Sonus Faber Guaneri Homage or Extremas?


If you guys had a choice of getting the Guaneri Homage or the Extremas which would it be? I have a Mcintosh 352 amp to run them and a Mcintosh Mcd 500 to play material through. Also have a Rel Stentor Mk ll at my disposal.
Eddie
128x128malwow1
I had Extremas at one point (they replaced Avalon Eclipse). I had a failure of the the bass driver on one of the speakers. Easy enough to replace and Sumiko was very responsive, however, it was incredulous to see that SF used plain old wood screws for driver mounting. The quality (or lack thereof) of the parts inside was also eye opening. I loved the cabinet but it seeemed there was so much more that could be done to improve that design.
long ago i heard the sf extremas at an audio show for the 1st time. while not the greatest room, wires, etc. (plus the fact that i couldn't afford them), i set my future goal THAT DAY on trying to get a pair. i was so emotionally moved by the beautiful sound they made i had a hard time getting up to go listen to another system.
http://hometheaterreview.com/sonus-faber-extrema-loudspeakers-reviewed/

And still you're puzzled by the heat sink. Then you notice below the 'Extrema' legend to the right of it a little logo which looks like an electronic component, bearing the words SINE CAPPAT. And it all ties in to the crossover which is, like the outrageous styling and the dial-in damping, another novel -- not novelty -- feature.

The crossover of the Extrema bears no capacitors. I phoned MC -- the man you want on your team if Trivial Pursuit ever adds a category called 'the History of Loudspeakers' -- and he told me that (1) to the best of his knowledge this is the first time a capacitor-free crossover has been used in a commercially available dynamic speaker and that (2) it's a pretty nifty idea but not without its disadvantages. Sonus Faber is frank about the latter, dealing with the need to dissipate whole watts of wasted power through the fitting of the heat sink. To quote Sonus Faber, 'The fact that the amplifier is forced to deliver higher power on a prevalently resistive load of lower modulus cannot be considered a disadvantage for a correctly designed amplifier.'

The assumption is that this product, gaining in transparency by eliminating a key component from the crossover, will be driven by the kind of amplifiers which won't be affected if some of their wattage is wasted. And -- I may as well shock you now -- at ú6490 per pair, the Extrema is unlikely to be mated to amplifiers short of grunt.

SINE CAPPAT is a first-order parallel rather than series filter. By completely eliminating a whole component, it allows the tweeter to deliver greater transient response and 'snap' as well as higher transparency. As the tweeter's level still has to be attenuated relative to the woofer, due to the former's higher sensitivity, an inductor is fitted parallel to the tweeter.

But the use of such a technique places extra demands on the amplifiers, which explains why the nominal 4 ohm impedance and sensitivity of 88dB/1W/1m meant little in practice. The losses were such that some frighteningly robust amplifiers were driven into clipping, amplifiers which I would have wagered could drive the Extrema. It was a shame, for example, to disconnect the gorgeous Marantz MA-24 Class-A monoblocks which made such sweet music with the Extremas at low-to-normal levels. Along would come some crescendo, and blaaat!, the poor babies clipped with a sound like the exhaust of a pre-war Alfa. And I'm not even certain if the extra 3dB provided by running two pairs would have made much difference.
This thread cracks me up...we have the OP deciding on a pair of speakers without seemingly hearing them and how they interact with his current gear and room. We have Rwwear posting how inefficient the Extrema's are...which in my experience is very true! Then in a recent thread on another forum, we had another member trying GH's and Extremas with a low powered SE amp. Wherein, when said amp failed to work well with these speakers, he decides its the speakers fault and buys something entirely different. Folks, the GH's and the Extrema's are two VERY different speakers! Depending on your ancillary equipment and taste, they will either work for you or they won't.
But without an in-home trial...or at least the ability to hear both speakers for yourself, all else is just meaningless, IMHO..:0)
I concur with Daveyf that a home trial is the best way forward, or at least try to listen to both speakers if possible. Both options are excellent and a lot of factors as mentioned earlier(associated equipment, room, listening preference) will come into play when deciding which one is more suitable.

To balance out the enthusiasm on the Extrema, here is a short excerpt on the Guarneri Homage on page 4 of Stereophile's review
http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/487/

It's rare to find a speaker that's truly balanced—with a tonal, harmonic linearity that extends from the upper bass to the high treble. In this respect, the Guarneri eclipses the other Sonus Faber designs. The bigger models, particularly the Electa Amator and Extrema, will play louder, are more dynamic, and have better, deeper bass; but rarely is a speaker as truthful to its source as the Guarneri.