Focal Stella, Sonus Faber Lilium or TAD R-1 speakers

[vinod_david]

Oh! that Avantgarde look beautiful.

[bart]

David, I saw and heard them in red and they are indeed a joy to look at.

[Apexorca]

I really like all of these 3 speakers. They are among the best. It's all about personal taste.
TAD is the more naked one, a little bit harder voiced than the other two. Clean and dynamic. The most technical sound with great resolution, but still very musical. The only small thing is that I think it's a little bit to much upp in your face. The music can almost be a little bit to much and not so relaxing, in my ears. But still I could really love them in my home. We are talking about small differences.
What I can remember is that SF Lilium and Focal is more alike. The slight more romantic touch to the music and the airy analogue feel in the voice reproduction is better in Lilium. Thought, maybe Lillium can be on of the most neutral SF speaker jet and with really good dynamics and resolution to. More easy to be relaxed when listen to it.
Focal is more in the middle of these speakers but closer to Lillium than TAD in the voicing.
What I know fore sure is that SF and Krell works extremely well together. As TAD and Krell.

Love the look of Lillium. It's a better designed furniture and the finish is state of the art. But again, thats just my taste.

You could also try Wilson Alexia. I'v heard it several times. but it does not reach the high level i would expect it to. I think Sofia III, Sasha and Max III is more musical and more fun to liten to thought.

This journey of yours, is great fun to be able to do. Listen a lot to different system is the key to find your own ideal.

I hope my personal opinion can guide you somehow.

Good luck.

[amorrisjr]

I missed this earlier, but I question why you suggested a change from the highly acclaimed Esoteric C-02 preamp to AR Ref 10 preamp. I have no personal experience AR products, but it does seem there owners like to sing their praise, ad nasuem. What are the benefits that you presume will be forthcoming from such a switch?.

The C02 stand alone review provided a critical evaluation of the new unit and its contribution to SQ improvement and expanded soundstage and gave glowing praises. When the two piece Esoteric C1 preamp was introduced, one critical review said it would have to be a SOTA ("state of the art") machine to best the C-02, and it did. The comparison of the C1 to the C-02 may have been due to the paucity of competitive preamps. Only the Burmester preamps, in the less than $80K category is worthy of comparison to the C1i and maybe even the C2 as well.

The C-02 is my preamp until I move to the C1

[SuperD]

I haven't heard them yet but you may want to include the Rockport Cygnus to the mix ($62,500). I believe they are being released very soon and there are a few reviews out there. You have a lot of very nice options to listen to...Have fun!

[C2300MC275]

Originally Posted by amorrisjr

I missed this earlier, but I question why you suggested a change from the highly acclaimed Esoteric C-02 preamp to AR Ref 10 preamp. I have no personal experience AR products, but it does seem there owners like to sing their praise, ad nasuem. What are the benefits that you presume will be forthcoming from such a switch?.

The C02 stand alone review provided a critical evaluation of the new unit and its contribution to SQ improvement and expanded soundstage and gave glowing praises. When the two piece Esoteric C1 preamp was introduced, one critical review said it would have to be a SOTA ("state of the art") machine to best the C-02, and it did. The comparison of the C1 to the C-02 may have been due to the paucity of competitive preamps. Only the Burmester preamps, in the less than $80K category is worthy of comparison to the C1i and maybe even the C2 as well.

The C-02 is my preamp until I move to the C1

I am sure in the right system, it would be truly magnificent. My comment on ref 10 was specially in relation to if you go for Focal Stella and use Krell to power. The ref 10 will add that extra dimensionality / 3d imaging but critically also maintaining a real fluidity with the upper Focal register which needs to be matched carefully. If you were to use the Krell preamp and your Krell monoblocks then that match would be definitely I the wrong direction imho - for me you would have listener fatigue quickly although it would have super resolution and dynamics.

It is all about synergy here and the big Focals do like some valves in their amplification chain.