Hi Jeff,
I’ve been following and enjoying your hi-fi adventures for years but was surprised and a little shocked to read you have “moved on from the Vimberg Tondas.”
I understand your feelings about the Sonus Faber Maxima Amators, but after having invested so much time, energy, emotion, and money in the Tondas, I’m curious what caused you to leave them behind. I haven’t read anything about your reasons but I may have missed it.
Your experience with the Amators is refreshing to read, considering the quality of the speakers you have had, and to be honest, it touches a chord with me in a way you may find interesting.
Besides many others, I’ve had speakers from Wilson Audio, Avalon Acoustics, Revel, Sonus Faber (the standmounted Electa Amator II), MartinLogin, and Quad HiFi, and even a pair of Hales Transcendence 8s in their short-lived heyday. I loved them all, but recently I picked up—purely on spec and for fun—a 20-year-old pair of Audiovector M3 Avantgardes with ribbon tweeters.
These unassuming speakers are utterly stunning and have taken me closer to the emotion and fun of music than anything I’ve ever had. How can that be possible?
But, and this is why I’m writing, even though I love the music the Audiovectors make I still want to go after the “big” names. What I have is more than good enough yet I’m being pulled back to Wilsons or possibly Magicos. Why?
It would be nice if you could explain why you moved on from the Tondas. Did you wrestle with a similar dilemma, or was your reasoning not hi-fi related?
Keep up the good work.
Bill McCardle
Cornwall
United Kingdom
Gosh, why do we audiophiles do what we do? I know lots of hi-fi manufacturers that have been trying to figure that one out for years and I’m not sure we are any closer to understanding the whys and why nots.
As for my ownership of the Vimberg Tondas, I have nothing but great things to say about those speakers. There were no disappointments whatsoever, and I’d heartily recommend them today if someone were to ask my opinion. I could have lived with them, happily, for many more years.
I decided to sell the Vimbergs and move on to the Sonus Faber Maxima Amators for a simple reason: when the SFs were released, something about them spoke to me—I guess you could say I needed them. I described this in my first article about the Italian speakers—“Material Obsession: Sonus Faber’s Maxima Amator”—and I have not regretted my decision for a second. Was it a rational decision? I can’t tell you that, but then we exist in a hobby where rational thinking does not need to be factored into every decision! I wanted the SFs, I got the SFs, and I’m thrilled with the SFs. That’s really the gist of it.
Sincerely,
Jeff Fritz
