Finally...subwoofer that's aesthetically pleasing!

If you are buying anything close to the cost of these speakers, you probably have a dedicated audio room, so why would it matter what a subwoofer looked like? I’d probably have a stack of Rel’s if I had a larger audio room and the Rels would probably sound better than this single SF subwoofer at 1/2 the cost.

Some of the better speakers have black only enclosures or I have only seen them in black: Magic, Raidho, Borressen, and others.

REO Speedwagon is awesome! Saw them at Folsom field in 1981! 

Sadly in the press release you could see the scan speak sticker on that midrange. Good brand but at ludicrous prices I expect them to be made of fairy dust.  

Ah, Stradivari's daddy tried to pull a fast one, dropping scanspeaks in a box, eh? Well, with the purchased scanspeak drivers in there, price has now fallen to $7500 boys. 

Quiz: What do you call a Sonus Faber with a scanspeak driver?

A Scanus Speakivari.

Do I retire or buy a set of these?  Decisions, decisions.... 😁

I don’t think the woofers look st all good.  The Stradd, on the other hand, do look good with the elastic string grill.  The problem with these grills is that they don’t last and replacement is not that cheap.  It is a good thing that the Strads look good nekkid.

I’ve helped with the set up of four pairs of Strads, mostly using the Sumiko method recommended by the SF distributor.  They are easier to set up than most speakers and sound good even in smaller rooms.  I really like their natural tonal balance.  They are, like most conventional speakers, not particularly dynamic sounding at low volume, so I prefer some other high efficiency speakers that are more dynamic, but they are very good speakers nonetheless.