B&W 705 or Sonus Faber Concerto / Concertino


Hi
I'm a newbie here. I have been audiencing some speakers, mainly B&W's, Dynaudios, Martin Logans, and Sonus Fabers. I am looking toward building a small system consisting of a pair of bookshelf speakers and a ~40W/ch Integrated Amplifier. My primary choice is between BW 705 and Sonus Faber Concertino / Concerto. What kind of experience do you guys have in comparing the two / three ?
For the integrated amp. most likely I will choose Arcam DiVA A65. Any suggestion ? My budget, hopefully, in the $2.5k range. CD player will be added last. Thanks for any input.
gewe21
Hi Gewe21,

" As someone whom has listened to B&W's since 1984. ~ these had a better sound then. ~ And their designs of late at least to my ears sound somewhat colored. On the other hand having listens to most of the Sonus Faber Speakers here in Michigan - Overtune Audio in Ann Arbor - I love these loudspeaker @ especially the smaller ones. The Concertinos are very nice indeed. But if I had the money ot spent !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I've no doubt that my last & ultimate Mini-Monitors would be their Cremona Auditors. I love this speaker more then most that I've heard since coming into the hobby circa 1982. Some others to consider would be in my opinion are : Vienna Acoustics Haydn - AVI Hi Fi Neutron Mk. 4s & ProAc Tablette Reference 8 Signatures or JMR Twins Mk. 2 or 3's. all of these are highly musical. Again just an honest opinion which I hope will at least cause you to listen to the others mentioned as well?."

EL34EH
If I can find a dealer that carries them all, I would definitely audience them. Even the SF Concerto / Concertino I haven't audienced, instead the dealer right away steered me to the Cremona Auditors, and they sounded MORE THAN SUPERB !!!!!! But of course, they are way out of my budget @ $3500 / pair. Thanks for your reply, I will definitely audience the Concertino / Concerto and the others.
Others have any opinions ? Does anyone know if Arcam DiVA A65+ would be a good entry level integrated amp ? I prefer this to Rotel RA-02 because the Rotel's a little too "muted" for my preference.
Well I auditioned both of these speakers last year very closely. The SF concerto and concetino are different models, as you know.

I'd go with the SF Concerto personally. But in the scale of things, I didnt find the gaps between these choices to be very great.
The 705s with a good high current amp is what u need, they are thirsty for power, not wattage, but good electronics also.

The arcam is light in that dept, quality amp/sound but not good for 705s, the only good combo i have heard is the rotel 10series.

I played with the naim 5i, great sound , but 705s do need a kick.

Cant speak for the concerto etc.