vandersteen Quatro or sonus faber elipsa

The original Elipsa or the current Elipsa SE (Red)? I own an Audio Research Ref 110 and a pair of the Elipsa SEs. This is a wonderful combination.

What type of music do you listen to? If it is hard rock I would tend toward the vandersteen Quatros. If you listen more to Classical, Jazz, Soft rock or singer songwriter type music then I would choose the Elipsas SE.

The SE version of the Elipsas are different than the original Elipsas. The SE version was designed to be more of a baby Stradivari Homage and uses the same tweeter. The finish is the same high gloss violin red or graphite as the Stradivari. This is a very special speaker.

The Vandy Quatro is an outstanding speaker that does full justice to virtually all styles of music. The newest "CT" version is so good that it will challenge speakers costing $20k and more.

Both are excellent, good matches with your amp. While the Sonus Fabers are known as speakers for the music lover, I would say that the Vandys are as well, they are very versatile speakers that don't favor one genre of music over another. One possible advantage of the Vandersteens is their built-in bass amplifiers, which might make integration with your room a little better.

I think the Quatros are a better choice for your amp with their own amp for
the bass leaving plenty of power to drive the mid range and highs. The Elipsa
on the other hand is a very demanding load at 2.5 ohm in the upper bass and
might tax your amps power compromising the sound. Also the Quatro's will
work well in the size room you have.

I certainly can recommend the Quatros. I used Quatros for a number of years in my 11.5' x 15' room, and I found them to be stellar, only selling them to move on to TAD CR-1's (it took a rather great speaker to displace them). I ran them with a couple different tube amps at 70W (EAR) and 100W (VAC), and they sang beautifully. Any owner of them must take the time to really dial them into the room, and if you do you can get fantastic results due to their tunable subwoofers. I listen to just about every type of music, and they delivered across the board.

This is only an endorsement of the value of the Vandersteens, as I am not familiar with the Sonus Fabers.

I use the Treo's and are moving up to the Quatro as soon as I can sell my Treo's. Misnomer, Vandersteen are best for rock. Can't be further from the truth actually. It's design allows it to not smear transients and that means 'clean' sound. Yes, it's very dynamic, however I love it best when it shows how correct it gets the timber, pace and rhythm. To me if a speaker is THAT good, it will give you a honest presentation and that means is will probably get all music correct. The best part is that you will be able to dial it into your room, so you can basically put the speakers where you want them and not where they have to be. That's one reason I want the Quatro CT. Many feel this speaker is their money speaker. For the price it gives you the best bang for the buck. Which dealer will you use?

Conrad's which speaker did you end up with?  Would love to hear.  thanks.