Hi Myles...thanks...what did you think of the sound? I have spoken to someone off-line who heard D'Agostino Monos with ARC pre and Aidas. I just heard Momentum monos with XLF and ARC Ref 5SE last nite. Thanks for any impressions. Funny, btw, to see such small monos with such large speakers.
Hi, I was at Munich and personally, I felt that the room was just to big and crowded for me to make an accurate assessment of the sound, which, personally, on material I was not familiar with, was somewhat bright and strained from my admittedly bad listening spot. Since you are based in Hong Kong, just hop over to the HK Sonus-ARC dealer who gracefully allowed me to listen to the Aida all by myself using my burned Cd for over an hour though at the time it was "only" being driven by a Dsi 200 integrated that they were breaking in. That one on one encounter proved to me that the Aida has the Sonus DNA through and through but at a scale I've never heard before from any Sonus speaker.
To be honest, though, I felt that in Munich, the similarly priced and sized Focal Stella Utopia, a brand I've never been particularly fond of, gave a much better account of itself powered by Solution electronics and this I will attribute to the fact that the Stella was demoed in a regular room which it easily pressurized without strain.
Btw, your audition of the xlf was done at the Wilson dealer? Just wondering cuz isn't the D'Agostino brand carried by Excel where I heard them impressively drive the Serblin designed Ktema?
thanks for that...good to know. I just spoke with an industry veteran who said he thinks Aida is far more accomplished a speaker than the Sonus Faber which has some problems in coherence, particularly in the bass...all of which got resolved better in the Aida. As for Focals...i have gotten to know a guy who has Stella EMs with the new VAC Ref monos...and he has owned everything...he's happy. As for XLFs, heard a local dealer who worked with distributor to put system together based on other products they carry.
I heard the big SFs last weekend at someone's home with similar gear to mine (cj Art amp, cj Art pre, ARC Ref.2 phono, HRX/Benz LP, Nordost wiring) and didn't hear those coherency issues. Any issues I heard in the bass could attribute to the cartridge (Benz LP is a lovely cartridge but lacks low end), the ARC or the setup (eg he had the woofers on the inside). And actually the mids were really superlative on voices.
Oh, and suggested he Look into the SE mod for the phono section. ARC is so back logged on the updates that he has to wait until October to send his phono section back to bring it to SE status
Myles,
I have listened several times to the TheSonusFaber and I can also tell you it does not have any bass issues. It needs a much larger room than the Aida and some people will find it more analytical, but averaging both speakers I consider it superior if you have the needed ancillaries and the space - it also needs more power and loves tubes - the Art , the REF610/750 or similar are really needed.
The ARC REF phono2 is exemplary in bass handling. I have owned a Benz LP (original model) , and sold it because in my system it also lacked dynamics and articulation in the bass compared with the van den Hul Black Beauty - something that has not acceptable with the big Sound Labs that are also somewhat fat in the bass.
What cables were being used in this setup?
Myles,
Any chance you could offer your impressions of The Sonus Faber as compared to the Alexandria series 2?
Thanks
Microstrip?Myles,
Any chance you could offer your impressions of The Sonus Faber as compared to the Alexandria series 2?
Thanks
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