Silverline Sonata III or Legacy Focus 20/20?


Please provide your suggestion.

Music: classical
Source: BAT VK-5 CD player
Line: Counterpoint SA-11
Power: Counterpoint SA-100 Monoblock (fully modified)
Cable: Stealth M-21 (interconnects) & Ensemble Megaflux
Room: 18 x 30 x 12

I like the bass of my current Thiel 3.6, the high and mid from my past Silverline Sonata I. I am planning to replace my Thiel 3.6 with Sonata III but also interested in Legacy Focus 20/20 but no way to audit them. I am open to other speaker as well, please provide your suggestion on my next speaker selection.

Thanks in advance.

Otto
yu11375
All I can say is that i own the Sonata IIIs and find them much more detailed, better high frequency definition than the Focus 20/20s. The Sonatas are great for producing string instruments so life like. On the other hand, the Focus 20/20s I found played louder with much more bass energy. The Sonatas had more of a delicate cue. Great for jazz music but not too good on heavy rock and roll. Where I find the Focus 20/20s might be a little better on the heavy rock and roll music. I hope this helps your decision.
My father majored in the Pipe Organ and studied/performed for over 10 yrs and has about 9000 tittles on CD and Vinyl
I only qualify this because he uses and loves the Focus 20/20. Also I spend alot of time hanging out and listening with him and it is always a very pleasing experience, great build quality, very efficient and great bass, liquid mid and clear defined highs are always a given with Legacy.
the focus 20/20's are great,very enjoyable. Here is a cool tweak to try, may or may not like it. Tilt them forward a little so that the tweeter hits you at ear level where you are sitting(tweeters are pretty high on the speakers). If you have a high chair, you may not tilt them much or at all. I found it greatly improves the imaging,soundstaging,etc. However maybe, a touch bright.....maybe.I do have my back to the wall in my setup right now, so it could be very accurate and the touch of brightness is my rear wall(couch pulled out 6 inches).Id love to see the focus made like the whispers, 1 12" on bottom, 1 on top, and the tweeters and mids dead center. You would loose a little height sounstage possibly, but Id like to hear it out of curiousity.
I'm a Sonata fan, I have the 2's and would like to move up to the 3's when I can swing it. I know what the 2's do well (am very happy w/ mine) and Jimman sounds spot on in his description of the 3's. I can't say I've ever heard the Legacy's but I was under the impression based only on hear-say, that they were a bit less refined speaker, more in the gene pool of the original rock and roll breed, perhaps akin to the old Altec Lansing flavor... play loud, play hard sort of thing? ("not that there's anything wrong with that" as I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for speakers that can really rock). The Silverlines will probably be a better match to your electronics though... I owned a Counterpoint SA-100 back in the days of Corey Greenberg at Stereophile... it was a really nice amp, not only in its day, but I recommended it to a friend of mine who's been very happy with his for the past 15 years. But what I'm really jealous of is that SA-11 of yours... wow, how cool is that. I think the tubes in the 11 and the hybrid 100 will gel with the Sonata sound. I've owned the SA-1000, moved up to the 3000, and finally owned the SA-5000 for many years (always dreaming of the 11) and I'm sure Michael Elliot's magic touch on your upgraded 100 will be well expressed through the Sonatas.(IMHO). BTW, I still use an upgraded Counterpoint DA-11/DA-10 transport/processor combo for my digital source.Good luck and I hope this helps, Happy Lissn'n