My Sonus Faber Stradivari - Curiosity got the better of me!

I am a huge believer in system synergy. I've owned four different pairs of speakers over the past five years and each time I changed speakers, the new speakers sounded poorly with the previous preamp and amps, necessitating a change. My Soulution gear sounded terrific with my Raidho D3's but pretty bad with my Vandersteen 7's. My Pass Labs gear sounded wonderful with my Revel Salon 2's but unsatisfactory with my Raidho D3's. My Cary gear sounded excellent with my Magnepan 3.7's but unfavorable with my Revel Salon 2's. My Vandersteen 7's now sing with Vandersteen monoblocks and ARC Ref 10 preamp. I rest my case.

Best,
Ken
 
Ken,

You are 100% right about that too. Certain gear naturally goes perfectly well together. Whether subconsciously or not, I think we voice our own systems similarly.

Another friend, Bruce, and I go to the slightly warmer side of the scale. I have other friends that prefer neutral to cool and detailed.

In the end, it's whatever makes us happy.
 
Alpinist said:
I am a huge believer in system synergy.
My Vandersteen 7's now sing with Vandersteen monoblocks and ARC Ref 10 preamp. I rest my case.
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Ken.......Your system is excellent.You should probably hold up right where you are at this moment. While resting your case you should rest your wallet, too.
 
jdandy said:
Ken.......Your system is excellent.You should probably hold up right where you are at this moment. While resting your case you should rest your wallet. too.
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LOL Dan, I wholeheartedly agree! :)

Ken
 
Alpinist said:
I am a huge believer in system synergy. I've owned four different pairs of speakers over the past five years and each time I changed speakers, the new speakers sounded poorly with the previous preamp and amps, necessitating a change. My Soulution gear sounded terrific with my Raidho D3's but pretty bad with my Vandersteen 7's. My Pass Labs gear sounded wonderful with my Revel Salon 2's but unsatisfactory with my Raidho D3's. My Cary gear sounded excellent with my Magnepan 3.7's but unfavorable with my Revel Salon 2's. My Vandersteen 7's now sing with Vandersteen monoblocks and ARC Ref 10 preamp. I rest my case.

Best,
Ken
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Ken-You have been a busy man! Four sets of speakers in 5 years and a change of electronics for all four pairs. Hopefully you have found peace and happiness with your current rig.
 
Synergy is key. Not all electronics work well with all speakers and not all speakers work with all rooms. Part of the fun is buying and trying, part of the frustration is buying and trying. There are popular pairings that work really well together. The Accuphase and Sonus Faber combo above is one of them and absolutely wonderful.
 
joeinid said:
Synergy is key. Not all electronics work well with all speakers and not all speakers work with all rooms. Part of the fun is buying and trying, part of the frustration is buying and trying. There are popular pairings that work really well together. The Accuphase and Sonus Faber combo above is one of them and absolutely wonderful.
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Everything centers on your speakers. Start with the speakers and that will tell you what type of amp you need. I personally don't enjoy moving large and heavy speakers into and out of my listening room which is up a flight of stairs in my house. I recently sold my NOLA KOs that I bought new in October of 2014. I had them packed in their wooden shipping crates because I thought I had a buyer lined up who backed out at the last moment. When a real buyer showed up at my house this past Monday, I decided I didn't want him to come into my house because of this global pandemic thingy. I had my wife help hang onto each crate as I slowly slid them down the stairs until I could walk them out the door and into my garage. They probably weigh about 140 lbs in the crate and the crates are fairly large. Just not my idea of a good time, but I'm real glad they aren't taking up real estate in my listening room now.

The NOLA KOs were designed with the Ref 75 amp and that is how I first heard them at RMAF in Carl's room years ago. The KOs are 91dB 1w/1m and are 8 ohms speakers which makes them easy to drive. I knew that when I bought my JBL 4345s that my Ref 75 would work just dandy because they are 95dB 1w/1m and they are an 8 ohm speakers also. Had I purchased a pair of 4 ohm sealed speakers with low sensitivity, I would have had to purchase a high current SS amp which may have led to other upstream changes with the preamp and possibly phono pre. The average power on my Ref 75 (and the meters only show average power, not peak power) is less than 1 watt and that less than 1 watt is loud in my fairly large listening room.

So yeah, swapping out speakers can cause you to have to replace your electronics which in tandem can get very expensive and time consuming. Selling the old gear, packing it up, and shipping it all takes time, money, and physical labor. There is nothing I enjoy about that process.
 
Congratulations on the sale. I absolutely hate selling speakers. It’s a multi person job usually.

I agree, the speakers need to fit the room and the electronics need to fit the speakers.
 
Thanks guys. Somebody did get a really good deal.
 
sonus faber and jbl. tools for different jobs?. laid back sweet sounding speakers compliment a genre and high efficiency speakers are so addicting in their own right. I had a pair of 93.5 db eff speakers that I complimented with a pair of beethovens and both were so good at what they did that for 10 years they shared a room and I swapped them around depending on my music.

I sold both pair going on a mission to find a speaker that had the qualities of both speakers that would be my 'dream speakers', lol. You were very smart to keep those strads.
 
steve59 said:
sonus faber and jbl. tools for different jobs?. laid back sweet sounding speakers compliment a genre and high efficiency speakers are so addicting in their own right. I had a pair of 93.5 db eff speakers that I complimented with a pair of beethovens and both were so good at what they did that for 10 years they shared a room and I swapped them around depending on my music.

I sold both pair going on a mission to find a speaker that had the qualities of both speakers that would be my 'dream speakers', lol. You were very smart to keep those strads.
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Who are you addressing?
 
I have a pair of ex-demo strads in MINT condition for sale if anyone is interested. Posted them on AudiogoN.
 
mep said:
Ken-You have been a busy man! Four sets of speakers in 5 years and a change of electronics for all four pairs. Hopefully you have found peace and happiness with your current rig.
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Hi Mark,

That post was from 3 years ago but I’m happy to report that I’m extremely satisfied with my current system. I’ve had the Vandersteen 7 Mk2’s and M7-HPA monoblocks for three years and MSB Select DAC for nearly two years. The biggest change I’ve made lately is adding two AudioQuest Dragon Source Power Cords on the Select DAC. The improved ease and sweetness is intoxicating. I hope to add a few more Dragons in the future.

Best,
Ken
 
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