In my small dedicated listening room with vault ceilings this is the best system so far. Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage's which were some of the last pair to be brought into the US along with new Jadis JA 30 Mk2 Mono Blocks utilizing KT150's and Smooth Plate Telefunken tubes, a CAT SL1 Renaissance Black Path BPX with phono. The Linn LP12 Radikal D, Karousel/Kore is the front-end with a Lyra Kleos. Esoteric DV60 SACD player, Esoteric D-05 DAC, Alternate ss amp: Jeff Rowland model 8T modded by Jeff. Room tuning devices include the Real Traps Mondo Traps, Mini Traps and Shakti Hallograph's. Grand Prix Monaco amp stands. Audio Art SE-1 power cords with Furutech connectors.Zenwave power cord PL1 with Furutech NCF 50, Zenwave D2 Ultra ic's, Graceline 1.5 meter ic and Black Cat PC-1 Silverstar power cord for Rowland. Two REL T5i subs...running high level off the amp outputs and with Signal subwoofer cables and Supra pc's. Nessie Vinylcleaner.
I was surprised to. Room is 14x12 with a 10 ft ceiling. Smooth jazz sounds great. Chuck Loeb, Paul Hardcastle most recently. Volume levels "most" of time run up to 90 db and it only take about 1 or 2 watts to do that and I'm fairly nearfield.
Pretty much, day in and out, I use either a 7 wpc 300b SET or a 30 wpc PP 300b. For the type of music and level I listen to, they are more than enough and the sound is just gorgeous.
So many "right" things went into the making of the GH's. Thank you Mr. Serblin.
Have my GH's hooked up to my vintage tube system this weekend (Marantz 7c/8b). Found this in my notes. Thought you might enjoy it if you haven't already read it.
"At 1m on the reference axis (a few degrees below the midrange driver), the sensitivity was 86.5dB/W/ma good result for a miniature speaker. This was not prejudiced by the impedance characteristic, and I got an average value of 8 ohms with a minimum value of 5.8 ohms (fig.12, lower trace). Many tube amps will be happy driving this load, as I found in the auditioning.
I applied various input powers to the Guarneri; it proved very capable in the mid- and treble ranges, the linear magnet and suspension systems keeping distortion down to 0.2% or better, even above 90dB spl. Below 100Hz, the system was working harder, with distortion above 2% below 70Hz, but this was of low order, and insignificant if judged subjectively. The Guarneri's power handling, like the Minima Amator's, was well above the average for its size, but you can't expect really high sound levels, especially in the bass. Nonetheless, it can play 6dB louder than a BBC LS3/5a, which will be enough for many applications. In a typical listening room, two Guarneris will raise 102dBA with 100W peak program (undistorted) per channel.Martin Colloms"
Excellent system. Can't believe I never commented here before. I know we've been on the same side of the fence in "discussions" over the better G...Momento or Homage. H's all the way!
Circa 2008: I always wanted the H's just for looks alone (love walnut) but never found the right pair so I bought a pair of new M's. As fate would have it, a month later the perfect pair of H's came my way. So I owned them both at the same time and for over a year. I used both of them with tubes and ss and the H's were my favorites every time. Eventually let go of the M's, listening to the H's as I type this now.
Curious, does your owners manual have Franco Serblin's signature written in it?
