Best Amp/Preamp for Sonus Faber Concertino-Please

I have a pair of concerto homes (same crossover and crossover point as the concertinos). I've found that these sound very good with a wide variety of electronics- but one thing I've always done is used with good, neutral sounding cables to maintain the characteristics that I enjoy about the SF's. Also, a decent integrated amp such as the Musical Fidelity or the Arcam is a good choice for a small little music system.

I would also agree with Twylie- I've auditioned both the concertos and the concertinos, and much prefer the concertos. I've also auditioned extensively the revel m20's, the small Joseph's, the Theil 1.5's, Dynaudio's, B&W's, and the Epos M12's. I think for my personal taste, the SF's concertos are the most musical in the sub $2000 range. They may not be the most dynamic or have amazing specs, but they allow me to just sit and enjoy music for hours.

Also, be sure to have a good source- ones that I like are the Rega Planet, or if you can step up, the Linn Genki, Arcam FMJ, or Rega Jupiter. And if you're into analog, I think my 15 year old Rega TT with an old cheapo grado cartridge sounds absolutely wonderful with my SF's!

I once owned Concertinos and had a nice time running them with a Simaudio Moon I-5.

Any reasonably well designed amp/pre-amps would drive the Concertinos nicely. The key is in fine tuning the type of sound to your liking by choosing the right type of cablings and treating your listening environment appropriately.

I'm assuming that you are going to be pre/amp shopping in roughly the same price range as the Concertinos... my thoughts... Consider the Concertos if you like the SF sound. If you are willing to buy used/demo, they can be had for a very small premium over the Concertinos and I thought the difference was worth paying for. I have used the Concertos with c-j (PV-11), passive, and Classe (DR-5) pres; also a combination of Classe (DR-10) and Krell (KSA-80B) amps. I found that a solid state amp was a good match for these speakers in that they have decent bass extension for their size but need a high current amp to control the woffer adequately. You might look into a Parasound if you're on a tight budget. All of the Pre's worked well, btu the c-j tube sound is along the same lines as the SF, so you can potentially get a softening of the sound and lack of detail. Cables are also critical, I found that Transparent mates very well with the equipment above and the SF's. I am in a 10'x14' room w/ 8' ceilings and the room is well dampened. Listening position in close to nearfield and the sound is outstanding given the cost of the system. My 2 cents... try some used high current solid state amps and find a very neutral preamp. Good luck and happy listening.

With reference to the previous comment. I dont' consider the Aeriel 8 and the Concertino to be in the same shopping league. I owned a pair of Aerial 7 (original) for 4 years and they are wonderful speakers. However, used Aeriels might be a good option to consider.
-twylie

For what it is worth, I just auditioned both the Sonus Faber and Aerial 8's last week. The Aerials won out by many miles.