speakers for classical music

i can see the dipole route for chamber music but if you listen to a lot of large group or orchestra music, the "best" would be a truly full range speaker which is going to be large like an apogee full range. The big dunlavy's or duntech's get the detail in the mids better than anything i have heard. But, while some people find them stunning others find they are clinical. i like 'em all, from spendors to quads to dunlavy to apogee and maggies. I can only say that there is little way around a large speaker for symphonic music.

I know lots of people like Sonus Faber for classical. A dealer near San Francisco compared Dynaudio Temptation with Sonus Faber Amati Homage driven by the same gears preferred Amati for classical while Temptation for rock and jazz. Overall, Amati (or most of the Sonus Faber) is exceptional with string music and if classical is all you listen you should consider Amati if budget allowed. Cremona & Guarneri are both very fine too.

However, I now like Usher BE-10/20 over Amati in string reproduction. This is high praise indeed since the Usher were driven by average electronics while Amati were driven by top end gears and Usher still came out more detail, lively, transparent, and engaging.

Does anyone drive sonus or vienna speakers with mcintosh mc402 - how are the results?

I think you should avoid metal tweeters like B&W style speakers use.

MC402 appears to have a damping factor of 40. This may be too low for Vienna speakers. worth listening too. . . but I suspect result may be a little woolly. G.