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SILVERLINE SONATA II-giant killer?

HELLO-i'm bob from miami, fl who placed a recent posting inquiring about Spkers-$4-$6,000 range/used or new to use in my 35'x30' room with pass aleph 1.2[200watts@8ohms/300/4], pass X-2pre. LISTEN TO acoustic jazz, rock,
chamber music to large scale classical music. DESIRES: detailed, but sweet;natural mid's ;good image of sound stage w/ depth;
tighter bass to at least hi 30's which can drive jazz and rock. own B&W 802 serIII
I HAD EMAILS FROM SILVERLINE CUSTOMERS RAVING ABOUT THE SONATA II. everyone uses tubes. BASED UPON EXP, would the sonata II likely work for me? also piega[used], AP-avantiIII{used}. is there any dealer or audio maniac within 100 miles who would allow an in person demo of these speakers???
there are no silverline nor piega dealers w/in 100 miles
BOB FROM MIAMI,fl-thanks for your anticipated help!!!
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ejlif's avatar
ejlif
1,375 posts
 
I own the Avalon style Sonatas, and originally got them for my main system which included BAT VK150SE tube amps. Ultimately I could not live with the Sonatas in that system. I tried every speaker position and they always seemed to call attention to themselves in the midbass, and were a bit fatiging. The imaging and soundstaging was to die for though. I ended up with the Sonatas in a lesser system that consists of Pass Aleph 2s. I really enjoy them with the Pass amps, I don't hear the problems that heard on the BAT amps. The BAT amps are much better than the Pass amps, but I think the Sonatas sound better overall with the Pass amps. You could probably sell off the 1.2s and go with an Aleph 3, it might even sound better, I had the 3 before the 2s and actually thought the 3 sounded a little better overall.
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bob52r OP
44 posts
 
can anyone else share their exp
audiophil1234
1 posts
 
I have a pair of Sonata 1s. I live in the SF Bay Area and recently had Alan do an upgrade of a couple of the drivers and the Xover (I had an amp meltdown and did not have fuses in the path - DC does not sit well with bass drivers). I bought the Sonatas to replace a pair of Accoustat 3s. I choose the Sonatas because they came very close to replicating the attack speed that I had with the Elctrostaics (note that the Electrostatic panels were 32" wide by 75" high and our new house has windows where the speakers needed to go and my wife said no...). I have driven them wih both tube (Cary 100W) and SS (Adcom and othrs), and they sound wonderful in all cases. As I have a large space, I find that the 100W is not sufficient, but that is probably subjective (the room is 16x12x40 and has large openings into a much larger space. The three things that make Alan's speakers great are the drivers, especially the dome mid-ranges, teh Xovers, and the cabinets. Note that I use a powered sub with the Sonata 1s, if you have a smaller space, he 2s should be sufficient. A final comment on placement. I have found the Sonata's to be relatively tolerant of close wall placement on the sides and still throwing a very large soundstage.
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