Last night Audio Vision of San Francisco demoed the Sonja 3.3 in one their showroom at the Holliday Inn. Here’s their ad. [ Super Room just across the street at the Holiday Inn, Friday 7-10pm, Sat 11-6pm, Sunday 12-6pm we will feature Octave Audio , YG Acoustics, Nordost, SME, Ideon Audio and Harmonic Resolution Systems.]
The speakers were bi-amped with 4 tubed Octave mono amps and all Nordost Odin2 cablings were used. 3/4 of a million dollars system. Ideon streamer and DAC. SME Model 60 turntable at $71,900 and 190 lbs. Unfortunately they did not have it completely set up to listen to, so it’s the Ideon and files we listened to.
They also have the Stenheim Alumine Five SE, but that will be set up either today or tomorrow.
How does the Sonja 3.3 sound? Well, it sounded big as it should in a good size auditorium it was set up in, as well as it had a sub-woofer to help. The sound was very natural and extremely transparent with good image solidity. soundstage had great width, but a little lacking in depth. Image separation and air were phenomenal. The sound had a great sense of reality. But it didn’t have the magic a great turntable would have brought to the table. It was missing that organic textured substance magic that I am used to. I don’t know if it’s really format or just the speakers. Maybe it’s just me.
Here are some pictures I took. The speakers were set up very wided, but the space it was set up in was also very large.
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