Sonus Faber Olympica III or Vienna Acoustics Lists

Garebear,I do own the Olympica III's and they are a very fine speaker. I posted this on another thread. Hope this helps...

I own a pair of Sonus Fabers Olympica III's which I bought after owning the Joseph Audio Pulsars. As much as I loved the sound of the Pulsars[make no mistake,they are a great 2-way] the SF's are just in another leaque.The Olympica's are way more refined,but at almost twice the price,they better be.

The Pulsars are image champs, but for my tastes, they were not a speaker that could go loud and keep up on some material. I guess I prefer a bit larger speaker. In the past I have owned Advent, ADS,Legacy,Merlin,Talon,JA,as mentioned,and now the SF Olympica III's. I am not saying the SF's will be my retirement speaker,but,they are the finest sounding speaker I have personally owned.

Once set up properly the music just flows from these.They are sound stage champs and a pure pleasure to listen to. Voice and instrument are pure heaven... which have an organic... natural sound, that to my ears, just plain sound right...giving most material spot on tonality and gestalt. Be aware though,they are power hungry.Feed them some high quality watts and you will be rewarded for the effort in doing so. They are rated at 4 ohm impedance but I believe they drop into the 3 ohm range,so high current will be needed to open up the virtues of these speakers to the level that will make them worth the price of admission. I'm not saying less watts are a deal killer on these but control of the drivers are key here.By the way, they sound just as good at low volumes as they do at high levels,no break-up and they love to go loud. But as usual, room size plays a key role in this.

I can give a hearty recommendation if you love Italian craftsmanship and beauty from a company that most other speaker builders aspire to be.By the way,they build everything in house,to their specs. Not to many speaker companys doing that anymore.

...as the OP or PIA in keeping this thread going....what about Verity Audio Parsifals ???? ...not the anniversary's .....I have a line on them

Good discussion- I have heard the SF Toy floorstanding speakers and they were very fine w/ Rogue Audio gear.

In another system, I heard the VA speakers w/ Primare gear- very fine as well. Like Garebear, I would like to find a dealer/retailer that carries Verity Audio speakers- I have always wanted to audition these- to get a taste, if you will. Keep me posted and Happy Listening!

I purchased the Sonus Faber Olympica III's ...yes after all that. I was very interested in the Vienna Acoustics Liszt - a tremendous speaker and also the Verity Audio Parsifals'.....this particular pair of Verity's were second hand almost 7 years old and were sold and then back traded in to the same dealer. They were not cheap but the age and the fact that they are now discontinued and replaced by the Anniversary's made a difficult decision easy.
The unfortunate variable when purchasing high priced items like speakers that must be considered at least by me is ..... '' if I have to sell them ...how much of a beating will I take '' ? This hobby is not for the faint of heart on the used market. The Sonus Faber's are better in that area....I also think that musically they are pretty good too.

Assuming you haven't set the Olympica's up yet, let us know what you think when you have them broken in. The times I've heard them, they really seem to get to the heart of the music. All the meat is there on the bone, without appearing to obscure the minute details.