I owned the original Tablette and currently own both the SF Minuetto (15ish yrs and counting) and the Cremona. The latter SF is not precisely a matched pair in vintage, size, price or bandwidth, but the Minuetto and Tablette are good matches, albeit older.
First off, the SF sound has changed as per Doron's post. Still warm, but the current models balance the warmth with more energy in the presence region. Bottom Line, older SF comes across as a much warmer sounding speaker than the more forward sounding current models.
The Tablette was awful as far as octave to octave balance. Extended, nearly SOTA tweeter mated to a mid bass unit which offered little output below app 70hz. The speaker offered the best imaging I've ever heard - even 25ish years later. However, it screamed out for a sub, I could never get one to match well, and eventually sold the pair.
A good friend owned much more recent vintage ProAc monitors (SC-1?) which I heard 2-3 times weekly for 3 or 4 years (I spent too much time there) up until he left town in '05. From that experience, I can tell you that these ProAcs are much more reasonably balanced than the original Tablettes. Overall, my sense is they are probably a bit more neutral than current SFs and significantly more detailed in their presentation.
I'd agree with the general theme from many of the posts here - ProAc barks up the "audiophile tree" more than SF. However, the SFs are unfailingly musical, look beautiful, and - in their current iteration - come much closer to the purist esthetic, but not as close as ProAc.
Good Luck,
Marty
First off, the SF sound has changed as per Doron's post. Still warm, but the current models balance the warmth with more energy in the presence region. Bottom Line, older SF comes across as a much warmer sounding speaker than the more forward sounding current models.
The Tablette was awful as far as octave to octave balance. Extended, nearly SOTA tweeter mated to a mid bass unit which offered little output below app 70hz. The speaker offered the best imaging I've ever heard - even 25ish years later. However, it screamed out for a sub, I could never get one to match well, and eventually sold the pair.
A good friend owned much more recent vintage ProAc monitors (SC-1?) which I heard 2-3 times weekly for 3 or 4 years (I spent too much time there) up until he left town in '05. From that experience, I can tell you that these ProAcs are much more reasonably balanced than the original Tablettes. Overall, my sense is they are probably a bit more neutral than current SFs and significantly more detailed in their presentation.
I'd agree with the general theme from many of the posts here - ProAc barks up the "audiophile tree" more than SF. However, the SFs are unfailingly musical, look beautiful, and - in their current iteration - come much closer to the purist esthetic, but not as close as ProAc.
Good Luck,
Marty