Sonus Faber Electa Amator III anyone using?

I have ordered a pair of Electa Amator III. I am trading in my Minima Amator II to get them.
I will be powering the EA3 with my SN2.
I was wondering if anyone here is using EA3, and what Naim amplification you are using with them?

It would seem I will be the first and only one using Electa Amator III on this forum. I am a bit surprised because it is a well reviewed speaker.

I think @IWCDoppel has Amators in his excellent AV system. I don’t know which iteration of them though.

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Hi I have the first version as surrounds but know then well in 2 channel, very nice and musical speakers. The only reason I use them as surrounds is I can part with them

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This is a fortuitous thread as I too am weighing the purchase of EAIII. I currently have a pair of Sonus Faber Liuto towers which are quite lovely but are too big for the room my system now resides with the bass often overwhelming the sound.

I’m looking for smaller but high-quality speakers that work in a rather small space. I auditioned a pair of Dynaudio Heritage Specials and while I liked the detail and impressive sound-stage they were rather bright and lacked the emotional involvement of my Liutos.

I’m hoping to demo a pair of Kudos Titan 505 in my system in the upcoming days which I imagine will mate well with my NAP 300DR but part of me worries that while it may have more punch and detail I’ll miss the rightness of what I currently get with my Liutos. They are a bit too warm and lack energy so I wonder if the Electa Amator III can give me everything I want.

I’ll see if I can demo a pair today or tomorrow.

I will let you know what I think when I get them.

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Pretty speakers IMHO

@IvdZ may have an opinion, as he heard them ( if you use the search part).

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Hi all,

I indeed heart the Electa Amator III numerous times. Very (!) impressed. They are so easy on the ear and extremely well balanced. The AE’s also have the typical “silky” high; don’t know how SF did it, but the high frequencies are very special and never sharp. The match with Naim is (anyway for the whole SF product line) very good. Loudspeakers are so personal and everybody will have their judgement, but to my ears there is not much better at this price-point then the AE III or Nova Olympica III. Kudos or Vivid maybe.

The reason that I don’t own the AE III is that they didn’t exist yet when I bought my SF Olympica Nova III. I have considered an audition comparing them, but in the end it never happened. I think (wild guess) that my Nova might slight fit better in living room which is large,. However in a mid-size living room it wouldn’t suprise me the AE’s are a touch better.

In terms of amplification I do believe an SN3 will suite. Try to invest in your source; an NDX2 or better would be superb.

Iver

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I love the combination of naim and Sonus Faber, I love the tonality and dynamics. Passive bi-amping can be worthwhile too, works amazingly well with the Extremas


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I’m not sure there is such a thing as too much bass is there ?

I am thinking of adding another pair of lightweight 15" to add yet more dynamics to the 30-70 Hz range

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@IWCDoppel wow ! What acoustic treatment do you have? Is that Artnovion? Very nice. Also interested what type of set you use to drive your SF’s

Iver

I have. combination of GIK and a few others, a lot of trial and error as well as measurement of RT60’s, its managing sensible Decay but retaining transient energy and imaging and the tangible ‘in the room’ feeling is subtle diffusion placement

I’ll write a longer note later with the set up its 135 heavy with 5 subs. A LOT of internal modifications to lift the 4K Blu-ray player to high end performance

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The set up is a Panasonic 9000 analogue out with upgraded analogue, power supply Digital board, clocks a lot of trial and error and a lot of component changes, copper GND plates, screening and a lot of film caps squeezed in, a very good CD performance now, better than a lot of high end units, but I’ve spent over £2k on parts and its taken nearly 3 years of experimenting.

This then feeds an AV2, using a 32.5 and Supercap for L,R. All subs are controlled by a 10x10 HD miniDSP (again heavily modded) to drive 5 subs 8-38 Hz 18" BMS in bespoke birch ply cabinets and 3 Sonus Faber 12" Cremona Subs blending from 25-65 Hz. The subs only add the missing frequencies to take each speaker from 8 Hz up to where required for each speaker. The speakers are not processed or DSP, the subs only have DSP control. Signal feeding the power amps for each channel are fed in parallel to the DSP. All subs have been aligned using REW and MSO and experimentation

So in Cinema terms it’s a 7.5.0 set up. I am about to feed the AV2 with an XPS-2 power supply as well
Amplification is naim 135’s and BK 500 sub amps

The video is Panasonic to Lumagen to PJ

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What about upgrading to 350’s :slight_smile:

Wow, I didn’t know the 300 had been upgraded. That would be a £60k upgrade :flushed:

Interesting they have gone back to a classic mono, I only ‘need’ 9 I wonder is they split pairs ! only £54k

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I’m currently using the Electa amator III with a SN3 and chord Qutest. Really enjoying the combination in my space

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Nice setup!

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In 2020 I exchanged my old Minima Amator (1996) with the Electa Amator III. I’m lucky I can place the speakers in the middle of the room, giving them sufficient space to excel. This spring I traded my beloved 272/XPS-DR/250DR for the full NC combination 222/300/250. I’m now getting the transparency I was looking for while the bass performance and the staging has improved substantially.

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Wonderful set up. Extremas along with DBL are my dream speaker.