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.
Thanks they work very well biamped with 4 135’s I tried quite a number of amps before settling on the 135s had all my 135’s serviced over the last 4 years so there in good order
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Lovely. After they are played in you might want to experiment with Gaia feet. They give my speakers quite some improvement in precision and depth of the stereo image and bass. Our living room has a wooden laminate floor over concrete.
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Agreed, I had the same experience with the Gaia feet. It was a good addition
I made a short video of my Electa Amator III:
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Daniel, if you do not mind, why you decided to change from II to III and how you can describe the difference?
I was very happy with the Minima Amator II I owned for 4 months. I was able to trade them back in at no loss and upgrade to the Electa Amator III.
The Electa are much bigger sounding. They have more bass and slam. They also have a clearer sounding tweeter.
The Minima are great, but the Electa is even better.
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Hi, I’m very interested in these speakers and just wondered if you wouldn’t mind describing their sound signature?
@DanielH , Sorry to change the thread OP.
Do they need lots of space or can they go close to the back wall?
Many thanks in advance.
Sounds like they perform best when approx a metre away from the front wall, 2,5 to 3 metres apart and toe’d in to the listening position. I’ve listened to them in rooms closer to the front wall and didn’t feel the SQ suffered much, if at all. As always, demo in your room if you can. They sure are pretty.
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Many thanks.
I would eventually demo at my dealer first as he has my electronics.
I trust them so would describe my exact positioning of them in my room to make sure relevant.
Finally, home demo of course 
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Many thanks.
I will digest the thread linked.
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Another video. This time listening to Johnny Cash:
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So I did manage to listen to a pair of Amator III (as well as other speakers) and ultimately settled on the Kudos Titan 505 as the replacement for my Sonus Faber Liuto tower speakers which were too big for the small room my hi-fi now resides. My criteria for what constituted a meaningful upgrade was more detail, punch and engagement with a tight bass that didn’t overwhelm the room. My Liutos are warm and lyrical but lack punch and have too much bass. The typical SF ‘smile’ freq response although not as bad as other SF (as you’ll see below).
All of the speakers I listened to bar the Kudos were demo’d in-store whereas the Kudos dealer was the only one that allowed an extended home-demo. The in-store demos were on Naim kit but still quite different to what I have at home. Here’s my breakdown:
Dynaudio Heritage Special - Detailed, clean with great imaging and good bass for the size. Very bright and unruly at times. Vocals vacillated between impressive and recessed. Not the most dynamic sound.
Focal Sopra 1 - A more balanced sound overall but dull and lifeless with very flat imaging. A surprising disappointment considering how much I enjoyed my Focal 1007BE back in the day.
Sonus Faber Electa Amator III - I was really expecting (hoping?) to love these but while they are gorgeous and romantic they only leaned in to the issues I have with my Liutos, rather than the opposite of what I hoped. In other words, a beautiful rich sound that is recessed in the mids with a boomy, coloured bass. Struggled with dynamics. If all I listened to was jazz, simple singer/songwriter type music, etc these would be amazing and surely are for a particular music lover. As I listen to a lot of metal (+jazz, blues, electronica, etc) they just weren’t engaging.
B&W 805 D4 - I can see why these are popular. A good all-rounder that ticks most of the boxes of what one would expect of a high-end stand mount speaker. Good detail, imaging, even presentation across the frequency range, good handling of sudden dynamics. What’s not to love? Well, despite all the on-paper positives there’s something lifeless about the overall sound. It sounded “good” but in an artificial way and imposed this on all the music I played through it, giving it a uniform signature that robbed the music of personality. I found it easy to check out and not pay attention to the music, which to me is the touch of death. Not for me.
Kudos Titan 505 - This was it. Punchy, fast with a crystal sound that belied the size of the speakers. The detail… my word, I didn’t realise just how veiled my Liutos are until I plugged these in. And the bass, deep and articulate with no sacrifice in body but without energizing the room and muddying the sound. They did need require the volume dial to be turned up a bit more versus my Liuto but that makes sense considering the sensitivity. The 505 are very revealing of what’s being played and if a recording is average it will communicate this with honesty. On the flipside, if the recording is good it is like a revelation. Nothing is unlistenable but don’t expect these speakers to editorialize.
What really surprised me were the stands. I used them with a loaner pair of stands from the dealer and didn’t set them up with their matching stands until the other day after deciding to keep them. The matching stands really locked in the sound and produced more detail, better imaging and the tightest bass I’ve ever heard.
So there you have it. Still need to play around with optimal placement to get them dialled in. Might toe them in to sharpen up the sound-stage as I don’t find them bright at all.
Would I have chosen any of the other speakers had I heard them in my set-up rather than in-store? Hard to say. There is a possibility that the gear/room that I listened to them in didn’t do them justice but it’s a moot point. The Kudos 505 are here to stay. I’m glad the Amator’s are right for you @DanielH .
Now to listen to music.
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Thank you for the detailed report, your impressions and experiences. It proves once again how important Home Demo is when choosing a speaker. Each manufacturer has its own sound philosophy and the interaction and placement in the room remain essential.
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A late night concert with the Electa Amator III:
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