Sonus Faber Elipsa

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.

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.