Kharma Midi vs. Sonus Faber Stradivari Amati

*I would definitely choose Stradivari over Amati.

*"Musical" presentation: difficult point. What do you mean by "musical"?
IF, on the warm side of neutral, yes the Strads could be that vs the Kharma -- remember the drive units on the Kharma are hard-coned (ceramic) while the Strads' Audio technology & Scans are softer-coned. In theory, the Kharma unit should distort less than the Strad unit; in practise the Strad's drive unit is excellent... In theory, the Kharma should be somewhat more detailed and strident. In practise it sounds just fine and the Strad reproduces just as much detail...

Really, Treemed, if you like the Strads just go for it. If you wait too long, you'll find another rare review for another rave product printed soon :^) Even more confusing!
Cheers

did you listen the Anniversarios

Yes -- but only briefly at a dealer. Powered by YBA Passion (the small stereo).
They seemed to have a leaner lower midrange than their homage brothers (i.e. truer, more realistic -- I don't mean lacking). Also seemed to be more extended on either end of the spectrum (esp. low end) with more articulation. The mid driver is probably a Audio technology & the tweet a Scan; the homage have a scan mid & vifa tweet, I think.

It looks very good, as you'd expect. I listened to classical on it.

Brani, old sport, if I ever buy SF I promise I will favour the Anni over the Strads:^)
"Briefly at a dealers" -- you are correctly assuming that it's too short to judge. But, you see, the dealer's room is excellent (with acoustic treatment) & I spent a very pleasant Sat a/noon listening to music, talking, laughing and drinking (of course). That's "briefly".

But seriously, I listen to orchestral music. "Large" orchs count 120-160 people. Add choir sometimes. Hence, I would opt for a spkr that at least tries to simulate the sheer volume involved. BUT IF I listened primarily to jazz, blues, small ensembles (just to name a few options I personally like) I would NOT buy the "bigger" spkr -- even if it played "my" music 5% better than a smaller and/or cheaper alternative. It's not worth it for me. Of course I may have found it played preferred music "better". Deal!

I'm not suggesting you did that; I'm just relating what I would do and, thereby, why I say what I do.
Maybe I'm too old to have much pride of ownership in these matters:). Cheers

Did you listen to old Amati or new Amati Anniversario, and was it in the same room where you heard Stradivari

The new model and the same room. Actually didn't find the Anni particularly fussy to set up. The Strads were a bit more complicated to set up(for me at least). Whenever I got the midbass coupling right, my upper mids-tweet would be out of focus; when I got the tweet + bass units coupling, my midbass was off... etc:^)

Kops: dunno about break/burn in. The spkrs I listened to weren't out of a box -- but as you say, maybe they needed more time? They sounded very good to me, in any case.

Why the Strads: because I often listen to large orchestral pieces and the Strad reproduced these with more ease, i.e. more palpably. But that's just me & my musical tastes.
Cheers

Actually I've to listened the Strads (alone) on a few occasions lately.

Generally speaking please note that WE have to place/"integrate" the two spkrs correctly, it's not really the spkrs that "integrate" (for well designed products of course).
Now the tricky thing was: I found a reasonable position fm the back wall (just listening to musical bass freq) and used the usual fibonacci to indicate "optimum" distance fm side walls. Fine. THEN the fun started: ONE speaker (left as it happens) remained in place after we tried mono signal and simply decided that left sounded better than right. THEN, I started moving the other spkr closer (by Generally speaking again, since we're dealing with an aural "pyramid" (reference to visual pyramids in renaissance painting; think of viewfinder focus in older cameras), hi-liting a freq on the right channel can make s/thing on the left channel stand out. If your bass is "insufficient" it may be that you need more OR that the upper-mid is TOO prominent...
If your image swerves toward the left channel, touch the right spkrs and of that doesn't work, try corecting the left spkr (amazingly, moving it forward sometimes)...

Coming back to the Strads, it just a matter of getting used to the wider than usual baffle in "marrying" the two spkrs.

Cheers

Branimir I can well imagine a small room w/out treatment would invariably excacerbate those Audio technology units the Strads are using. Even with treatment, one probably wouldn't be able to keep the spkrs spaced out enough to clear the sound...

As to what I'm using at the moment:
Spkrs: I have Genesis, open baffle (2way+1), & single driver spkrs (i.e. 3pairs). All of these are paired to separately powered bass/low-bass units ("+1"). I use 1 Bass unit per channel, open baffle, two drive units/channel. The Genesis have their own servo units & bass amp.
I use no real "sub" woofer, I cut @ ~25 Hz.

-Amps: main amp is a Symphonic Line class A"Kraft" Stereo. For the lower freq (i.e. to ~80Hz) I use a stereo Vincent something or other 150/channel (cheapo) or an old Pass (expensive and on loan).
-No preamp: I use a transformer volume control (Stevens & Billington) and relay source switching.
-Phono (Riaa) is a big Clearaudio, can't remember what they call it.
-Cdp: a Symphonic Line "Reference"
-Analogue: Simon Yorke TT/Pluto arm, Clearaudio Discovery and old Ortofon 3000 cartridges.
-Old analogue Nad tuner.
-Multiplayer: a Philips 963 modded
-Stands, bases, supports, wires, are all made by me. Alternative wires are Nordost "Valhalla" (spkr & IC) and a "Valkyrie" or s/thing, IC.
BTW, the room is reasonably sized @ ~45m2.
Cheers!

Larryi sez

(Having) heard Kharma speakers in two home systems (the result was) a strange combination of dry, antiseptic sound and dynamic lifelessness

Actually, my experience in a nutshell with all but the "Grand" with the diamond THiel & partner whistle on it. This one excelled: music for spectrum analysers.

I'm sure there's more to these spkrs than this. But the sound was uncannily like what Larryi notes above.