Sonus Faber speakers

Arcam integrated that was employed in that shoutout. The Arcam is an excellent integrated for its price but one has to question whether the gap between these speakers would have been greater under different circumstances.

Agree, all the better SF speakers I’ve come across love good current from a smooth sounding SS amp down to 2ohms that don’t current limit at all.
Tubes that I’ve heard are hit and miss with SF’s, unless they have 2ohm speaker taps, then the reduced wattage could be a problem.

Cheers George

Maybe I should consider a different direction loudspeaker wise ? The Forte 4’s ? Similar footprint size wise higher efficiency more dynamic as my musical tastes are all over the place.

@shwridsn50 

I own the Olympica iii. Never had the Sonetto’s however I LOVE my Olympicas. Very natural sound sounding speaker. I owned the liutos  before that and it was a night and day difference for me. The Olympicas do need some power to really bring out the speakers potential so just keep that in mind. 

I heard the Sonettos a few weeks ago. Matter of fact I listened to them first,  the Olympica Nova 3 and then Cremonese at 55k. I mean you have to listen to the big boys right lol. Anyway,  I looked at the salesman after listening to all 3 and said the Sonettas sound "anemic" in comparison to the O3 and Cremonese.  While they are nice at $5k, they are no where near as attractive performance wise to the Olympica Nova.  It was very obvious the Nova was in another league. 

You brought up a good point. The amplification was midfi and better quality would really bring out the differences between the models. 

I ended up purchasing the Olympica iii at a much cheaper price than the Nova 3 because there isn't THAT much difference.  Yes the Olympica 3 needs some current to sound their best but they sound wonderful with my Audio Research ref110.  George does bring up a good point. They dip down briefly to 2 ohms so good amplification is needed to bring out their best.  

Olympicas will scale with better equipment. I heard the Sonettos a few months ago. Not bad for HT or mix usage. But when the dealer played the Olympica Nova ii with higher end ARC amplification there was no contest. The Olympicas are more refined and much better at reproducing the sound of natural organs and instruments like piano, violin, horns, and guitars. I ended up buying the Olympica II but will most likely go up the line next year. 
By the way, the Olympicas love class A amplification.