Planning to buy SF Ellipsa...any input?

i am thinking of mcintosh c500t with mc501 for the SF elipsa...any experts with any advice? thanks

Sounds great, I'm sure you'd love it. You may want to visit AudioAficionado.org and see if they can talk you into the new MC601 amp which everyone there can't say enough about....... be forewarned these guys are macfanatics LOL

Judging from the performance of Mac 402s with matching pre amp on my friends Sasha I think there are better choices. My MF NuVista integrated bested the Macs by a good margin. I would look at CJ, AR, Pass, Audia in that price range.

I checked the HIFICRITIC review; the amp they used for the test was a CJ 350, an amp I know well as I have one. An Ayre integrated also worked well. They found the sensitivity to be 91db so ultra high power would not be requited; in fact they said a 25 watt amp could be used if very high volumes were not wanted. It would take 300 watts of program material giving about 110db sound levels. It was a moderately difficult load but nothing like the Sasha in that respect. It was a very positive review and it remains in their top recommended speaker class.

thanks for your inputs. i should be getting the SF Ellipsa in the next few days..still cannot make-up my mind regarding the amp/pre. i presently have mac 402s with xrt28s and they sound magical. thus am biased to stay with Mac but maybe explore the tubes with the Ellipsa

In the August '07 issue of The Absolute Sound the reviewer used mainly MBL gear and was very impressed with the speakers performance.

McIntosh C2300 tube pre & MC452 amp (if you don't have room for monoblocks). Mc and Sf were menat for each other.

I heard Elipsa briefly recently driven by Devialet. The system had a beautiful, airy laidback quality. Very easy on the ear, perhaps not as transparent as my system and definately a little loose in the bass by comparison but well worth an audition.

Docash777
I have SF Elipsas. I used to drive them by plinius sb301, gamut di-150 integrated, plinius hiato, viva solista mk2, and tried also mcintosh mcd1100 cdp with mc452. They all had their own positives but I still wasn't happy with the sound, unitll I changed to krell 302E (latest) driven directly by ayon cd-5s. This combo brought the Elipsa's sound to the level I did not think even was possible. PM me for more info if you would like.