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Sonus Faber Olympica 3 or Olympica Nova 2 ?

Hi music lovers and audiofiles, I am trying to upgrade my speakers from Sonus Faber Grand Piano to Olympica 3 or Olympica Nova 2. Because of the situation with Covit-19 I can’t audition them in stores right now. The dealer in Massachusetts who used to sell them just dropped Sonus Faber. It is very hard for me to find a place where I can go and listen to both at the same time. Olympica 3 is discontinued and some dealers don’t have them any more. The other reason I try to compare those two speakers is the price. You can get each for $7500 if you are lucky. Please help me to solve the dilemma I have right now. I don’t want to make a mistake and buy wrong ones. My new towers are going to be my last ones, I am getting older and sooner than later I will start to lose hearing.
Thanks, janosik

janosik
chester1962
1 posts
 
Hi, can you net it down for me to a one or two sentence takeaway? Id appreciate it.
krisnip
1 posts
 
Hi Janosik, I’m interested. Where’s the dealers for Nova 2? Do you know the name of the dealers and phone numbers? Thank you, I really appreciate it.
chicagoblue1977's avatar
chicagoblue1977
224 posts
 
I traded up from the Olympica 3 to the Olympica Nova 3 and no regrets. Just does everything better. 
greywolf
31 posts
 

My 2 cents.

I have been an audio nut for over 50 years.

I bought a used pair of Olympica III’s recently. 1 small noticeable blemish on one speaker.

My living room is 17 x 23 feet with vaulted ceilings. Lots of windows on 2 walls to enjoy the mountain views. Open on one side to a kitchen and dining room except for a wall that extends 15 feet and does not go to the ceiling. The entire area is under the vaulted ceiling. The total area is 30 x 23 with a partial wall for the kitchen.

System is used for TV and music.

I started with this gear, processor is a NAD C658 with the HDMI module. Classe Sigma Amp 2. Arcam DVD, CD. Directv and a Roku. Monster HTS3600 MKII power center, Velodyne HGS 10 sub. Raven XLR’s, Mogami 2921 speaker wire, bi wired. AudioQuest HDMI cables. AudioQuest sub cable.

The system was to bright sounding for me when listening to music. I would get fatigued after a while and turn it off. It was fine for TV. Music was from CDs, Directv, flash drive with lossless format from my CD collection and streaming.

I toed the speakers out more and moved them a little further apart. This helped with the brightness. But still not good to me.

The first thing I changed was the power cords. Not a lot of money so I tried it. Went with AudioQuest NRG-Z2’s for pre and amp. Pre may not have been needed but why not. Helped improve the bass. Not the brightness.

Next I swapped out the amps. Went with a Parasound Halo JC5. This helped with the brightness some. Improved the bass and midrange.

Next I swapped the XLRs. I got Mogami XLR’s from Jerry at 10 Audio. He sells them on Audiogon. Read his review on these cables on his web site at 10audio.com.

Nirvana. These did the trick. Brightness gone. More musical, detail. Just sounds better. TV voices are clearer.


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