Sonus Faber Elipsa

I have had SF Cremona, SF Amati's and SF Elipsa in my 2 channel room. I have Mcintosh MC501 amps so power is not a issue. My room is 15 x 17 . The SF Elipsa sound the best. They have terrific 3 d imaging, nice articulate deep bass even at lower volumes. I had to turn the Cremona's up to pretty loud levels to get bass out of them, so I added a JLF122 sub., this kept my happy for a while. The SF Amati's sounded the worst in my room and I took them back to the dealer the next day, the bass was boomy and bloated sounding. The SF Elipsa to me is the true sweet spot in the speaker line; you really do not need anything better than this in my size listening room.

I've heard the Elipsa in several different setups and it sounded radically different in each. It is a speaker that seems a bit demanding, in terms of location and setup. It sounded quite good in one setup, so so in another and quite bad in a small room (a difficult room for any speaker). In the small room, the MUCH cheaper Liuto floorstander sounded much better. This does not mean that the Liuto is in any way a "better" speaker; it happened to be a better match.

I have heard the Stradivari in two friend's system. While the systems and rooms were quite different from that where I heard the Elipsa (so my judgment is more an educated guess than anything else), the Stradivari seems to be a warmer sounding speaker with nicely saturated sound (rich in harmonics) while the Elipsa is more harmonically thin sounding side (more like the modern audiophile ideal). I would NOT consider the Elipsa a smaller version of the Stradivari. The Anniversario is much closer to the sound of the Stradivari than the Elipsa.

Larryi

I disagree with just about everything you said regarding the Elipsa. The shape of the Elipsa makes them easier to place near walls not harder. The Elipsa is not hrmonically thin. It sounds like you did not spend much time listening to the Elipsa . The Elipsa sounds better to me than the Amati's . The Elipsa should not be compared to the Strads which are twice as expensive. Someone looking to buy in the Elipsa price range is not looking at the Strads in the same way a Cremona purchaser is not looking at the Amati's. I am just curious if the Elipsa you heard were new or broken in ? What were the electonics hooked up to the Elipsa's ? What kind of music were you listening to ? Were the rooms treated ? It makes no sense that the liuto sounded better than the Elipsa, what volume were you listening at ?

Entdoc,

The point I was making is that the matching of the speaker to the room is so critical that it can swamp the difference between a higher price (and presumably better) model in a manufacturer's line and a lower price model. In one setup, I thought they sounded very good, so I am not putting down the Elipsa at all. This is just a cautionary message about expecting bigger, "better," more expensive not working out to one's expectations. In the problematic room for the Elipsa, I have also heard the Anniversario and the floorstanding Liuto; my order of preference is Anniversario, Liuto, and Elipsa. I helped with the setup, which was done using the Sumiko method.

Of course I know the "theory" that the large baffle makes them suitable in a small room. In this particular room, that was NOT the case. The Elipsas were well broken in. The electronics could of have part of the issue too (run with Reference level Naim electronics and with custom pushpull 300B tube amps and custom 6sn7-based preamplifier). It could be the case that the Liutos match better with the Naim gear that I heard them played through, again illustrating that system matching concerns are a BIG factor. All of the rooms I heard the Elipsa in were not acoustically treated, all were in somewhat open floorplan rooms. Music used was primarily jazz and classical. Volume levels were never very high.

Larryi listen to the Elipsa's with Mcintosh and you may fall in love with the sound.