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

@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.

So, if the Cremonas were perfect with SS amplification, why did you eventually move to tubes? 

They were perfect for what I was looking for at the time. That move made a big jump in the right direction and exactly what I expected. I find that for me it is a target that I am zeroing in on… I better understand the target the closer I can get to it. So, I am always learning. Over the last fifteen years I don’t think I have gotten off the path as I have earlier… but been carefully navigating the line towards real fidelity to live music. It is a pursuit where you may never get there but you can get so close it doesn’t matter.