yous, even when played at a volume well above what I traditionally prefer :-).

Hermann always plays a favorite song of his when the show ends, in this case a Michael Jackson tune, and at about 50% higher volume than he had it for the rest of the show. It was LOUD, and clean, and awesome. Loved It.

If people would just play my favorites, like Michael Jackson in this case, 50% louder than they play everything else – I think I would really like these shows a heckuva lot more than I do already 🙂

The room size was 14 feet 6 inches by 17 feet. The speakers worked quite well in this somewhat small room. Hermann had me sit in the chair in the near-field sweet spot for half an hour. About 6 feet in front of the speakers. Worked for me.

Standing against the back wall also worked. This was a room where everywhere had good sound, even if not THE sweet spot.

This is probably the most-asked question about these speakers: how big does the room have to be and are there any positioning constraints. Well they certainly worked in this room, and would work in smaller rooms with perhaps some more effort made on positioning. The Acapella speakers are not ported so positioning very near walls, either the front or sides, works just fine. By request, here is a photo from one of our showrooms in 2004 of the larger Triolon speakers only a few inches from the wall [I remember it being about 6].