Bass - 8.5 / 10
Mids - 9 / 10
Highs - 9 / 10
Image - 9 / 10
Soundstage 9 / 10
Value - 9 / 10
Looks - 10 / 10

Room placement - must be spot on
Amplification - must be strong (100W class A or 250+ solidstate) these are not real weaknesses but more a necessity.

I have noticed all the negative reviews have been submitted by "audio enthusiast" who dont rate the speakers at all. But none of them were up-front enough to include in their negative review what gear they were driving the speakers with. Your dealer or friends would have advised you before purchasing how important it was to have the right amplification driving these babies - but NO you submitted a negative review without the correct driving equipment. Please if you have these or whish to audition make sure you stick to the old saying "its not the size of the barrel, it's the power of the shot". Remember you dont buy a drag car and run it on diesel...... or are you?

Customer Service

Nil

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Many high value bookshelf speakers - Proarc tablettes, SF Concerto, Kef to name a few

everything but the bass below 30 Hz:s in my 90 cubic meters room

the absence of typical minimonitor qualities invites one to listen too many hours and too loud

Heard Extrema eight years ago and fell in love. Used some dipoles, magnestostatic and ribbons but longed for smallish neat wooden boxes with seamless, tonally honest and "big" sound. Found Electa Amators and wood/steel/stone stands and out went the dipoles. Some 40 watts class A triode honey and Goertz cables: gone is the need to dig into the details of sound, back came the pleasure to listen to the music. Not bad for a record rewiewer/hifi journalist.

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extrema

Looks really nice; intimate, rather colored sound (if that's your thing)

price, not-so-faithful sound reproduction

I borrowed these beautiful loudspeakers from a friend for the summer. He had owned them for over a year so I believe they were pretty well broken in. I don't consider myself an audiophile but I have listened to quite a few loudspeakers over the years. So any way...on to the review:

If looks are your sole reason for buying loudspeakers, :) then you will most likely never find a better purchase. These babies are gorgeous.

However, the sound quality is a different story. I come from the school of thought that says the exact duplication of the origional recorded sound is the ultimate benchmark for loudspeakers. Some of the previous reviewers are correct in saying that this speaker created a warm, intimate soundscape. However, by my standards, that doesn't make a good speaker. I found the soundstage to be quite narrow. And the frequency responses bordered on deplorable. Some nasty peaks colored the highs and the bass response was sadly lacking below about 45Hz.

I'm not looking for grossly inflated bass and in-your-face highs. I just want accurate sound reproduction and SF simply does not supply it. Especially for the price...

cause resentment from the EA II users

Except SF Extrema, EA I is the best monitors ever made despite those ney sayers. They are just resenting the superior sound of a discontinued but superior product.

Sold Electa Amator I, upgraging to S.F. Extrema. Bought $3100 USD and sold for $2900 after two years. What a value! Extrema is more dynamic but needs much more power. My wife still misses Electa Amator I's elegant appearance and refined sound, so am I.

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Sonus Faber various models

I owned a pair of Electa Amators for a couple of years and had a wonderful time with them. My EMs were purchased second hand, as I heard they needed quite a bit of run in time, despite the manufacturers claiming otherwise. Well, when I installed them in my system, details of which I will get to soon, they were incredibly good.
The mid-range was good, treble could sometimes be slightly harsh but otherwise good. The bass, well, the bass was absolutely yummy.

I think too many people do not give their speakers the right chance to perform at their peak, because they do not run them in properly and equally important, they do not site them well. Placement is everything. Experiment with your EMs again and again, and one fine day everything will snap into place. If you are not prepared to do this, many audiophile speakers are not for you.

I replaced the EMs because I bought brand new Guarneris. Straight out of the box, and even after two days, I still miss my EMs awfully.

I give the EMs five stars.

Associated equipment: Theta Basic upgraded to II, into Sonic Frontiers Ultra Jitter bug, into MF 24x with separate power supply, into Reference Music preamplifier, into Chord 1200b power amp. Everything either on seismic sinks, or DH cones or Black diamond racing cones, with Flatline blue heaven speaker cables.

Michael Seow

There's nothing much to say except it's fussy about placement,and you'll know what's wrong upstream,and I've listen to panel speakers Sonus has the finesse of panel with wonderful staging to boot,yes the agent"hi-end audio"one bloody arrogant bastard,but go to one of their retailer, one at peoples park & the other at golden landmark they are friendlier.(why oh!why don't sonus faber switch distributor).

beautiful sound with great depth and soundstaging

none

I have my electa amators 12 jears now, and they sound still
as beautiful as the day i bought them.
Amplifiers are ; musical fidelity MVT pre-amplifier and
musical fidelity P-270 power amplifier.

As an owner of a speaker which has been around for the last eight years and received all the favourable reviews from all the established trade rags during that time to justify its audiophile classic status, I thought nothing much needed to be said that had not already been said in its favour.
To my utter shock, I found it listed in this websites' Hall of Shame! On further investigation I found it there not because of its sound or build quality, but because a kiasu Singaporean with an axe to grind with his local dealer had the gall to post not 1 but 3 postings to this fine product to reiterate his angst. Amazingly, he was not even trying to audition this particular speaker!

Too bad he couldn't get a proper audition of the speakers he wanted to hear but but then again one can't help feeling from what was written on these pages that there might have been an element of an attitude problem on his part as well, notwithstanding dealers poor showing as well.

BTW, I noted from the review of other models within the Sonus Faber range some downgrading of the product (and bitching) due to the price. Given that these speakers are exquisite pieces of woodwork hand-built from selected solid walnut staves, there is a premium to be paid as a Ferari is generally more expensive than a Porsche in the same performance band for the same reason.

Then again, the people who have bitched about price are probably peasants who can't relate/appreciate the concepts of beauty and craftsmanship. I suppose their veneer wrapped MDF boxes will have to do.

Anyway, to all you Electa Amator owners and Sonus Faber lovers (Hyperion?) out
there, please submit your votes and get your preferred speaker out of the Hall of Shame to where it rightfully belongs.

I bought my Electa Amators second-hand in Jan 95. Upgraded from Martin-Logan Sequel II speakers. I was happy with the Sequels, but the Electas did everything better!! I'm powering them with an old Mark Levinson ML-11 with "only" 50 watts per channel and it's a dream. I've plugged higher powered amps into them--it sounds better only if you stay with high quality electronics. A 250W Adcom was louder, but not better. I don't plan on ever upgrading from the Sonus Fabers.