Audiophilepure

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/superioraudio/equipment/0420/Sonus_Faber_Il_Cremonese_Floorstanding_Loudspeaker_Review.htm

The real problem, and the one that was to dog the company for quite some time, was musical, not visual. The top of the lineup – the Reference line – maintained the exquisite aesthetics associated with the brand. But nearly everything that was distinctive of its musical presentation changed abruptly. Gone was the expansive musical envelope, glorious midrange, density in the higher frequencies, a warmish, full (sometimes too full) if not extended bass; if not lost entirely, the Sonus Faber signature sound had gone missing. Those seduced by Sonus Faber felt abandoned. Seduced then abandoned – and for what? Sonus Faber left its past behind in favor of pursuing what by then had become the modern sound: a musical presentation fueled by propulsive dynamics, leading-edge transients, sharply focused images, high resolution (in the audiophile sense of the term), and so on. In a phrase, Sonus Faber had gone all-in on becoming the Italian Wilson, Focal or Magico.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/franco-serblin-accordo-goldberg-loudspeaker

As cultured and refined as was Franco Serblin, the Accordo Goldberg standmounts sounded better the louder they were played. It reminded me, too, of another conversation with Franco, who was no head-banger. He posited that every CD, LP or tape has an optimum playback level, clipping, breakup or distortion notwithstanding. Listening to harmonica so life-like that the SPLs seemed merely incidental, I understood what he meant, grabbing a harmonica of my own to hear the reeds and the levels.

Steely Dan’s Can’t Buy A Thrill [Analogue Productions CAPP134SA SACD] turned the clock back to the first time I heard the saxophone break in ‘Dirty Work’, with just the right balance of rasp and honk. Likewise, pace/rhythm/timing junkies would revel in the opening bongo patterns of the same album’s ‘Do It Again’, delicious beats with the sounds of the heads almost shimmering. As for the vocals, I started imagining what an LS3/5A would sound like with a couple of octaves extending the bottom, and another 10dB added to the levels.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/ta-solitaire-s-530-loudspeaker

I loved my time with the S 530s. They reminded me why I was sold on line source and planar speakers so many years ago. My experience with these speakers went a long way toward demonstrating that the shortcomings I thought of as inherent in a line source design aren’t inherent at all.

Hearing the Solitaire S 530s made me regret that I wasn’t aware of T+A speakers sooner. The S 530 is every bit of what I’d expected, based on what I knew about the company and their digital components: a super-premium product that, while certainly handsome, was more about technology, execution, and performance than beauty for its own sake. I’d love to have heard previous Solitaire models like the fully active OECs, with their glowing tubes, or the fully active, fully digital AD4, to better understand the R&D path that led to the S 530s.