Silverline Sonata II or III owners

Interesting questions. I'm interested in the recommendations for speakers and description of “boxy coloration" in the midrange also.

Brm1:I have owned both and sold both, their are better speakers for the money.MHO.

Would you be kind enough to summarise your listening experience, ie, which speaker(s) did you find to be better values in this price range?

I don't agree with Oz or Mike. But of course it is all personal. I have the Sonata III's and love them. I have tubes and perhaps Oz & Mike have ss. I am not local to you but I am to Silverline. I met Alan at his shop and had a most pleasurable experience. I brought in the speakers I had at the time and set them up side by side. He had a driver that was in my Meadowlarks and showed me the difference between the Dynaudio he uses and whatever Meadowlark used, can't remember. Big difference, even to an uneducated observer like myself. Good luck.

The sound I am talking about was first heard on jazz guitar, and I am guessing here, around 500-800 Hz. I can tell you the first thing I heard it on was Russell Malone's guitar on a Diana Krall disc. The sound was smeared and had a "cupped hands" tone. To verify what I was hearing I brought my Polk Monitor 7s into the system and the guitar was crystal clear and articluate. I tried moving the speakers all around the room, thinking I was exciting a room mode, but I could never get rid of it. I heard it on some tracks on the Knopfler disc "Sailing to Philadelphia" too. Just a closed in type of sound. Now some recordings sounded pretty damn good, especially large scale stuff. But once I heard this shortcoming, I couldn't get beyond it.

Oz

Bill - I live in St. Louis, but just recently sold my Sonata II's to a fellow Goner in Texas. My experience was different than Ozzy's in that bass response was not heavy, but rather, somewhat tame for a speaker of it's size. Overall, I was pleased with the Sonata II, especially when paired with the right combo, which, in my case, I had the best results was when it was paired with a Pathos Twin Towers Ref. integrated amp. This is one of those synergistic combos that I may end up regretting moving away from (have since gone to monitors and a lesser integrated... working on getting a sub to flesh out the sound).

The speaker excels in transparency and casts a wide soundstage. Ideal with Jazz, female vocals (Diana Krall), acoustic, and orchestral. A little weak in the bass department, and is lacking chest pounding dynamics, therefore I can not recommended the Sonata II for rock or metal.

Works best with moderately powered SET amps or beefy tube amps (I heard it's good with Rogue 150 monoblocks).

I recommend getting Sound Anchor bases if you have kids, as I found them somewhat unstable with only the factory floor spikes. Overall a very good value on the used market @ approx. $2,500.