Dear all,
I am new to this forum and amazed about the knowledge you have about Sonus Faber. Here is my SF history. After many happy years with an Apogee Scintilla (the original 1 ohm Version) and a subsequent episode with Burmester 961 MK1s I realised a dream by buying the Amati Homage. Man what a speaker! It gave you everything, at least to me. Why did I have to change, well I moved and found myself with way too much bass energy and no solution. After some desperate considerations I gave up the AH and moved on to a pair of Guarneri Homage speakers. What a relief once the boomy base was gone (just to avoid any confusion, in the right room the bass of the AH is impeccable). However, the soundstaging didn't quite satisfy me and the search continued.
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Hello Anerol. Very interesting first post. I must say that I am very surprised that you say that when you owned the GH's, that the soundstaging didn't satisfy you. What size of room were you using the GH's in? Did you try various positions of the speaker in the room? I ask these questions, as it has certainly not been my experience with the GH's that they lack anything in the soundstaging dept. In fact, I would say that this is one of the speaker's many great strengths. I would even go as far as to say that the GH has a much better ability to throw a soundstage than the AH, even in larger rooms.
Hi Davey,
I am not at all surprised that you say that. The GH is a wonderful speaker and I miss it to some extent. Here more precisely a response to your question. My room is 4.8m x 4.9m and 2.4m high. It is almost as bad as it can get. Very similar resonances in all 3 dimensions. The rear wall behind the speakers is a top to bottom glass window. The floor is tiled with only one large carpet. Remember, I gave up on the AH due to too much bass.
When I measure the frequency response in the room I see up to minus 14 db in the range between 100hz to 160hz and a peak of plus 12 db around 40 to 60 hz. The only way to get this half way in order was an Accuphase DG48 and the fully adjustable Velodyne sub. I now have an almost flat response curve in this so imortant range.
While I had the GH I haven't had the same level of experience with these tools and probably gave up too early. The Minimas stand differently now than the GH did at the time. All this means that the Minimas have better conditions which explains some part of my conclusion.
One thing that always intrigued me were the very high stands of the GH. This may explain a bit why the GH sounds a little less "grounded" than other designs from SF. I spoke to a very experienced guy and technician about this who did say that these high stands might be owed to the design of the filters. A 6db xover procures that the transmission is directed slightly to the bottom. This makes sense since almost all other SF 2 way designs have a tilted front showing upwards. Even the AH has a tilted front for th midrange and tweeter. Dynaudio does the exact opposite, i.e. they put their two way designs on low stands and invert the chassis order.
Again I probably should have made some more testing with the GH than I did. However, the Minimas despite of all I just wrote are an amazing speaker who do things I have never heard anywhere else. And what they do appears right as so often in all SF designs.
I hope this explains a bit my room problems, research and solutions.
Anerol
Hello All – new to this forum and glad to have found it.
My Sonus Faber journey began with a pair of Electa Amators. I have very fond memories of them and their astonishing soundstage. They were replaced by Extremas, which I continue marvel at and use in my main system to this day. A recent system wide cable upgrade revealed that I’d not actually known the full capability of these extraordinary speakers. As a result of that experience and my fear that they would soon disappear from the marketplace, I bought a complete set of replacement drivers from Sumiko.
I’ve also a pair of Minuettos (wonderful!) in my office, as well as four (original - not "Home") Concertinos and a Solo center channel in my home theater. They all perform beautifully, especially with human voice.
Hello All – new to this forum and glad to have found it.
My Sonus Faber journey began with a pair of Electa Amators. I have very fond memories of them and their astonishing soundstage. They were replaced by Extremas, which I continue marvel at and use in my main system to this day. A recent system wide cable upgrade revealed that I’d not actually known the full capability of these extraordinary speakers. As a result of that experience and my fear that they would soon disappear from the marketplace, I bought a complete set of replacement drivers from Sumiko.
I’ve also a pair of Minuettos (wonderful!) in my office, as well as four (original - not "Home") Concertinos and a Solo center channel in my home theater. They all perform beautifully, especially with human voice.
what amplification are you using?
Hello All – new to this forum and glad to have found it.(...)
BEL 1001 Mk V amps - mono config - these are the best SS amps I've ever heard - miraculously neutral/transparent, adding nothing to the signal. Unfortunately, Richard Brown is no longer with us; he created a masterpiece.
BEL 1001 Mk V amps - mono config - these are the best SS amps I've ever heard - miraculously neutral/transparent, adding nothing to the signal. Unfortunately, Richard Brown is no longer with us; he created a masterpiece.
I used to have the same 1001 Mk V amps driving the Extremas and they are a great match. Some 6 months ago, I replaced the BEL amps with the Burmester 911 mono (together with the 808 preamp) and the Burmesters took the Extremas to another level (or several levels) higher. Just recently, I replaced the 911s with the Gryphon Mephisto amp and the Mephisto took the Extremas to an even higher level of performance. I found the Extremas work best with high quality class A amps.
Yes, me too I am a Sonus Faber fan. Amati Homage, Guarneri Homage and Minima, in that order. May sound strange but the smaller they get, the better they are. I once organised a pair of original Electa Amators for a friend. Yes, the Esotar version. I still regret I never owned them myself. They are probably the best AND the rarest. The smaller woofer midrange driver is likely to be quicker than the Extrema one.
I have moved on to a pair of Dynaudio Acoustics C2s. They are the first generation Dynaudio professional monitor speaker using also the Esotar one tweeter. I have had a large variety of speakers including the original Apogee Scintillas, for me these little Dynaudios respond to everything I expect from a home audio system.
The C2s have been sold for home use under the name Crafft. If you have the opportunity to hear them somewhere give it a try.
The Minimas are still with me with a set of replacement drivers in a safe place, you never know.
Another Mephisto owner!!! Congrats!
I heard the Sonus Faber Amati Futura yesterday. Absolutely gorgeous.
I am told the Electa Amators were part of the inspiration for Franco Serblin to do the Guarneri...and i have heard many people say their favorite is the Electa Amator. I know the owner of a major audio dealer here uses them at home, despite his ability to pretty much have almost anything he wanted.
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