Sonus Faber Stradivari ....

[Macattack]

Just to add another view on this, my Strads are placed 3 feet out from back wall and 2 feet from side walls in a 13x24 ft room without any specific room treatments and bass is just tight and fine. Though I have all my equipment on Ansuz Acoustics Darkz DTC which is a big reason for the in room results. But, consider amplifiers that can give good support in the 2,5-3 ohm area.

Mike

Every room is different. I too have my Strads about 3’ from the back wall. The low end is too wooly and I have chosen to use Subs to play the lowest octaves and plugged the Strads. Far better low end.

If I could pull them out further, I believe they might be fine on their own. That is why I suggested with flexibility in placement, they would work in the OP’s room. Without flexibility, I would have said to be prepared to use subs and leverage their placement flexibility.

The rear port of the Strads needs to be placed perfectly in a given room to offer the optimal low end.

 

[1kw]

I love my Strads, they are my forever speakers

 

[LL21]

I love my Strads, they are my forever speakers

Beautiful set up! I am curious as to why you removed the spikes from the speakers and instead lay them flat on the floor without any rake. Did you remove them for sound quality or because you did not want spikes on the floor?

 

[1kw]

Very nice observation. I just moved into this house (just had the built in made) so I am still playing around with the location of the speakers. I need to put some bass traps in and then I will spike them.

 

[LL21]

Well...I used to own them so I had a little bit more insight than most. Enjoy. They are magical speakers. They and the SF Guarneris (also owned) are 2 of my favorites.

 

[Big Dog RJ]

Attn: 1kw

Nice one there mate! Matched with McIntosh gear, a fine combination.
BTW what's the line up of mac gear there:
Preamp?
Are those the mc601 monoblocks? What's the big fella at the bottom? Looks like an older mc301... can't say.
Noticed a Michell Gyro-deck... love it!
What's the cartridge on the gyro deck? Cables and accessories?

The SF strads... one of the damn sexiest speakers on the planet! Stunningly gorgeous finish, with a very high waf! My wifey loved those! Now, she thinks the CLX's look like a huge mosquito trapping fly mesh... whatever.

Fantastic mate, enjoy those fine tunes!
Woof! RJ

 

[1kw]

Attn: 1kw

Nice one there mate! Matched with McIntosh gear, a fine combination.
BTW what's the line up of mac gear there:
Preamp?
Are those the mc601 monoblocks? What's the big fella at the bottom? Looks like an older mc301... can't say.
Noticed a Michell Gyro-deck... love it!
What's the cartridge on the gyro deck? Cables and accessories?

The SF strads... one of the damn sexiest speakers on the planet! Stunningly gorgeous finish, with a very high waf! My wifey loved those! Now, she thinks the CLX's look like a huge mosquito trapping fly mesh... whatever.

Fantastic mate, enjoy those fine tunes!
Woof! RJ

Nice to meet you big dog, the pre amp is a Mcintosh C2300 with gold lion tubes, the mono blocks are MC501’s . I purchased everything new even though they are from around 2009 they sound wonderful. The Gyro SE has a SME 309 tone arm with a shelter 501 mk II MC cartridge. Cable IC are wire world silver eclipse balanced between the components and wire world USB cable from the computer to the PS Audio DIrectstream DAC (software upgrades come out every year so the DAC stays current ) .

 

[1kw]

Well...I used to own them so I had a little bit more insight than most. Enjoy. They are magical speakers. They and the SF Guarneris (also owned) are 2 of my favorites.

LL21 funny you should mention the SF Guarneri Memmentos which I have in my theater room. I am waiting for the the my JL Audio F112 subwoofer to arrive on Thursday and the MX 100 Processor which will go above my C2300 in the built in.

 

[1kw]

Attn: 1kw

Nice one there mate! Matched with McIntosh gear, a fine combination.
BTW what's the line up of mac gear there:
Preamp?
Are those the mc601 monoblocks? What's the big fella at the bottom? Looks like an older mc301... can't say.
Noticed a Michell Gyro-deck... love it!
What's the cartridge on the gyro deck? Cables and accessories?

The SF strads... one of the damn sexiest speakers on the planet! Stunningly gorgeous finish, with a very high waf! My wifey loved those! Now, she thinks the CLX's look like a huge mosquito trapping fly mesh... whatever.

Fantastic mate, enjoy those fine tunes!
Woof! RJ

Oh the “big fellow on the bottom” as you mentioned is a brand new MC255 multi channel amplifier for the home theater room on the other side of the wall the built in is on. This way I don’t have distracting meter lights when I am watching a movie while still getting ton enjoy a nice Mcintosh stack when I am in my 2 channel room. I also have another sonos amp for the Atmos speakers in the ceiling in the media theater room so my wife can put music on in there with her sonos app or roon anytime she wants . The Mcintosh MX100 is supposed to arrive Tuesday which is only digital inputs and balanced analog out for the 7 channels and subwoofer output. Subwoofer is arriving Thursday and is a JL Audio F112 . I have an Apple Tv for streaming to the processor and a Oppo Blu-ray player for disks I have. I had a Cat 6 cable run between the 2 rooms and am using a HDMI balun on both ends for the TV and Apple TV rather than running a long HDMI cable.

 

[1kw]

Few more pictures of the media room, waiting for a rug and plantation shutters are ordered for the windows. The ceiling speakers are Triad Bronze amiable box speakers. The two in the front ceiling are Atmos and the pair in the back ceiling are rear surrounds all are aimed to the center of the sectional couch.

 

[LL21]

LL21 funny you should mention the SF Guarneri Memmentos which I have in my theater room. I am waiting for the the my JL Audio F112 subwoofer to arrive on Thursday and the MX 100 Processor which will go above my C2300 in the built in.

Ahaaa...what a great speaker. Had the originals, myself. And used them a Velodyne DD18! Have since upgraded to the DD18+ and still use it today at much lower crossover with the XLFs.

What a great combo you have there!

 

[Bernhard]

Hi,

I am looking for Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage (not the G2 ones from now), but the series built until ~2015, or preferable one of the later 35th anniversary edition from 2019. I was wondering if you could help me with an estimate of a fair price for those. I am from Austria, so I am looking for offers in Europe and EUR preferably.

There is one pair (Nr. 30) on offer in Kroatia for some time now for 23.000,- EUR, but I have not seen any other prices for a 35th anniversary edition. Where the prices for the regular series before that is rather straight forward, I feel the same can't be said for th 35th anniversary edition as techically it's identical speakers of the regular series before and the originally published sales price is basically an artificially raised price due to limited edition series.

A dealer claimed that they actually hardly were not sold for that price though (and that he sold a pair for 15.000 EUR new). People offering them of course refer to that official price pof 45k as reference. So now I wonder what's actually a decent, fair price for a pair of the 35th anniversary edition sold now in 2024?

To me they are basically worth the price of the original series now going between 8.000 to 15.000 EUR depending on date and condition, plus a small premium because the 35th anniversary is a few years younger. I am not really prepared to pay a huge premium for the artificial "limited editon" fact.

Maybe some of you could let me know what you paid for them when you bought them back in ~2019, or if you have seen successfull sales in recent years, so I can get an idea?

best regards,
Bernhard

 

[1kw]

Hi,

I am looking for Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage (not the G2 ones from now), but the series built until ~2015, or preferable one of the later 35th anniversary edition from 2019. I was wondering if you could help me with an estimate of a fair price for those. I am from Austria, so I am looking for offers in Europe and EUR preferably.

There is one pair (Nr. 30) on offer in Kroatia for some time now for 23.000,- EUR, but I have not seen any other prices for a 35th anniversary edition. Where the prices for the regular series before that is rather straight forward, I feel the same can't be said for th 35th anniversary edition as techically it's identical speakers of the regular series before and the originally published sales price is basically an artificially raised price due to limited edition series.

A dealer claimed that they actually hardly were not sold for that price though (and that he sold a pair for 15.000 EUR new). People offering them of course refer to that official price pof 45k as reference. So now I wonder what's actually a decent, fair price for a pair of the 35th anniversary edition sold now in 2024?

To me they are basically worth the price of the original series now going between 8.000 to 15.000 EUR depending on date and condition, plus a small premium because the 35th anniversary is a few years younger. I am not really prepared to pay a huge premium for the artificial "limited editon" fact.

Maybe some of you could let me know what you paid for them when you bought them back in ~2019, or if you have seen successfull sales in recent years, so I can get an idea?

best regards,
Bernhard

Hi Bernhard,

I see on audiogon today there are two 35 pairs of the anniversary Strads for sale: one is asking $45,000 new in the box and a pre-owned pair is $27,000. As for older versions of the Strads. , the ones made when Franco still ran the company which are some of the most desired versions of the Stradivari because he was personally involved in tuning them. I would not be concerned of the older Strads not sounding fantastic or having decades more life in them . As for pricing, a few years ago you could buy mint condition used pairs in the USA for around $18,000-$20,000 )and 16-18k for ones with cosmetic issues. I am assuming you would want a pair in pristine condition so be prepared to pay in the 23k range with inflation everywhere. )

 

[Bernhard]

Hi Bernhard,

I see on audiogon today there are two 35 pairs of the anniversary Strads for sale: one is asking $45,000 new in the box and a pre-owned pair is $27,000. As for older versions of the Strads. , the ones made when Franco still ran the company which are some of the most desired versions of the Stradivari because he was personally involved in tuning them. I would not be concerned of the older Strads not sounding fantastic or having decades more life in them . As for pricing, a few years ago you could buy mint condition used pairs in the USA for around $18,000-$20,000 )and 16-18k for ones with cosmetic issues. I am assuming you would want a pair in pristine condition so be prepared to pay in the 23k range with inflation everywhere. )

Thx for your info!

I do hear that people refer to the original series being supervised by Franco Seblin.
On the other hand Sonus Faber confirmed to me in writing that there is no technical difference between the 35th anniversray edition compared to the original series other than the (limited) serial number batch and maybe color/finish.

I therefore expect the 35th anniversary edition to be the same as the series before until 2015 as far as sound characteristics go.

 

[Mikeeo]

Hi,

I am looking for Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage (not the G2 ones from now), but the series built until ~2015, or preferable one of the later 35th anniversary edition from 2019. I was wondering if you could help me with an estimate of a fair price for those. I am from Austria, so I am looking for offers in Europe and EUR preferably.

There is one pair (Nr. 30) on offer in Kroatia for some time now for 23.000,- EUR, but I have not seen any other prices for a 35th anniversary edition. Where the prices for the regular series before that is rather straight forward, I feel the same can't be said for th 35th anniversary edition as techically it's identical speakers of the regular series before and the originally published sales price is basically an artificially raised price due to limited edition series.

A dealer claimed that they actually hardly were not sold for that price though (and that he sold a pair for 15.000 EUR new). People offering them of course refer to that official price pof 45k as reference. So now I wonder what's actually a decent, fair price for a pair of the 35th anniversary edition sold now in 2024?

To me they are basically worth the price of the original series now going between 8.000 to 15.000 EUR depending on date and condition, plus a small premium because the 35th anniversary is a few years younger. I am not really prepared to pay a huge premium for the artificial "limited editon" fact.

Maybe some of you could let me know what you paid for them when you bought them back in ~2019, or if you have seen successfull sales in recent years, so I can get an idea?

best regards,
Bernhard

Hi Bernhard,

I saw the no 30 pair and I think that is as good as it goes when it comes to 35th anni. But as someone said, also pairs from the ordinary run should just be as good BUT, be aware that some later productions of Strads had other type of wood (cheaper) which can be seen from the more reddish darker color (org. and 35th anni are more burnt deep orange/red aka violin red) and they also do not sound as good.
Not sure, but I think that the 35th anni also have the same internal cabling that was released with the 25 pcs limited Palladio series.

Good hunting/M

 

[Bernhard]

Hi Bernhard,

I saw the no 30 pair and I think that is as good as it goes when it comes to 35th anni. But as someone said, also pairs from the ordinary run should just be as good BUT, be aware that some later productions of Strads had other type of wood (cheaper) which can be seen from the more reddish darker color (org. and 35th anni are more burnt deep orange/red aka violin red) and they also do not sound as good.
Not sure, but I think that the 35th anni also have the same internal cabling that was released with the 25 pcs limited Palladio series.

Good hunting/M

Hi Mikeeo,
thx for the info.
I actually was about to buy N°30, I had an appointment fixed tomorrow. But I cancelled due to discrepancies (of presented invoice and dealer)

There was "a regular" one offered in Switzerland, N° 850 (so that should make it one of the last of the regular series until 2015 I guess?) in dark red - which is completly different to the red violin. But Sonus Faber confirmed that this was one of the color options.
I would have expected that technically it should be the same though.

 

[Mikeeo]

Hi Mikeeo,
thx for the info.
I actually was about to buy N°30, I had an appointment fixed tomorrow. But I cancelled due to discrepancies (of presented invoice and dealer)

There was "a regular" one offered in Switzerland, N° 850 (so that should make it one of the last of the regular series until 2015 I guess?) in dark red - which is completly different to the red violin. But Sonus Faber confirmed that this was one of the color options.
I would have expected that technically it should be the same though.

Hi Bernhard, I have listened to the dark red and it was not the same. Would def go for, org violin red, 35 anni or Palladio.

M

 

[Bernhard]

very interesting, thx.