Help=Vienna Beethoven&Sonus Faber GP

Sounds like you're wanting the Grand Piano. I say, try both in your home if at all possible. I hope you have at least minimal room treatments. You should consider the Paragon Acoustics Radiant, a much better value at $2850. www.paragonacoustics.com

Hi, I have the Vienna Acoustics Mozarts and am preparing to upgrade myself. My room is a too large for the Mozarts to produce enough authoritative bass response to fill it adequately. I have heard the V A line and am very impressed with Beethoven's. If you call Sumiko in Calif. they can give you some very specific info on the new design the Beethoven speakers underwent recently. The Bee's produced the smooth midrange I enjoy so much with the Mozarts and cross just right with the higher freqencies. I think they did an excellent job with the crossover in these speakers. The Bee's lower octave response was dynamic and decisive. They need more power to drive them to their fullest as they present a more differcult load. If I had to pick at a negative it would be the woof to mid XO point. I was told the speakers needed to be broken in a while longer. The imaging was a bit clouded at some of the lower transient passages. Really only detctable with critical listening and only on certain tracks. I have just heard the Sonus Farber Electa Amator II but not the G P's. These monitors put out a hell of a soundstage. I was surprised at the depth and width produced considering the size room I was in at the time. If you ever get the chance, give a listen to the Mahlers, those are my pipe dreams, Good Luck...........

I have heard many of the Vienna Acoustics models and some of the Sonus Faber models in an excellent environment with good electronics, (Harvey Audio NYC). They both have the ability to involve you in the music and they both have shortcomings. To generalize the Viennas' have a bigger soundstage and the Sonus Faber more detail. It is dificult to compare speakers with so many uncontrolled factors. I was fortunate to be able to listen to both brands for over two hours in one sitting and for many other shorter sessions. I found that the Sonus Fabers seem more robust on first listening but that the Viennas' were much less fatigueing in the long run. If you like the Grand Pianos I suggest that you try the Ariel Acoustics Model 6 or the B&W 805s' with a REL sub before you lay out the cash. Good luck. Let us know how things work out.