Sonus Faber Electa Amator III vs. the Bowers and Wilkins 805 D4?

@ghdprentice 

I see. Thanks for the explanation.

Thanks for all the responses gentlemen!  In the meantime I went to a dealer in Ann Arbor, MI.  They didn’t have the SF Electa Amator III but they did have the SF Maxima Amator floorstander on demo. Same drivers as the EA III, but completely different cabinet and crossover.  After an hour I bought them.  All the beauty, texture and resolution of the Bowers and Wilkins 805 D4 without the hyper-detail.  They are more power hungry than the 805’s and are rated at 4 ohms.  Which is great as my Luxman L-590AxII does 60 WPC pure Class A into 4 ohms, and 165 WPC as it moves into Class A/B.  So Jeffrey, plenty of power.  The Maxima floorstander actually takes up less room than either bookshelf on stands, yet puts out a room-shaking low C which is 32.7 Hz.  And hands down, the most beautiful speaker I have ever seen!  

I doubt I'll ever be able to afford the Maximas and even if I could, their weight would hardly be practical but I'd love to hear them.  

The Maxima floorstander actually takes up less room than either bookshelf on stands, yet puts out a room-shaking low C which is 32.7 Hz.  And hands down, the most beautiful speaker I have ever seen!  

Congratulations -- I'd love to hear those ! 

Congrats on an excellent pair of speakers!  What you heard is exactly why I’m not a fan of B&W speakers — it’s a sound I can certainly respect and appreciate for what it is, but I don’t love it like I love several others.  I just happened on this mini review by Jeff Fritz at Soundstage who made these his reference speakers.  If I’m not mistaken I believe his prior reference was the Vimberg Tonda that’s well over twice the price and a much bigger speaker, so this is quite a statement and endorsement.  Enjoy your new gems!

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/features-menu/opinion-menu/1062-the-sonus-faber-maxima-amator-listening-experience