Sonus Faber Guaneri Homage or Extremas?

Enjoy your Extremas Malwow1. I'm glad they worked out for you. At any rate I concur with Daveyf. I've listened to the Extremas and although their bass is exemplary, the imaging and soundstage is not superior to the Guarneri Homage. What the Extremas do best is in throwing a bigger and more enveloping sound which is not to be confused with imaging which deals with spatial location of various instruments in the mix with respect to lateral and depth. FWIW the SF Extremas are warm sounding. I can imagine how it would sould like when matched with the equally warm sounding Mac. I guess you like a syrupy, warm and liquid kind of sound.

Enjoy~

As a former Extrema owner i secound what both Ryder and Daveyf say
Both opinions and taste are different. For me though the GH does it

I have both. I put the Guarneris in storage years ago. I had a large room. I in no way want to put down the ghs. But I now have the extremas in my bedroom. They are driven by the devialet 200 with great sucess. I have a bd105 for sacd player. The combination leaves me happy. The bass has slam the mids are exquisite. I previously had them in the larger living room with the cj 16 pre. The Modwright bd 205, and the cj half art amp. Again wonderful.
it is true that the lack of extreme highs is audible. But it still is so good from voice to chamber to full orchestra that I leave it in The system with joy. Next I will try the townshends to see it that buys me better clarity. Other speakers I have are the Amati homage the electa amator 2. The auditor. All are good but the extrema is on par with the amatis despite the hf roll off. 

The thread is 12 years old, so I wonder which he ended up with? 

Since this thread is resurrected, I think it might be useful to highlight something that I have fully realized in the interim years. With the Extrema’s, one is severely limited to the amp one can utilize. That amp needs to be a large powerful ss amp, or maybe a pair of huge CAT amps ( I can think of no other tube amp that could drive these!). This limitation, which was briefly mentioned before, was not really highlighted. I had somewhat realized the issue, but was not as cognizant of it until a fellow a’phile bought a pair and had a very hard time matching up to amps that could do the speaker any justice. In the end he had to buy a massive and expensive ss brute.

The GH’s OTOH are not that difficult a load, and as such a number of great tube amps can work well. This, IME, is a major factor when choosing a speaker, more so than I realized before. For example, the new Estelon Aura’s, sound great...BUT if you read the Stereophile review and the follow up by JA, they are an absolute bear to drive!! Easy pass for me given this.