Sonus faber choices - help me decide

Although I have not heard the Futuras, I would imagine at their price point they would sound better than the Nova. I myself could not afford the Amati, so I never took the time to audition. But after 3 years of auditioning speakers, I settled on the Nova III’s which stretched my budget beyond my intended investment. I really wanted the 5’s but that was further away financially. My room as well is 16 x 28 and I was concerned that the 3’s would be too small, but to my surprise they seem to be  a perfect fit. I also bought the C1 Center and the Nova 1’s for rear. I am still waiting on the 1’s and stands 7 months and counting (thank you covid or whoever is to blame). 

I have about 350 hours on the 3’s and they breaking in nicely. I am amazed at the transition of these from day one till now. They required some patience and at times I was thinking I had made a grave error. But now I am quite happy. The other part is I had bought a new Audio Research LS28 and it had to break in as well. 

It is your decision but I will caution you if you buy the Nova’s, unless your dealer has has them on a shelf, be prepared to wait.

good luck

Theo

I've heard both the Amati Futura and the Olympica Nova 2. The former was the most astonishing audio experience I've had, beyond marvelous, but the electronics were a lot of money too (like 35000 - 40000 Euro retail in total). I mean no offense, but your current electronics will most likely not be up to the task, so this makes sense to me only if you are planning to upgrade (and I mean substantially upgrade) your electronics too. Also, the Futura tweeter is more reserved, depending on pairing they could be a bit dark.

The Olympica Nova 2 was almost as nice in the mids (but not quite), which still reads as "great!", had exceptional, sparkling but smooth highs that I really loved, more so than the Futura's (and definitely not as subdued), and rather ambiguous bass even driven by the same Accuphase E600 amplifier that drove the Futura's quite well. Maybe it was the positioning, maybe the lack of burn in, maybe it's just that the single 7 inch bass driver is not quite up to the task (or to my expectations). I'd consider the Nova 3 instead. Oh, that tweeter, lovely! Also, maybe the need for upgrading the electronics would be a bit less stringent that for the Futuras but still very important I think.

Another thing to take into consideration is the availability of spare parts. I've considered the Futura myself and I emailed Sonus Faber to inquire about this matter. Disappointingly, they directed me to the local distributor, as if the spare parts policy would be the distributor's! It scares me to think I could buy the Futura's, have a tweeter accidentally damaged someday and be left out in the cold!

Thanks for the feedback. I share your concerns about the electronics. My plan was to eventually upgrade them via the secondary market, but that will take a while.

I had not thought about the spare parts. I have never had a speaker break on me, so maybe that was why I had not thought about it that way. How much should I worry about that?

I am fairly new to this hobby. I have always been passionate about audio, but previously did not have the means to spend what it takes to achieve audio nirvana. Those Futuras look like an end-game speaker to me, but I wonder if they are too big of a mountain to climb!