[jdandy]

Originally Posted by PHC1

What I mean by that is all the Sonus Faber speakers I have owned were not nearly as reactive to changes in gear. All the Wilson speakers have been. With the Cremona Auditors and Memento's I could have easily switched from a 75w McIntosh tube amp to the McIntosh 500w solid state amp and not hear a big difference, in fact I did that weekly. With the Elipsa, I could have switched from a 10 year old Bryston amp to the new version which sounds much different and also not really appreciate a difference. All the Wilson speakers I had could easily tell me all the differences in the gear. Going from McIntosh to Ayre to Lamm, to McIntosh 300w tube amps, different cables, etc... with Wilson resulted in immediate and audible change, I didn't have to struggle to hear it.

The Sonus Faber speakers have a "flavor" to them that simply erases much of the difference in gear. I don't want to stereotype, I have not heard much of the newest SF speakers other than the Amati Futura and don't want to say that it is necessarily a bad thing either. The flavor of SF is quite pleasing to the ear.

Wilson are like chameleons, they will change their color to whatever the gear driving them is. Call them more resolving, more accurate, more detailed, whatever, the fact is one can hear a difference and that to me is both challenging but more rewarding when the right combination is found.

Serge.......You present the statement "Sonus Faber speakers have a "flavor" to them that simply erases much of the difference in gear" like it is a fact. I beg to differ. No doubt you have an opinion, but this statement is far from the truth. The same goes for the "flavor" comment. Honestly, what speaker does not have a flavor? If Sasha's did not have a "flavor", there would not be a Sophia, or a Maxx, or whatever other speakers Wilson makes. All speakers have their voice, a flavor, or however one choses to describe it. The same is true for electronics. An amplifier is no more voiceless than a speaker.

Wilson speakers are no greater chameleons than many other fine speakers, including many in the Sonus Faber line. I can fully appreciate a Wilson owner's enthusiasm for his choice of reproducer, but that does not mean that Sonus Faber speakers and many others take a back seat. I take exception with the notion that somehow Sonus Faber speakers "override the gear", and aren't resolving enough to hear the changes when driven with different preamplifiers, amplifiers, sources, interconnects or speaker cables. My personal experience with the Cremona Auditor's, Guarneri Memento's and the Amati Anniversario's does not reflect this notion in the slightest. In fact, using five different amplifiers and three different preamplifiers, both tube and solid state, revealed just the opposite. Each change always produced discernible differences and nuances to each speaker's performance. I did not strain to hear or recognize changes presented. The very same was true when swapping tubes in power amps or preamps. The audible differences brought about by these changes were clearly revealed. The same was true when swapping interconnects and/or speaker cables. Not once did any of the Sonus Faber speakers I have owned fail to clearly reveal the differences of any system component or cable change I made. It has been my experience that a large part of a speaker's ability to be ultra revealing has a great deal to do with the room in which it resides. All rooms, along with their acoustic properties and limitations, play greatly into any speaker's ultimate performance capabilities.

It is perfectly clear that you and many others are more than smitten with the Wilson product line. It is a fine company that produces high performance speakers in a hotly competitive high-end speaker market. I can say the same for Sonus Faber, PMC, JM Labs, and many other fine and equally prestigious speaker manufacturers. No single company has a lock on the best. That concept is an opinion usually reserved for owner's imaginations and bragging rights. We all do it, so happy listening to all.