Any experience with Sonus Faber Electa Amator II?


Hi all-

I've just landed a nice pair of Electa Amator II and stands, a speaker I've been keeping my eyes open for over the past few years. I have great memories of my old Signums, and was hoping that the EAII were similar in voicing, with added bandwidth. Haven't received them yet, but I'll be driving them with a Karan KA-I180 MkII integrated amp, using a Meridian CD source.

I'd like to hear about member's experiences with them, both positive and negative - system matching, setup, opinions, etc.

Thanks,
Bob R
bob_rodgers
Is that that chunky stand-mounted stud?
With the Esotar tweeter and crinkly carbon mid/bass?
These are bad-assed and highly sought after -you lucky dude!
SF is releasing an updated version which, I believe, is in the $50K neighborhood (only 50 pr. worldwide).
Congrats!
That's the version I you're referring to. The EAII is the follow-up with cheaper (but supposedly better integrated) Scanspeak tweet.
I bought a pair of the original SF Electa Amators back in the early 90's. Yes, they came with the "chunky stand" and Esotar tweeter. For value, they're off the charts! They sound as good today as the day I brought them home, probably better. It has been the single best purchase I've made in this hobby. You will be delighted with the sound. I'll never part with mine, and you'll know why after you hook them up and listen. I had mine set up with Classe Audio (DR6/DR15) components. I can guarantee that you won't be disappointed.
One of my fav monitors of all time. Remember seeing them dealer demoed at a few places with an unusual coax cable that wasn't usually used with speakers. Perhaps someone can fill in my memory gap on that.
It wasn't a super expensive cable but had great synergy with the Electa Amators.
Enjoy them. Cheers,
Spencer
Good choice on the EAIIs. I owned EAI, EAII, and Extremas in the past, and they are all excellent speakers. IMHO the older Sonus Faber speakers are better than todays lineup. Going off of memory, the EAI has the Dynaudio Esotar tweeter, and Scanspeak woofer. EAII has Scanspeak tweeter, same Scanspeak woofer as EAI but adds a passive radiator in the back. Extrema has Dynaudio Esotar tweeter, Scanspeak woofer, and Kef passive radiator in the back. I believe Dweller is thinking of the Extrema. Original Extrema is one of the best looking speakers ever made. New Extrema (actually spelled Ex3ma) is funny looking. Sonus Faber EAIIs like some power. Its been over 15yrs since I owned them, but I remember running them with a 180 wpc Accuphase amp with good results. They liked all the power the Accuphase amp threw at them. I remember room size wasnt a huge issue, as long as the room wasnt an auditorium. Like a lot of speakers, they like some room away from the walls to breathe. The only negative thing I can remember about the speakers(if you want to call it negative), is I remember them having a slight dark sound to them. I enjoyed that sound, to me it was smooth and musical. however I had some friends who thought they lacked a little detail. And then of course their bass wont rattle your windows. But nobody buys small monitors for that anyway....Overall very good choice. They can hang with the best of them today, with build quality thats hard to find nowadays
SBank
Perhaps someone can fill in my memory gap on that.
It wasn't a super expensive cable but had great synergy with the Electa Amator

Spence
It was the Sumiko Ocos a coaxial cable terminated with Red
ends.
We used it with top level Audioquest interconnects with Vandersteens and it imaged like crazy.
Best JohnnyR
Johnny, your memory is still good! Keef would be proud, ;-) Thanks for that. Cheers,
Spencer
I seem to remember the Ocos cables being the cable of choice for Dynaudio monitors back in the 90s?

(thanks for all the GREAT responses)

-Bob
I'm not certain but I seem to remember the Amator crossovers were done with all inductors. There were no capacitors used.
The design goes back to the earliest days of speaker building but some time ago someone in the US patented it then offered speaker upgrades using this interesting all coil principle, then seemingly dropped of the radar.
I owned the Electa Amator II's with adjustable wood/iron stands for many years. I used them with an ARC tube integrated and I really enjoyed them. I ran mine single wired but replaced the metal jumper with Kimber Select silver jumper wires which I thought was a significant improvement.