Sonus Faber Olympica 3 or Olympica Nova 2 ?


Hi music lovers and audiofiles, I am trying to upgrade my speakers from Sonus Faber Grand Piano to Olympica 3 or Olympica Nova 2. Because of the situation with Covit-19 I can’t audition them in stores right now. The dealer in Massachusetts who used to sell them just dropped Sonus Faber. It is very hard for me to find a place where I can go and listen to both at the same time. Olympica 3 is discontinued and some dealers don’t have them any more. The other reason I try to compare those two speakers is the price. You can get each for $7500 if you are lucky. Please help me to solve the dilemma I have right now. I don’t want to make a mistake and buy wrong ones. My new towers are going to be my last ones, I am getting older and sooner than later I will start to lose hearing.
Thanks, janosik

janosik
In your small room, the O 3's are almost certainly too much energy as there's just no way to get them out of the corner and side walls without them being in your lap.  I imagine the bass will be very boomy in your room.  An audio system design starts with the room and then to choose speakers to integrate well into that room.

I listened to a few SF speakers at two dealers in 2018.  For a short time, I had the Olympica 1 in my listening room and it had wonderful clarity and detail in the upper 5-6 octaves.  I was very impressed.  At the dealer, these easily outperformed the B&W and Dynaudio at the same size and price points with their spatial presentation.  As expected, the bottom two octaves were all but gone but I was a bit surprised the lower mids were somewhat lacking natural presence.  And my system is very much designed around getting the middle 6 or so octaves to be magic.  Perhaps the O II would fill in that lower frequency coverage without overpowering your room with bass energy.

Ultimately I bought the Amati Futura.  These speakers are insanely picky about amplifiers just to drive the woofers to their performance capability.  That was absolutely not the case with the O 1's.  And I imagine the O 2's will not be so demanding either.  But the 3's might be a similar amp issue as the Amati.  I would research the O 2....or the O1 with a nice subwoofer which is what a lot of Guarneri owners do and write in these forums about having great results.

And a final word on the amplifier here.  Don't spend your money on these speakers if you are just going to throw a cheap amp in the mix.  Expect to pay $3-5k on the used market for a solid state amp with serious current drive.  It is not about specified power ratings.....it is about current drive capability.
Hi guys,
today was a nice day in south east Mas. I called a few people (I mean dealers) and I have gotten a quote for O Nova 2 for $7500,
not bed. Somebody suggested to check Tannoy, Fine. I don’t see these dealers in my area. Shipping staff beck in case I don’t like it can be expensive. I will stick with SF. Hi jafox, your post is very knowledgeable. I have a chance to move the speakers to bigger rooms 20x15. My amp is Yamaha as3000, it can dip down to 4 ohms.
Thank again guys, I will tell you what my choice is going to be.
Best.
 
Watch the utube video: " Is the Sonus Faber Nova olympica 2 speakers better than the Olumpica 2 "  by Audio Excellence Canada

This might be helpful!
Hi, can you net it down for me to a one or two sentence takeaway? Id appreciate it.