Excellent tonal balance,incredible dynamics, superior imaging, beautiful, and very high construction quality.

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I heard these at CES 2000 in Las Vegas where I spent quite a while listening. These speakers have great tonal balance and dynamics that are hard to match. The sound is extremely detailed but smooth. They are absolutely beautiful with excellent build quality. These speakers were better than most at CES, definitely unsurpassed in their price range. They can compete with the best and are definitely tube frendly. I feel they are a good value for the price. A definite must hear.

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I have heard most $1000 to $100,000 speakers. I own Legacy Focus and Joseph Audio RM7si SIG.

Glorious high's, liquid midrange, deep bass, huge soundstage
low amplification (95db)

They will reveal weaknesses in your audio chain.

I purchased these speakers (MK.11) without the benefit of hearing them four months ago based on reviews that on read and on the advice of a friend who had extensive listening on the Silverline speaker line.

I bought at resale price but the pair I recieved were new in the box. The breakin period is aproximately 100 hours, although they sounded great out of the box. It is important to bi-wire with top grade speaker cables to get the utmost out of these speakers which can be expensive propersition but the rewards are great. When fully broken in the speakers disappear into the system as if the singer and band are performing in front of you not coming out of a box which was the same presentation of my Magnapan's. The soundstage is wall to wall and the front to back depth extends 3 to 4 ft. from my rear wall. They are coherent from top to bottom and are acurate with a wrap aroud image.

These speakers love tube equipment which is not to say that solid state doesn't sound great. the music is non fatiguing and draws you into the artist performance like nothing else I have expierenced. High's are rendered with a smooth and detailed presentation and the midrange is liquid especially in the female voices where they seem to float above the music but focused. The bass and especially the low bass is powerful yet controlled depending on the recorded music's intention.

I had audtioned speakers costing twice the price of the Sonata's and found none the equal. These are oustanding speakers for the price or at any price level.

My System:
CJ PV 11A preamp
VTL 150 Amp
Theta Transport and Pro-Basic 111A DAC
Audioquest Volcano speaker cables
Tara Labs RCS Air 2 interconnects
Tara Digital Cable
Tice Power Conditioners

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MG 111A, B&W 803, Definitive Tech 2002

Details, smooth mid, tight and deep bass. Can be used with both tube & solid state and do not need hight power amp to drive them (93 dB/1 watt/ 1 metter).

requied to place in mid room size. Cables must be biwire. Drivers look cheap compaired to others like B&W, JM lab, proac,Dunlavy.......

I bought Sonata MkI on used market to replace my Totem Forest. i'm agree with Mr Mark who posted previous review about these speakers, they perform wide soundstage and focus make u feel like being in the first raws. the sound is simply natural, sweet and pure vocal produced by silk dome tweeter and mid range design, the bass is deep, fast, tight on kick drum with a litle forward. Everything seem sound right to me when i moved them 3'away from my front and side wall to avoid boomy sound, my listening position is 8'-10'to get full range of sound and great bass. Cable them with quality biwire cable will improve more details on mid bass than their jumper bars.
overall, i find the speaker to be lively, extremely musical and simply wonderfull to listen. With the price i got for the used pairs i would give them 5 stars.

my current system:
- Wadia 16 cd player (connected direct to amp)
- Arc vt100 MkIII (used in the winter as my heater)
- Plinius sa100 MkII
- Speaker wires: Cardas golden bi-wire
- i/c rca wireworld golden esclip for s.s amp
xlr cardas golden for tube amp
- Power core: cardas golden and ps power cores
- Power condition: power wedge utra 116.

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Theil 3.6, Von scheikert VR4.5, JM lab Electra 920.....

Tonal accuracy, good overall balance, musically convincing, great finish, coherent, great imaging

Bass response is good but not full range as posted by manufacturer, mid-range is very revealing and accurate but lacks ultimate level of integration with the remaining drivers

I guess you cannot make a $5000-$6000 speaker that s truly full-range, absolutely coherent, and as musical as speakers costing nowadays north of 20 grand, but with the Sonata's Mr Yun comes quite close. Please note that this speaker has been replaced with a Mk 2 version because Avalon Acoustics sued Silverline for copyright infringement. The Sonatas look a little bit like the Avalon Eidolons but are really quite different, so I see no basis in the suit. Nevertheless Silverilne has now introduced a new version which I suspect will improve in some areas but might be a step back in others (hope I'm wrong).

Anyway, the original Sonatas are without question excellent speakers, and possibly reign uncontested in their price class. They are coherent, dynamic, tonally accurate and revealing withought being bright or etched in the least. They make no major mistakes. They are non-fatiguing. They can accurately reproduce all types of music. They do however lack the last oomph on the bass below 40 Hz (i.e. the bottom octave), at least in my room, but there is still substantial, audible output, to levels below 30Hz. The lowest organ pedals are there, but at lower levels than they should be. I guess you have to pay north of 20 grand to get a realistic bottom octave after all. On the other hand the bass is extremely accurate, with the right amp. I am quite wary of many manufacturers (and audiophiles!) claims on bass response. To wit, the Sonatas were spec'd at 20-over 20,000 Hz. Yet, if you want to scare yourself play Vaughan Williams's Sinfonia Anartica on Naxos and you'll see that the Sonatas pack some serious bass. Enough for most people, I recon.

Lots of people use tubes with this speaker since it has an efficiency of 93 db. Impedance is also pretty stable, making it an easy load to drive. They can play really really loud without incurring in high levels of compression. I can seldom play the spectacular The Thin Blue Line CD because of the humungus sound levels attained without distortion.

The top end is airy and realistic. When playing Bach's Goldberg Variations adapted for string orchestra I feel as if the players are standing 12 feet in front of me. I can hear the instruments coloration, not colorations introduced by a speaker. The mid range I believe will enthrall some people, but not all. It is extremely revealing and transparent, and very musically sounding, but in my view lacks the ultimate level of integration with the remaining drivers. Depending on the type of recording, in certain voices or instruments like piano you can get a more recessed presentation. Although I recon that this could actually be a problem with my listening room. Please note I am really knit-picking here! Others may feel that this speaker's soft-dome midrange driver is one of its strong points. Frank Sinatra on songs for Only the Lonely sounds uncannily present, and as good as I've ever heard on speakers around this price range. Will Frank sound better on $15K SoundLabs ? Perhaps. On Nojima plays Lizst, one of the most wonderful CDs I have ever encountered (Reference Recordings) the piano is just spot perfect. So maybe the issue I have with the SOnata's mid-range is the recordings fault after all. Do I sound a lttle bit confused on this point ? I just want to be honest.

Bottom line: truly these speakers are incredibly musical, whether playing well recorded classical, jazz or pop, and I have encountered nothing that even comes close to the Sonatas at this price level.

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Thiels, Martin Logans, Talons