New amp to drive Sonus Faber Olympica III - Hegel? Coda? Mark Levinson?

What a journey! And a lot of great description. I'm going on a similar journey now, but don't have your skill to describe the experience.

For speaker cable I'll suggest looking at Zu Audio and HiDiamond. Zu is not all too well known for their speaker cables but I doubt I'll ever part with mine - everything thing they touch becomes more clear and extended with improved soundstage. Close were the HiDiamond D8, just warmed things up slightly and that's not my preference. Zu is a US company so maybe not as easy to get for you, but HiDiamond is out of Italy.
 
So. I’ve using new AZ Satori shotgun now. Generally fine. But thinking again that there are cables which sounds better :-). Also, power cord. I use Oyaide Tunami from wall to filter Isotek Sigmas and Saec 6000 from filter to Hegel. I bought Isotek few years ago when used few components on rack together. But why I need it now? I have just all-in-one combo Hegel H590, isn’t it? So, I want to buy any suitable power cord 3m/10ft long to try sound without Isotek.
 
BTW , sometime we think about fidelity of our electronics, right?
How it similar to real live music?
I can say that Hegel 590 and SF Oly gave me good result - on half way to live sound at least :-)
 
I have found quality power cords are a worth while improvement in sound.

Power conditioners can be an improvement as well but you always want to compare the sound from direct to wall outlet. Some conditioners can degrade the sound or make a change you may not like. I remember trying a name brand device that went into the outlet then you plug your amp into that, a well known reviewer said he couldn't listen without his, well despite all that I did not like the result the device took some of the attack away.

Some things help, some things don't, continue to experiment though for those that do help.

Glad to hear you are liking the 590.

Boris99 said:
So. I’ve using new AZ Satori shotgun now. Generally fine. But thinking again that there are cables which sounds better :-). Also, power cord. I use Oyaide Tunami from wall to filter Isotek Sigmas and Saec 6000 from filter to Hegel. I bought Isotek few years ago when used few components on rack together. But why I need it now? I have just all-in-one combo Hegel H590, isn’t it? So, I want to buy any suitable power cord 3m/10ft long to try sound without Isotek.
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Boris, how is the evolution of your listening progress with the Hegel and Olympica IIIs so far?
 
Briefly- good enough. I’ve using WiFi bridge for net connection, Kimber Palladian power cord and Acoustic Zen Satori shotgun speaker cables. That’s all.
Sure there are some amps which are much better than this Hegel. But I like it because of high power, light weight, all-in-one construction
 
Hegel is not in the same league as Coda.
I’m not even so sure Mark Levinson is.
My grouping would be with Gryphon and Pass but certainly not better.
What is you price bracket?
Btw love Sonus Faber.
Great sound best built cabinets.
European craftsmanship.
 
I can appreciate your enthusiasm but Pass builds amps that far exceed where Coda has gone, same with Levinson and Gryphon.

I like the Coda older amps better than these new ones they are making, I bought an 8 and sold it, liked my Levinson better in the end. My Coda CSX is on par with my 532h it comes down to the sound you like. I prefer the Levinson's better transparency and better dynamics. The Coda seems to have more power and excels in the midrange though.

I know people with the newer Coda amps and they seem to sound better with the Coda preamp.

Tobb said:
Hegel is not in the same league as Coda.
I’m not even so sure Mark Levinson is.
My grouping would be with Gryphon and Pass but certainly not better.
What is you price bracket?
Btw love Sonus Faber.
Great sound best built cabinets.
European craftsmanship.
Click to expand...
 
That said wouldn't SF speakers with Pass, Gryphon or even ML be like putting chocolate syrup on chocolate ice cream? It's been awhile but I remember Sonus aber to be warm sounding speakers. Krell or Ayre if you got deep pockets.
 
I would agree with that assessment, that's why I didn't like SF with Mac.

steve59 said:
That said wouldn't SF speakers with Pass, Gryphon or even ML be like putting chocolate syrup on chocolate ice cream? It's been awhile but I remember Sonus aber to be warm sounding speakers. Krell or Ayre if you got deep pockets.
Click to expand...
 
I can say that I still enjoy the music from the combination of Hegel 590 and Sonus Faber Olympica 3. I haven't even experimented with other speaker cables yet. Although I will try to follow this path because my AZ Satori Shotgan is too long.
However, I want to tell you. I had Luxman 590 and some other amplifiers that I tried to make sound with Sonus in my 5.5x3.5x3 m office. It didn't work. Too much humming. Luxman gave the magical sound of Harbeth 7. But what should I do with my beloved Sonus? Then I decided to divide my technique into two parts. I left Harbet 7 in my office and bought Lingdorf 1120 for him with room correction Room Perfect . For Sonus, I bought Hegel 590 and arranged them in another room of my house. This room has an area of more than 35 m2, height probably 3.5 m, large curtains and sofas. Everything turned out very well. Sonus and Hegel gave me a superb sound as in a big music hall. Of course Lingdorf removed the buzz but I can't say his music was a delight. Clear, powerful, but without a soul. However, it was in the office with Lingdorf and Harbet that I spent most of my time.
And then suddenly I decided to move Sonus and Hegel to my office. Out of the blue! The humming became small. The music in the office again became excellent. This means that it was the power of the amplifier only that solved the issue of the quality of music in my office. Not poor acoustics. I didn't have to go through a long path of experimentation. It was enough to give a worthy partner to my magical Sonus and continue to listen to them in the office. Probably will sell Lyngdorf but keep Harbeth in my collection.
 
I love a story that has a happy ending. I bought my first hegel the h360 because it made my revel salon 1 sound 'alive', but when I upgraded to the salon 2 the h360 was no longer a perfect match ruining my hopes that component matching was history and I'd found the amp to end all amps, sigh. The h590 has the power to control most speakers, but it's not as smooth as the h360 and I expect not the best match for bright or edgy speakers.
 
I used different speakers cables to make sound softer or brighter. I still keep Audio Note Lexus 96 - nice dark and warm cable. Litz.
 
Just delivered a new Ag-Au alloy Siltech 330L (G7) speaker cables. Yes, I feel a black background that I've read a lot about. But the sound of my Olympica 3 is still like from the middle bookshelfs . I will wait impatiently.
 
If the sound doesn't begin to improve with some break in time see if you can exchange them.

I haven't used Siltech in a long while but my impression is they are not like good, better, best, the sound can be different between series.

I was completing a loom of Siltech New Yorker in a system, I got a deal on a higher series Siltech speaker cable, the mids/highs were great but no bass to speak of. I was using Conrad Johnson tube gear at the time, not sure why the speaker cables didn't work out. I sent them back for the New Yorker and things were good. Logically you'd think the higher series would have been even better, just didn't work out that way.
 
I'll wait a while. The deal was so good I wouldn't even ask for a pre-audition. I was based only on reviews. The dealer warned me that Siltech needs a very long period in order to start sounding good. I hate this property. This makes pre-audition meaningless. In general, I was quite pleased with my AZ, although this is not a star cable at all. But I rearranged my speakers and needed a shorter cable. I looked around and found this Siltech
 
Tried many speaker cables, albeit across years of different systems. Tried the AZ Satori shotgun and didn’t keep them. They weren’t “bad” I just didn’t like them as much as others.

Among brands I tried (few others I don’t remember): AZ (couple different ones), Audience, HiDiamond, Monster, Audioquest (a few different ones), Zu.

The Zu are so much more to my liking they haven’t been replaced. The people at Zu Audio are also great to deal with. Highly recommended to try.

At some point I’d love to try Nordost and Shunyata, but they’re both just so dang expensive.

(And sorry about my avatar, but my family is from there so, nothing personal intended of course)
 
I would like to try the new Cardas and JPS pre-top cables but did not find them for a reasonable price. Perhaps I'll try old copper cables like the Harmonix or Monster Sigma. Although I do not trust old cables: dielectrics certainly change their properties, perhaps copper too. By the way, if you wrote about the regular Satori, then yes, it is a very medium cable. But Satori Shotgun sounds noticeably better in bi-wiring
 
The Siltech I had was directional, sorry to be Mr. Obvious, but you might check to be sure the cables are connected in the correct direction. If you don't notice arrows on the cable the signal should flow the direction of the Siltech label, "S" to amp and "H" to speaker. Direction usually has to do with grounding so it will make a difference.



Hopefully the Siltech will work out for you. The series I had I did like a lot.
 
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