The Aidas of March all over again
 

I've been in love with Sonus Faber loudspeakers for a long time.

I fell in love with Italian design and craftsmanship many years ago when I had the good fortune to live in Italy for three years. One can't help but gain a deep appreciation of Italian art and architecture when living and working in the land that gave birth to Michelangelo and Leonardo DaVinci, where the town of Cremona is famous for that epitome of musical instruments, the Stradivarius violin, where Rossini and Verdi, Donizetti and Puccini wrote some of the most enduring music of the classical world. Where Ferrari has a justifiable claim as the pinnacle of automotive achievement.

And Sonus Faber reigns supreme as the most beautiful sounding and finished speakers in the world.

Until now I had to content myself with brief indulgences at audio shows and too short visits at dealers' showrooms. I was lucky enough to hear Sonus Faber's penultimate model, the Aida, on annual visits to Scottsdale AZ over the years. I was struck by the lightning bolt, but a new pair was always out of reach. I had to make do with virtually feasting on Ivan's beautiful eye-candy in his original Aidas of March thread.

However, yesterday a dream came true.

I found a pair of Aidas from a reliable seller based in the UK and after some back and forth, made an offer that was accepted. Serendipitous in that he had shipped a large pair of speakers to the Seattle area two years before, he was able to recommend a reliable Customs clearance agent to expedite them into the US port of entry and make sure they were trans-shipped to my home.

Yesterday after an interminable weekend in my garage, my Aidas were finally set up in my living room and I spent a ten-hour marathon luxuriating in the most beautiful music I've ever had in my home in the nearly fifty years of my love affair with music.

Here are the first set of pictures:

More pictures
 

Second set:

https://www.audioaficionado.org/atta...8&d=1552420040

Third batch of Aida pictures (the good stuff!)
 

Inside at last:

https://www.audioaficionado.org/atta...6&d=1552420773

Wonderfull, what a great system and what great speakers. How large is the room?


Enjoy

That is one beautiful setup. One can only hope that they sound as wonderful as they look. Congrats on the new speakers!

They look great. Congratulations

Congrats!!!

Congratulations. A beautiful speaker. Once you have insured you have located the proper position you are going to be a happy listener.

Thanks for the kind words.

The volume they play into is somewhat irregular shaped, I guess I'd call it a semi-open plan first floor. The nominal living room is 14' X 27' with the Aidas facing down the length of the room. You can see the bay behind the equipment rack, which adds a bit to the overall length. Ceilings are 10'. The back of the living room opens into a large kitchen and dining area.

The left side of the front half of the living room, to the outside of the left speaker is an open entry foyer 17' X 9' X 21', and out of this area are two large open halls to other parts of the ground floor. There is an open staircase to the second level from the foyer, with a balcony and an open hallway to the bedrooms upstairs. So quite a large volume.

I put a GIK Acoustics folding acoustic screen to the outside of the left speaker so that it sees a similar acoustic as the right speaker which is closer to a wall and also has an acoustic panel to the outside. In practice, there is no pulling of the center image and central sounds are firmly centered between the two speakers. The speakers are 9' apart from center to center.

Thank you for your interest.

Steve Z

Thank you very much. They sound amazing, and I'm sure will only get better as I fine tune the positioning and the speaker controls a bit.

Steve Z

Thank you!

Steve Z

Thank you very much. I'm pretty happy right now, Jim. :banana:

But I agree. Other than making sure that I have the speakers the same distance and angle from my chair, I haven't experimented much yet with dialing them in. I'm having too much fun just listening right now.

The high, low and depth controls were all at median settings. I did tweak the low control up a bit because I have hardwood floors over a crawlspace, so I'm sure I have more bass leakage out of the room than a slab or suspended concrete floor.

Jim (Metaphacts) gave me some helpful tips and when I start moving them around to get the most out of them I'm going to keep his instructions front and center.

Steve Z

Steve... Huge Congrats from another fellow Aida owner.

What an Outstanding acquisition, enjoy them in the very best of health!

Metaphacts aka Bill ;)

Doh! I knew that.

Just call me Jim-Bill!

Steve

Thanks very much Ivan. And thanks for the time you spent on the phone with me discussing them. Very much appreciated.

You're a very bad influence! In a good sort of way.

Steve Z

Thank you, Gary. I've got to figure out how to post a full-size picture. The little ones don't nearly do the finish on these beauties justice.

Steve Z

And I’ve been called worse; by the wives of course. :laughin:

Beautiful system and speakers. Congratulations!!

Congratulations Steve - those are absolutely gorgeous in graphite! Enjoy.

Wear that as a badge of honor!

I do and will pay for it for some time LOL!

Those are beautiful, congratulations!!!!

Next step, Ivan will be telling you how great they sound if you tri-amp them [emoji56][emoji48][emoji48]!

Thank you. The combination of Aidas and D’Agostino Momentum is magic.

Steve Z

Thank you. The graphite finish is a real chameleon, picking up the light and changing shades from almost gloss black through greys and even olive and brown tones. I didn’t have a choice since these were what was available, but I’m very happy with the color.

The Sonus Faber finish has to be seen to be believed — I’ve seen grand pianos whose finish wasn’t even close.

Steve Z

Thank you. I have to keep the appearance to a certain standard if I want to keep the stereo in the living room. Absolutely no problem with the Aidas.

I’m waiting for Ivan to chip in with how I need triple Burmesters! :music:

Steve Z

Congratulations and thanks for sharing the photos.

Thank you, and you are very welcome. I've spent many relaxing hours here at AA enjoying members' pictures, so it is the least I could do to share.

Steve Z

You can also Tri-amp each side; these would work in a pinch. ;)

https://www.audioaficionado.org/atta...1&d=1552440892

Oh my...

Congratulations Steve, what wonderful speakers and a great system. I also am in love with SF designs, and think the Aida is their best looking speaker. You’re a lucky guy.

PNW members party at Steve’s!!!

Hahaha my brother Jim is a rocket scientist!

I knew I could count on you to come through for me, Ivan.

At Definitive's Music Matters last week, Sonus Faber's Will Kline had the Aida 2s on demo driven by four large Macintosh 1.25KW mono amps. They did a pretty creditable job, considering I never saw the meters go above 12 watts!

I was thinking another Momentum S250 might be nice for vertical biamping. Not that the Aidas *need* it mind you from what I hear so far -- but another Momentum in the rack might be nice for, you know, symmetry.

Nature (and Ivan) abhor an unsymmetrical stereo rack and will rush to fill it.

Steve Z

Thank you, Tony. I agree about SF, and I am indeed a fortunate man -- great wife, great life and a pretty decent stereo.

I've got an acre to play on over here on the Olympic Peninsula. We could have a backyard barbecue when the weather starts getting nice (any day now, any day!). :beerchug:

Steve

Sorry about mis-naming you Bill. Jim (Still-One) distracted me! (Easy enough to do and I seldom need any help).

Last night I followed your advice and pulled all the room treatments out, turned the LF and Depth controls to minimum and started playing a bit with positioning. Still very much a work in progress but I find the Aidas very responsive to small position changes. Lots of little thin post-it stickies on the floor.

Far from done experimenting but something as simple as moving my chair two inches back made a huge difference -- the soundstage opened up even more an the speakers are beginning to completely disappear on everything but hard-right/hard-left mastered jazz and early rock recordings.

And bringing the low frequency control back up to mid-point sounds just right, rather than having it slightly higher as I first thought I might need. So thank you very much for your suggestions. I've still got work to do, but I'm getting there.

The door is always open, Bill if you're in the neighborhood!

Steve Z

Steve... for me 1050 was the magic number for my Aida’s. Once I horizontally Bi-Amped them with (3) Burmester 911 MKIII Amps (350 watts per channel stereo) so 350 x 3 each side.

The Aida’s then gave me all they were capable of. :ok:

So an S250 per side = 500 watts (into 4 ohms) x 2 = 1000

A nice round number and very close to the magic 1050!

:music:

Steve

I'd fly in to hear/see that!!! Might be out sooner than that though [emoji16]

I've talked with several Aida owners and of course heard them in Mecca (Ivan's house [emoji16]). The essential and common element seems to be tri-amping in general. Sure, 1000, 1050, 1500 with 3x the same amp are all good numbers but you could also tier them from bass on up from what Ive been told by 2 other owners. Matching amps' sound sigs is key...

Good to hear your excitement!

Why would your watts double from 500 per side, making 1000 and not just be 500? Separate amp, separate power.

Mind you 500 is plenty IMO

Always welcome!

Steve Z