Sonus Faber Stradivari

A friend has a pair. I have listened mostly to jazz on his setup (he is both and avid jazz listener and a jazz guitar player). This speaker sound very, very good--very natural and realistic tonal balance, rich and saturated harmonics, and lack of artificial "edge" to the initial attack of notes. This is certainly one of the better conventional dynamic systems I've heard.

The main downside is that it does not have the kind of speed and dynamics and lively sound of really great horn system, but, then again, NO conventional dynamic systems do either.

In the Sonus lineup, this is an "old school" sound--rich and musical (sacrificing some clarity), while something like the Futura is more modern sounding--a touch leaner, more edge to the attack of notes, more detailed sounding.

I have only heard the Salon 2s briefly. I liked what I heard--open and airy on top, but not overly strident. At this kind of level of performance, one really has to hear the speaker because it is a matter of personal preference--there is no obvious superiority of one vs. the other.

Mbovaird,

If I were looking in that kind of price range, I would also look at some "unconventional" speakers, particularly the high efficiency speakers that can deliver dynamic and lively sound, even when played at quite low levels. Many horn and other high efficiency speakers that can deliver great dynamics have tonal balances that are way off from conventional sound, so taste/tolerance is a BIG issue. But, some are not so extremely colored. Maybe they are not for you, but, you should at least listen to a few of them. I would recommend listening to the following:

Horning Eufrodite--a three way system that utilizes a Lowther driver as only a midrange (does not suffer from the "honky" coloration that plagues Lowther systems using the driver full range.

Classic Audio T-1.4--a large speaker system that utilizes field coil drivers. Nicely balanced sound, great dynamics, and very easy to drive.

Surreal Sound Fifth Row--a new speaker, from a new company, that utilizes a full-range Tangband driver as a midrange/tweeter and multiple low range drivers to deliver incredibly tight and powerful bass and very fast and dynamic mid frequencies from the full range driver.

A somewhat more conventional speaker that is reasonably efficient and quite nice sounding is the DeVore Orangutan. It delivers a lot of the immediacy and vividness of high efficiency speakers, while being reasonably balanced tonally.

And now, for something completely different--YG Acoustic Carmel. While I usually like the diametric opposite of modern speakers (too lean and brittle sounding for my taste), the realistic tonal balance and depiction of harmonic structure that I heard with the Carmels did impress me. I had some issues with the somewhat lean, ultra detailed, and "dry" sound (not as harmonically saturated and dense sounding as old school speakers), but, their strengths at least have made me interested in the brand.