Swap out b&w 802 d3 for Sonus faber amati g5?

😊 Thank you for your kind words.

@ghdprentice

Very nice and helpful comments, always enjoy seeing your set up. And learning from all you say.

@emergingsoul “Shouldn’t it go without saying that speakers should be musical.”

You would think, but very often this has been pushed way down the list of attributes. It is not that anyone goes off looking for non-musical speakers (or to create them), and seldom are speakers completely devoid of musicality. But, as myself as an example. When I started looking for my first system I tried to quantity what I wanted. Well what could I hear / know about? Detail and better bass. Then over time I observed tonal balance, imaging, transients, micro textures… etc. Many speakers concentrate on sonic feats… displaying incredible detail and explosive instant bass… often musicality takes a back seat. Today’s high end speakers are capable of sonically spectacular sound… often missing the mark on the gestalt of the experience.

I always took a couple of my favorite CDs with me to audition speakers. I remember going through an ethereal electronic phase and optimizing that sound… finding I had lost much of the warmth and music in the midrange. Most genera suffered as my electronic sounded better. I realized I was doing something wrong.

Most speakers (and components) today have strengths in sound quality… like B&W is great with rock music… lots of details bringing out the cymbals and other details and a huge bass kick. They go well with Mac which tends to be strong on the midrange and adding to the kick of the speakers. But start listening to all kinds of music and they are not the most natural or musical.

Sonus Faber, that is first and foremost, music and natural sound. So, a cello, cymbals, bell, or saxophone sounds sounds real. Like the material of which it is made and the rhythm and pace of the music flows naturally. Sonus Faber when coupled with the right electronics just lures you into the music and is completely involving, unlike many speakers that throw up this big sound field that shouts at you and often makes solo instruments out of instruments played in the background. After hours of listening, I still have difficulty dragging myself away from them.

Why would someone not want musical speakers? Shouldn’t it go without saying that speakers should be musical.

If speakers are not musical, then what are they?

Saying Speakers are natural, is interesting too.  Somehow speakers have evolved where they sound both unnatural and non-musical and this is a way of listening people seem to pursue.  Maybe some clarification here would be good.

@ditusa, excellent choice and very musical speakers.  Those JBL’s are very special. 

you got my vote for the SF much more musical and natural sounding than B&W, also the monitor audio platinum is even better than the SF much more three-dimensional and airy and spacious sound stage.

definitely go with the SF much more musical and natural than B&W

you  could compare these in your selected price range:

https://speakerchoices.com/

I have experience with both brands in this price category. I would recommend a demo of Wilson Audio in your price range (lots of used one out there too).  Both wilson and Sonus Faber will be more neutral than B&W. The Wilson are almost always more dynamic in the bass (harder hitting leading edge) than Sonus Faber and everything else is pretty comparable between them. 

The Amati's are easier to drive than the 802s and much more natural sounding with excellent sound-staging and scale. A used pair of Sasha DAWs is an interesting alternative, but they are more difficult to set up and less tolerant of less well engineered recordings.

I am a massive fan of Sonus Faber speakers and have owned a bunch over the years. You may want to consider one of the many pairs of Wilson Sasha DAW’s coming into the used market. For around the same price as the new G5’s, it’s a direction even this die hard SF fan might try….

good luck…!

The Amatis would seem to be an excellent choice depending on how they work with your upstream electronics of course.  Some others worth considering would be Joseph Audio, ProAc, Rockport, Wilson, Vandersteen, QLN, and maybe Usher although I’ve not heard their current models with the diamond tweeter.  At this level it’s very much personal taste and system matching, but hope this is somewhat useful. 

Likely to be a huge jump in the direction you want to go. Amati are natural and musical unlike the B&W which are hot on top with accentuated bass. I have Amati… my third set of Sonus Faber speakers and B&W for my home theater. What you are indicating you want is exactly the character of Sonus Faber. I paired mine with all Audio Research gear.

@soix

Basically looking for more musical and comfortable to listen to speaker.  I am a musician so appreciate the realism of a  Live performance.

What  other speakers are comparable?

Personally I’d take Sonus Faber over B&W any day, but it really depends on what specific improvements and sound characteristics you’re looking for, and there are a lot of other great speakers in that price range as well.