Speaker and amp advice needed


Thanks in advance for any advice.  Love great sound, but far from an expert.  Current set up is in an 18x21 foot room.  The ceiling is 8 feet tall.  I sit toward the back of the 18.  It is set up that way because of a beam that runs along the ceiling and only way the home theater will work.  I have Sonus Faber Olympica bookshelf speakers than I use with an Anthem amp that runs the home theater, and a roon and Moon streaming device.  The rest of the room is Sonus Faber as well, and I also have a Sonus Faber sub.  I would like to upgrade the two channel sound.

Was wondering a couple of things:

Is the room, especially the ceiling height too small for a large speaker like a Sonus Faber Amati Tradition (which I would get used)?  Or, would I be better going with better bookshelfs, such as the Guerneri, or the Focal Utopia, or something like that?  Also, was thinking about getting a Mcintosh amp, such as the MA352 since I like warm sound.  

Thanks for reading, and any thoughts would be helpful.  I tend to drive myself crazy overthinking things and never get anything accomplished because I over analyze.  I listen to mostly vocals, and really love female vocals.  But, also enjoy most other music other than rap and heavy metal (which I don't listen to in the listening room).

Thanks

Jonathan

dodgers5559

Sonus Faber makes a great speaker. The chief designer was Franco Serblin. He exited and started his own company. His Ketema loudspeaker is one of the best dynamic speakers I have ever heard. 

You can put any speaker you want in that room. The only limitation is the ceiling height. If you want more realistic sound and an amazing theater experience you should go with a line source loudspeaker and add a second subwoofer and a two way crossover. Examples would be, the Magnepan 20.7 and the Sound Labs 645-8s or 845s.  If you check out my virtual system page you can see the Sound Labs 645-8s in a theater set up with four subwoofers.

Line Source speakers produce a larger more lifelike image and put you in the front of the venue. The are project power better which is why they are used at large concert venues.

I've auditioned the Amati's (previous generation) and the Olympicas.  Go for the Amati's, you won't regret it.  They do like power and the MA352 may or may not get the job done.  Heard the Amati's driven by the more powerful MA12000 and it was right on the cusp of clipping which was very surprising.  

 

The Focal Utopia's are fantastic, revealing speakers but the Focal house sound is the exact opposite of Sonus Faber IMO.  Good luck and cheers.  

If you're concerned about ceiling height and tweeter height, you might try measuring your reflections with REW and a mic. Or just try some room treatments on the ceiling and/or add a rug at the first reflection point on the floors in front of the speakers.

https://advancedacoustics-uk.com/pages/what-is-the-first-reflection-point#:~:text=Where%20is%20the%20first%20reflection,loudspeakers%20and%20the%20listening%20position.

@rick_n +1, especially re the Focal speakers. If you love the Sonus Faber sound be prepared to hate the Focals.

I own Sonus Faber Amati and previously Olympica. I can highly recommend the Amati. There is nothing too big about them, they are only 46” high. You can see them in my audio room in my virtual system. Focal are a very different sounding speaker and would not mesh with the rest of your speakers. Having the same voicing across your system for home theater is important and Focal / Sonus would not mesh easily.

 

About the amp… depends on how warm you want to go. I have all Audio Research equipment and find it really natural and musical with great midrange bloom… but still detailed. You will loose a lot of detail with MacIntosh. If you only listen to rock this combo is great. Macintosh is the muscle car equivalent in the audio arena… heavy mid-range and bass. One of the well known synergistic combos in high end is Audio Research, Sonus Faber, and Transparent wires, for natural, detailed, musical sound with great midrange bloom.