Sonus Faber Amati Homage versus Vandersteen 5A

Beauty of Amati is in the integration. Vandersteen 5 is nice, but it's also a problem by leaving the owner to tune bass freq and output. If tuning those two parameters were so easy, why would anyone on earth want to buy big speakers when they can buy small speakers and mate with subs? On top, small speakers have better imaging.

And I doubt there is any speaker that is truly phase correct. All Sonus Faber are tilted to time align the tweeter. Most Sonus Faber also employs 1st order x-over to retain as much phase correctness as possible. Using more passive parts like in Thiel will only create more phase problem, not correct it. It's simple electronic 101, try solving (or even guessing) 1st order vs. higher order x-over behavior with twice as many parts on paper and you will know what I mean.

I have heard both and own Amati currently. Vanersteen 5 is a "complicated" speaker with flaws that can be heard occasionally, like Amati which also possesses some flaws of its own. Overall, Amati is still more transparent and musical to my ears and definitely a winner in look as well.

I agree with Natnic. I recently heard the 5As and less recently the Amatis. Both are superb speakers. The 5As do most everything right and are extremely coherent. That said, I found the 5As, at least in the setup I heard (paired with Quicksilver amps, Wadia CD and Audio Research preamp), to be very uninvolving. In contrast, the Amatis have less bass and IMO less neutrality but are more musical to my ears and easier to listen to. I am sure there are others that have an entirely different reaction and of course, system synergy is an essential ingredient to making any speakers make magic as is the interaction of the speakers and room.

I have not heard the Aerials but I have heard the Wilson 7s many times and found the Vandies closer in signture to them than the Amatis although, IMO, the Wilsons are superior speakers (still not my taste). Best to go listen and follow your own feelings. While you're at it, try out the JM Labs Utopia line with well matched amps like the Burmester (the Nova Utopias are one of the first speakers to really knock my socks off), the Genesis 501s which IMO are wonderful and I found more likeable than either the Wilsons or the Vandies, the Green Mountain Audio Continuum 3s which are IMO on par with the Vandies (except for the lowest bass)at half the price and finally the Beolab 5s which show great promise but are difficult to ultimately assess because B&O's showrooms need work. There are, of course, many others but these are a good sampling worth trying that may bring as much if not more musical pleasure than either the Vandies or the Amatis.

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

Must agree with most of the posters here in that you gotta listen for yourself. Also, I too find the Vandies a bit uninvolving and booring..if not "unpretty sounding". I think they are a tad veiled compared to the more refined soundig SF Amati's. I'm not a HUGE FAN OF THE AMATI'S per se. But then I like the clearer, more transparent sound of these, similarly like Theils, Wilson's, SF Extrema's, Maggies, and similar. The Vandies tend to sound a bit thicker and warmer to me, kind of like the older Mirage line..no biggier personally.
I used to work in a few high end salon's. and I've sold higher end offerings from the likes of wilson, Thiel, Audio Physic, Celestion, Martin Logan, Magnepan, B&W, NHT, Mirage, Sonus, Energy, Sonus Faber, Apogee, Meridian, Avantgarde, and similar. I once heard the Vandie's hooked up in the same system we had some Thiel's and Audiphysics hooked up to...no comparison to my ears. I didn't care for the rather plain sound of the Vandie's. Sounded like old Merlin speakers, but more veiled!(I was listenign to 3c's I believe). Anyway, to each his own.
Some may love em, but I found they added far too much coloration and signature to the sound!..that's just my findings...and of course, simply my opinion.
still, I'd listen for yourself. Buyone pair, then try another..like the rest of us audio enthusiests/junkies

Semi: There is NO WAY that the Amati Homage is time coherent. Just because a manufacturer slants the baffle in no way assures that the speakers will be time coherent. In fact, in a Stereophile review of these speakers,

http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/139/

the step-response measurements clearly show that, although the tweeter and woofer are wired in positive polarity, the midrange driver is wired in inverse polarity relative to the tweeter and woofer.

Now go take a look at the same measurement FOR ANY THIEL.

Also, the bass peaks at 65Hz and then falls off at a rapid rate of 12dB per octave. That's not "first order" crossover, because if it were, then the bass driver would be falling off at a much shallower slope, due to its design needs to accomodate a first order design.

Sonus Faber attempts to replicate and pose as a Thiel, Meadowlark or Vandersteen, but ultimately fails from a design and electrical performance standpoint. And if the measured conditions are not met, then it will never be subjectively "correct" as a time coherent design, no matter how it "sounds."

And what you say about Thiels is absolutely false when it comes to phase coherence in a first order design. Just look at the benign phase angle vs. frequency response for Thiel designs. They blow SF out of the water on that parameter. I mean, give me a break.

Happy Listening (I've got my fire retardant suit on ;-) )

Funny how some people think one "data" equals to a fact. When reviewer measured speakers, do they measure them at listening distance, say 6'? No, it's more like a foot away. How sound and freq propagate over a longer distance is a complicated equation, not something Stereophile measurement can tell you.

And go pickup a circuit design 101 text book before you argue with me about phase. I spend years in school studying electrical engineering, I should have this common sense.

And about the slope of bass roll off. Go pick up a speaker design book 101, you will learn that bass roll off has as much to do with cross over as well as box design.

What matters at the end is how it sounds, and I have never ever heard a pair of Thiel that makes me think I am listening to live music. Isn't live music most phase and time coherent?