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For Past & Present Sonus Faber Stradivari Owners

I have narrowed down my search for my ultimate speakers down to two. (By ultimate, I mean I am hoping these are the last speakers I buy.)

My first choice is the Rockport Antares speakers, which I have heard many times at my friend's house. (They are an amazing pair of speakers, IMHO.) If these were to show up for a price I could afford, (used, of course), they would be my first choice. However, since they very rarely show up used, I am making a contingency plan in case I never see a pair (which is likely), or they are not in my price range (very likely), and, my second choice shows up for a price I can afford. My second choice is the aforementioned Sonus Faber Stradivari speakers. These show up on Audiogon every month, so I imagine that at some point, I would be able to afford a pair. (I am hoping to get a pair for (just) under $20K, which I have seen just a couple of months ago, and as time goes on, the price can only drop - At least I hope so!!)

I have heard the Stradivari speakers at CES (last year) and they were incredible. In addition, I have heard them at my favorite dealers show room. (And, no, I did not officially audition them @ the dealer, but since they were being played, I took advantage of the situation. It does not feel honest, to me anyway, to take advantage of my dealer by doing an official audition, since I have no plans on buying from him.) Anyway, I have not heard these speakers with my amplifiers (unlike the Antares, as my friend has similar Lamm amps as I have), nor have I heard them for any extended period of time. Therefore, I would like to ask you Stradivari owners, a few questions:

First, what amplification did you use?
I currently have (and absolutely love), the Lamm M2.1 hybrid monoblocks. These have 200 wpc, and I feel would be a pretty good match for the Stradivari. (FYI, I have tube rolled some Amperex pinched waist 6922s for the stock Sovtek tubes, which has raised the level of sonics of the Lamms to a higher degree, and it has removed any trace of the darkness that they may have had.)
Do you think 200 wpc will be sufficient to get good, tight bass response? (I would assume so, given the spec's: 4 ohm impedance and 92 db sensitivity). The Antares have identical spec's to the Stradivari, and so since my friend's amps work great with those, I believe mine will work great with these.
Anybody used the Lamm hybrids with the Stradivari?

Second, how far from the walls were your speakers? I will be using these in my living room, which is fairly large (16' x 24') and the speakers will be on the long wall. I can put them so the backs of the speakers will be two+ feet from the front wall, (three feet from the wall to the face of the speaker, give or take), and they will be seven to eight feet from the side walls, (so that there will be eight to nine feet between the speakers). My listening position will be about eleven feet from the speakers, and there will be a couple of feet behind my listening position.)
Any thoughts?
Too close, not enough?
(Bringing them out into the room more would be problematic, due to the WAF.)

Third, (and this is for you ex-owners of the Stradivari speakers), why are you no longer a user of them?
Are they too Colored?
Or, not full range enough?
Perhaps, you grew tired of the looks?
Or, you just wanted something different?
Or, Fill in the blank! :-)

Well, thanks in advance for any help you can offer a (probably) soon to be fellow Stradivari owner. (Well, unless you talk me out of it!)
kurt_tank
the_smokester
174 posts
 
Well, since no one else has replied I will although not directly to the point. I heard the Strad's driven by a pair of Air Tight ATM-211 SET monoblocks with 22 wpc. One of the best systems I have heard. Plenty of precise, yet full, rich bass.

I also covet the Strad's
gregm
3,405 posts
 
I heard the Strads several times -- but only driven by the same ss amplification (yba passion).

Medium sized room (¬350 or 35m2). Generalising: Nice sound, on the polite side, not aggressive, not lacking in upper mids & his (i.e. much of what we call "detail"). Not dynamic as a horn, say, nor able to reproduce live recordings. Not an energy guzzler asaik, so 50-100W should be ample. Does play music pleasantly down to ~40Hz in the surroundings I heard them.
Note that the Strads, being open baffle, produce an "airy" sonic effect and require room behind them -- say 3' or more. The best result in a 15x22 room was with ~6' between the 2 spkrs (woof centres). Side reflections will be no problem in your surroundings which is an extra plus. They look surprisingly good in a home surrounding, so don't give up hope on the waf issue! Regards
larryi
3,982 posts
 
A friend has Strads in a room that I would guess is about 16' x 25'. This is however, a dedicated, custom-built, Rives-designed room. These speakers sound very good. I would call them well-rounded speakers that can do everything right and sound good with all kinds of music, but it will not "astonish" listeners with any one particular arresting quality. It is NOT lightning fast, dynamic or have the presence of a good horn systems, it does NOT thump away with big bass (like the Wilson MAXX), and it doesn't quite do the "fill-the-room-with-sound" trick that very large panel speakers do so well. But, it has few faults, serves the music well and seems to be reasonably easy to drive (the owner uses a 30-watt OTL).

By the way, while the speaker has a very large front baffle, it is NOT an open baffle speaker. It does have rear ports, but other than that, it is not particularly sensitive to placement (like almost all good speakers, they do benefit from being off the back wall as much as possible).
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