Silverline Sonata III & McIntosh MC275?

I posted a few thoughts on the Sonata IIIs here at the ‘gone not long ago. Mine were bought brand new direct from Silverline.

Powerwise, I’d think your current power train would do very well with the newer version, IIIs. I’d also say your bass will improve substantially. Well into the midrange too I’d say as well the top end will be improved too.

As it stands now in my rig, I’m not looking to change anything major. Just cables maybe. .. or a power cord for the preamp.

I’ve used them with several amps, SS and tubes, and each power line had it’s own characteristics and presentation. My Dodds are arranged so the midrange is more pronounced given the array of tubes they have on board. They have sufficient speed and extension.

With the Odyssey Stratos SE, things are more evenly set across the bandwidth, and they produce better/tighter bass, yet lack the body that the tube mono blocks provide throughout the bandwidth.

With a Rotel 200wpc stereo amp (1080 I believe… I borrowed from a friend), the bottom end was more emphasized and the top end was a bit more strident. The tweeter in the Sonata IIIs is an exceptionally good Dynaudio unit, and it helped out with that amps song.

The presentation with either my Sony or ONkyo receiver are similar to the Stratos SE, yet not quite as well articulated and defined but with the same extension. The Sony having more pronounced bass lines, and the Onkyo being more balanced and refined overall… or more musical sounding, to use a overly used term.

I’ve had a fair number of speakers, (BW, Monitor Audio, Phase Tech, VSA, Yamaha, Sony, Canton, Bertagni, etc) and heard a good number of others out there. The Silverline Sonata IIIs sit at or just above the median in speakerage, and one will have to move a goodly ways on up the speaker food chain to better them overall. IMHO In the ‘close to’ but under $8K MSRP they present a very very, good selection.

In the $4K to $5K real world price range, for a mid sized, one foot square foot print, 40 inch tall, finely finished, good looking, inobtrusive, easily placed, great sounding, high fun factor speaker system, that can handle any sort of music and does very very well in an HT setup too.

Do get the largest spikes offered right off.

Were I to do it all over again, I’d only make one other change to them… I’d have gotten a different color. Or given a WHOLE LOT more thought to my redecorating choices. Mine are Piano gloss Maple. Not exceptionally well suited for an HT setup with a 115 inch screen 3 to 4ft. behind them…. But do-able for sure, I must say. Likely any piano gloss would have been a slight issue there. A fix was cutting out a thin piece of material and laying it over the top and sides to eliminate the reflective light coming off the screen.

They sit on the 14 ft wall in a roughly 14 x 21 x 8.3 closed off room, close to eight feet apart.

Hope that helped

Blindjim and I have differing viewpoints regarding the Sonata III and amplification matches, which just goes to illustrate that we all have different preferences.

I also own Sonata III. I tried a handful of amps with them, including two tube amps: VAC 160 MusicBlocs (160 wpc KT88), and Atma-Sphere M-60 (60 wpc OTL). In all cases, a Lamm L2 Reference preamp was used.
Neither amp produced a balanced tonal response. In each case, bass was loose and uncontrolled, and was reproduced with less volume than were midrange and treble frequencies. The result was a tipped up sound.

For me, the absolute best match is Pass Labs XA-60.5 Class A solid state amps. Tremendously controlled and fully realized bass. Superb tonal balance. Alan Yun voices his speakers with Pass Labs, and he demonstrates them with Pass Labs at audio shows. He recommended Pass Labs to me when I asked about amplification. For several months I resisted spending the money and tried to find less expensive alternatives. Belles solid state amplification worked well, as did a couple of digital amps. However, in the end, Pass Labs was so clearly superior that I wrote the check.

That's my experience with the Sonata III. As I wrote initially, Blindjim has a different point of view, and frankly, I don't think either of us is right or wrong. It comes down to the listener.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd buy what I consider to be a more tube friendly speaker with a minimum nominal impedance of 8 ohms and a flat impedance curve (Sonata III do not have a flat impedance curve).

I would love to get a X250 to match my Sonata III but my space really doesn't allow a unit this big. I am keeping my MC275, i like the classic McIntosh sound when matched with my C220. Therefore, I really would like to keep my amplification set up. As I am pretty comfortable with the sound now, I am curious to know if going to a Sonata III will be an upgrade or not with the MACs. Seriously... there isn't a mac and sonata combo around... not one...