Best amp for Sonus Faber Amati Anniversario?

Well has been quite a while since my last post, where does the time go! The second SA-103 has now been in place for quite a few months and there is certainly a worthwhile difference with both amps in the system. I have them set up Mono at this stage single ended, however I do want to change this very shortly. The sound is a lot more effortless now, where the occassional female focal could have grated a touch when belting out a full on ballad, the two amps operating in mono now take it easily in their stride. With mountains of power on tap the Plinius Amps now ascert full authority and control over Amati's drivers and the finesse and transparency is really quite something to hear. Having lived with them now for quite a while I can say that as a team they really do produce an amazing sound, I dont think anyone could ever be ddisappointed, we are often transported off to another world when the Amatis start to sing :) Overall I would say strenghts are accuracy, some times quite shocking dynamics,wide but focused sound staging and superb bass with no hang over whatsover. Currently the system is sitting in a room about 8m long and just on 4 wide so havnt been able to give them a real work out yet, that will have to wait until I move to a new house which hopefully wont be too long in the future. I also got the Plinius CD-101 anniversay edition which seems to be a natural partner for the system but more on that next time. If anyone has read this far and has any knowledge of Plinius/SF I would love to hear your thoughts on upgrading the speaker cable and interconnects, I'm thinking of Voodoo Stradivarius Cremona edition (for speaker cable and interconnects) but would love to hear your thoughts! All the best and hope you are all listening to some killer tracks :)

I was thining its not a very balanced review I really should have talked about the the not so good things with the gear as well! So here goes: Starting with the pre amp, the remote volume control is not fine enough that is it alwasy moves to far up or down when you just want a small adjustment, its virtually impossible to see what volume level the amp is on when your not close to it, not a huge issue but in my case I knnow that just after about quarter volume I can expect the neiboours to start getting shirty at night so I like to keep it under after 11 or so. Sound wise I think the pre amp is a great match to the SA-103's it quiet and pretty much doesnt give or take anythign from the sound. As for the CD player, the sound is superb, I think you would really need to spend some scary money to do much better and evven then I think it would be a taste thing. The lack of a digital display is no greaat loss in my opinion however the lack of any control on the facia is a bit of a pain sometimes but I have pretty much solved the issue by keeping the CD remote on the Pre Amp and the Pre Amp remote at teh listening postion. The power amps are pretty hard to fault, the finish is really excellent perhaps not quiet equl to the likes of Solution and hgh end Krell but beautiful none the less, they do run very hot in class A and chew the juice but I think thats just apart of ownership. And they are also very heavy but that says more about the build than anythign else. Sound wise they superb, one day I'll look to get something new but I think it will take a while to hear sommething significantly better and for the money not a chance :)

That is really, really great to hear Chatnoirmeow. Enjoy! sounds like you've considered your options very very carefully and made some very good decisions in the enjoy. I know a little bit about Class A, having lived with it for several years now, and i realized all my fav SS amps (Forte 4, older Krell, reference Boulders to a lesser extent, and of course Gryphon)...all run Class A. and i used to run mine with SF speakers at one point as well. So very much can appreciate the kind of sound (or rather the music! ;) ) that you must enjoying! Nice one!

Chatnoirmeow, how do you like the bass on the Sonus Faber Amati Anniversario speakers?

Hi Doug,

Great to hear from you, sorry for the slow reply I've been away for a few weeks for work. To answer your question the Bass on the Amati's is one of their best attributes. It is very fast though with no hang over to speak of, they do need pleanty of power though and I run mine in mono with 400w a side. Most of the time you have no idea how hard you are drving them until the neibours come round to compliain, but is so much fun to hear them sing! I have not even comme close to getting the speakers to their limit. I've had my Amatis for nearly 2 years now and still love them which is more than I can say for any other speaker I have owned. What sort of music do you like?