Did any of you encounter this situation before? Can it be a faulty crossover or a mismatch of any kind?
After 16 years of spendor s8e ownership which grew beautifully with each upgrade of my naim system from a nait 5i to a 252/300dr that brought them to a level of performance at which I sincerely couldn’t name any shortcoming, when the occasion arose, I still took my chance and brought home this beautiful pair of 20 years young amati homage.
While they are stunning in many ways, their presentation of rock music lacks the involvement the spendors were bringing. The depth of the soundstage is huge but I perceive the drums too far behind the singer and I don’t feel the punch In the stomach as I was used with the spendors that move a lot of air even at low volumes.
Don’t get me wrong, the amatis do go very low in frequency with pianos, strings or synthesizers, they just don’t like to play drums.
As Lio has said, its the speakers. The older SF are not known to be neutral, they are soft, musical, laid back, romantic, etc. They can sound outstanding on certain types of music/certain taste but other genres, such as rock they just aren’t very good at. Over the years their speakers have become far more neutral so a more recent design will do much better with rock.
You could consider trying some different speaker cables.
A lot of SF users have Yter cables - as I believe this is what brand is used mechanically within the cabinet designs. Could possibly change things for the better.
Old SF speakers have been known to rock. Giving the illusion that a Marshall 2x4x12 stack at volume is in the listening room
Thanks for all the info and suggestions, unfortunately I can’t afford a new set of serafino at the moment, and I wouldn’t go for anything lower in the sf line-up. I do like the amati with other music genres so I would try to improve around them before deciding to sell. And The spendors definitely don’t go anywhere yet, as I mostly listen late in the evenings so at low volume and they deliver.
I have searched the suggested speaker cables and the ones used inside some of the sf are a bit difficult to find, certainly not in stock with the possibility to be borrowed.
With the superlumina I might have a bit more luck, but they are quite expensive so they will have to bring a lot in the game. But I will search and try to borrow and if they bring what this speakers are missing at low volume with rock music I’ll definitely buy them even if they cost quite a lot compared with the current value of the amati
