Sonus Faber Electa Amator III vs. the Bowers and Wilkins 805 D4?

They are clear and sound big.  Excellent bass for a small enclose.  They are paired with a McIntosh MA 8950    You should try to listen to a pair , it’s an expensive proposition to buy either so if you can demo it’s worth the effort. 

B&Ws are difficult to drive, and they will eat up that Luxman. I am speaking from experience. If you go that route, you will be ok with the mids/highs, however you will not have any bass at all. 

@stuartk

I first heard Sonus Faber speakers several years before the SF made the change in their sound. They really turned my head. I couldn’t quite get my head around what made them sound so unique, I wasn’t positive it was good… it was not bad. But the memory stuck. A couple years later I had theorized Sonus Faber had sounded exceptionally natural and real. I read all about the change in sound that SF had made, it had just happened. So as a test, I bought a used pair of Cremona M speaker that I knew were made before the sound change. Within a day, I knew this was the right sound and ordered the just released Olympica 3 thinking with the greater detail, they would be perfect… they were.

@ghdprentice 

Were you already using tube amplification at that point?

No, I was not using tube amplification when I bought the Cremona.