Sonus Faber Olympica 3 or Olympica Nova 2 ?

My 2 cents.

I have been an audio nut for over 50 years.

I bought a used pair of Olympica III’s recently. 1 small noticeable blemish on one speaker.

My living room is 17 x 23 feet with vaulted ceilings. Lots of windows on 2 walls to enjoy the mountain views. Open on one side to a kitchen and dining room except for a wall that extends 15 feet and does not go to the ceiling. The entire area is under the vaulted ceiling. The total area is 30 x 23 with a partial wall for the kitchen.

System is used for TV and music.

I started with this gear, processor is a NAD C658 with the HDMI module. Classe Sigma Amp 2. Arcam DVD, CD. Directv and a Roku. Monster HTS3600 MKII power center, Velodyne HGS 10 sub. Raven XLR’s, Mogami 2921 speaker wire, bi wired. AudioQuest HDMI cables. AudioQuest sub cable.

The system was to bright sounding for me when listening to music. I would get fatigued after a while and turn it off. It was fine for TV. Music was from CDs, Directv, flash drive with lossless format from my CD collection and streaming.

I toed the speakers out more and moved them a little further apart. This helped with the brightness. But still not good to me.

The first thing I changed was the power cords. Not a lot of money so I tried it. Went with AudioQuest NRG-Z2’s for pre and amp. Pre may not have been needed but why not. Helped improve the bass. Not the brightness.

Next I swapped out the amps. Went with a Parasound Halo JC5. This helped with the brightness some. Improved the bass and midrange.

Next I swapped the XLRs. I got Mogami XLR’s from Jerry at 10 Audio. He sells them on Audiogon. Read his review on these cables on his web site at 10audio.com.

Nirvana. These did the trick. Brightness gone. More musical, detail. Just sounds better. TV voices are clearer.

I traded up from the Olympica 3 to the Olympica Nova 3 and no regrets. Just does everything better. 

Hi Janosik, I’m interested. Where’s the dealers for Nova 2? Do you know the name of the dealers and phone numbers? Thank you, I really appreciate it.

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

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 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.
 

Fidelis in NH carries SF.

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.

Sorry.
Consider my second line removed from my post.

Everyone brings their own biases to these discussions- me included. The OP didn’t ask for recommendations on other brands. Nevertheless, I’m sure they’d be well received if offered genuinely.  
On the other hand, recommendations are frequently offered by forum participants looking for validation of their own decisions and biases. Fine. But, it’s rude when they’re volunteered while also being so dismissive to what the OP is already strongly considering- and is a brand she/he already owns. It also does nothing to further the sense of community of the forum, or our collective knowledge. 
Lastly, in this case, it would be an opinion that seems to fly in the face of SF’s very large and loyal customer base. 
Mgrif 

SF are overpriced in NA
Check out Tannoy, Fyne...

Thanks mgrif104 for your response. My room size is small 13x12.The speakers will have to be rather closer to the corners.
My music preference  is classical, jazz and vocals.  I called a couple 
of dealers and they admitted that O. Nova2 is very close with music performance to OIII. It is supposed to be more dynamic with close base. That is why I would prefer to get opinion from people like us.
I don’t trust sometimes reviewers and dealers. They are mostly after profit.

Best,

Janosik,

I’m pretty familiar with the Olympica 3 - they were on my short list.  Though they’re wonderful speakers, I didn’t get them because they weren’t a good fit for my room.  I haven’t heard the Nova 2, but it seems reasonable to assume they are voiced similarly to the previous model line though perhaps a bit less warm.  

I don’t think you can make a mistake in general as they’ll both be good speakers.  But, you can make a better decision by considering the following:
1) size of your room
2) where you’ll place the speakers in the room and the space you’re able to give them with that placing
3) what you listen to and how you listen

The OIIIs are very good speakers, but voiced to be warm overall.  Placing them too close to a wall or particularly in corners will exacerbate this characteristic due to the output from the rear ports.  This can be somewhat addressed by having the ports face toward each other or away from each other depending on which speaker you put left and right. If you’re near sidewalls, you probably wouldn’t want the ports facing outside unless you really like a lot of bass. I’ve heard them set up at dealers this way and thought they were doing a disservice to the brand and model. Regardless of port direction, I am guessing that the OIIIs will have a more lower range power than your Grand Pianos.  If you have space to bring them out from the wall and sidewalls, then this isn’t really a concern.

Lastly, if your room is smallish, then I’d worry about overloading it and would favor the Nova IIs.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do.
Best,