Not only was the sound in the Larkspur Suite familiar, so were the speakers. The $80,000/pair Acapella High Violoncello IIs being demmed were the exact same pair that I had very favorably reviewed in the September issue of Stereophile. Amplification was all-Einstein, including The Tube preamp that Michael Fremer reviewed in October.

As I listened to the CD of Leonard Cohen's recent London concert, I noted that the speaker's top octaves in this large room were in perfect balance with the lower ranges. If you read my review, you will see that I conjectured that the speaker's balance would work better in rooms larger than mine, due to the horn-loaded ionic tweeter's elevated on-axis output being better balanced by its restricted dispersion in the same region. In a conversation I had at RMAF with Acapella's Hermann Winters, he explained that my experiments with padding down of the Acapella's active tweeter, to optimize its balance for smaller rooms, are now unnecessary, the attenuator used in current production having a greater range of adjustment.