SILVERLINE SONATA II-giant killer?

I just recently changed from B&W 802's, which I owned for a very long time. My main criticisms of that speaker seem to be the same as yours, a little harsh on top, and not the most natural mids available. I tried many speakers ranging from Audio Physic, Meadowlark, B&W Nautilus, ProAc, Vandersteen, System Audio, Silverline, Soliloquy and others. What I ultimately decided to buy were British monitors, specifically Spendor SP 1/2's. I purchased the Spendors over the Harbeth models because I own push-pull tube equipment, which matches the Spendors extremely well. If I were the owner of high-powered quality SS gear like you, I would not consider my search complete without at least trying a pair of Harbeth speakers. Prices new range from about $ 7000 for Monitor 40 to a little less than 3k for Compact 7's. See Bob Neills reviews on enjoythemusic.com as a starting point. He talks about a similiarly sized room to yours, with similiar listening tastes. I believe that you could get a money back guarantee for an in home audition if there are no dealers in your area. YMMV, of course, but if naturalness of timbre is important to you, at least read the reviews.

Mike

Bob. I have used the Sonata ll for a year now and my equipment is a tube pre and tube amp. The amp is a VTL 150 which is rated at 150 watts in tetrode and 70 watts in triode. As you probable know, these speakers are extremely efficient (95db.)and perform extremely well in triode (70 watts). The fact that I sometimes play in tetrode at 150 watts is just not over kill but adds to a tighter control in the mid and lower bass regions as well as a holograhic sound stage. I agree with thunnicutt that the LaFolia is the better speaker but I get tons of detail from my Sonata's. I would say that because of their physical size and huge soundstage, a fairly large room is recommended. I think these speakers are the best in their price range.
Good Luck.

I own the Avalon style Sonatas, and originally got them for my main system which included BAT VK150SE tube amps. Ultimately I could not live with the Sonatas in that system. I tried every speaker position and they always seemed to call attention to themselves in the midbass, and were a bit fatiging. The imaging and soundstaging was to die for though. I ended up with the Sonatas in a lesser system that consists of Pass Aleph 2s. I really enjoy them with the Pass amps, I don't hear the problems that heard on the BAT amps. The BAT amps are much better than the Pass amps, but I think the Sonatas sound better overall with the Pass amps. You could probably sell off the 1.2s and go with an Aleph 3, it might even sound better, I had the 3 before the 2s and actually thought the 3 sounded a little better overall.

can anyone else share their exp

I have a pair of Sonata 1s. I live in the SF Bay Area and recently had Alan do an upgrade of a couple of the drivers and the Xover (I had an amp meltdown and did not have fuses in the path - DC does not sit well with bass drivers). I bought the Sonatas to replace a pair of Accoustat 3s. I choose the Sonatas because they came very close to replicating the attack speed that I had with the Elctrostaics (note that the Electrostatic panels were 32" wide by 75" high and our new house has windows where the speakers needed to go and my wife said no...). I have driven them wih both tube (Cary 100W) and SS (Adcom and othrs), and they sound wonderful in all cases. As I have a large space, I find that the 100W is not sufficient, but that is probably subjective (the room is 16x12x40 and has large openings into a much larger space. The three things that make Alan's speakers great are the drivers, especially the dome mid-ranges, teh Xovers, and the cabinets. Note that I use a powered sub with the Sonata 1s, if you have a smaller space, he 2s should be sufficient. A final comment on placement. I have found the Sonata's to be relatively tolerant of close wall placement on the sides and still throwing a very large soundstage.