The speakers and stands were placed in the locations I had used for the KEFs when I reviewed the SVS SB-3000 subwoofer for the September 2019 issue. This put the Olympica Nova 1s' woofer centers 68" from my listening position and 60" apart. They were 60" from the front wall and 45" from the sidewalls, and toed in toward my listening room chair. However, this configuration left a weakened central image and resulted in a frequency response that rolled off above 2 kHz. Moving the speakers closer together so that they were 50" apart gave the flattest measured treble response and strengthened the central image. Sitting with my ears level with the tweeter produced the most even treble balance. Even so, the KEF LS50s sounded brighter when they were placed on the same stands.
Listening
As with the Sonus Faber Minima I reviewed so long ago, the Olympica Nova 1 excelled in the midrange and treble, and less so in the deep bass—unsurprisingly for a smallish loudspeaker. The 1/3-octave warble tones on Editor's Choice extended cleanly down to the 40Hz band. The 31.5, 25, and 20Hz tones weren't audible at my normal listening levels. I heard no chuffing sounds at the lowest test signals when I listened behind the speakers.
For this review, I used two of my Mark Levinson amplifiers: the 25W class-A ML2 monoblocks and the 250Wpc No.534 stereo amplifier. The Olympica Nova 1 has a specified voltage sensitivity that's about average, but I worried that the 250Wpc amplifier might be necessary. The original Minima review had been conducted in both the large listening room and in a smaller study in my previous house. Because the Minimas had sounded better in the study, I anticipated that the Nova 1's would do well in the new condo listening room, which is similar in size to my former study. To explore this idea, I listened to many of the same recordings I had used for the original Minima review.
Similar to my notes for the Minima, the Nova 1 captured the impact of Terry Bozzio's drumhead sounds, rim shots, and kickdrum, heard in Jeff Beck's "Behind the Veil," from Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop (CD, Epic EK 44313). While the Nova 1s' bass output would prove incapable of pressurizing my room while playing pipe organ recordings, kickdrum on the Beck album, and others like it, had considerable heft and speed.
The Nova 1s did well with recordings of midrange-rich instruments, including clarinet and piano. Chopin's Scherzo in B-flat, Op.31, as played by Anna Maria Stanczyk on the first Stereophile Test CD (out of print), came across with a rich, warm tone. Higher up the spectrum, the Sonus Fabers excelled in their reproduction of Dave Samuels's vibes on "Quidado," from Joe Beck's The Journey (CD, DMP CD-481). Orchestral pieces also benefited from the speaker's rich midrange reproduction. The trombones and trumpets played with an usually clear, brassy blattiness during Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, by Christopher Brown and the Huntingdonshire Philharmonic, recorded by John Atkinson on Track 13 of the Stereophile Test CD 2 (CD, STPH004-02).
Imaging was the Nova 1's strength, one measure of which was its ability to precisely locate individual images beyond the speakers' outer boundaries. This was heard on track 10 of the second Test CD 2's "Mapping the Soundstage," as the apparent position of Larry Archibald's voice and hand claps shifted around the Nova soundstage as he moved around the recording venue (just as described in the test record's liner notes).
When I fed the Nova 1s some heavy metal music, they didn't flinch; indeed, they brought out the anguish and sweetness in James Hetfield's bittersweet ballad, "The Unforgiven," from Metallica's Metallica (aka "the Black Album"—CD, Elektra 61113-2), putting across well the harmonies in the guitars and the battering energy in Jason Newsted's bass and Lars Ulrich's drums.
Comparison
Compared with the KEF LS50s, the Sonus Faber Olympica Nova 1s had a richer balance, reproducing the full vocal tones of Stephen Roberts singing the solo bass part of the priest in the recording of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius cited above. Suzanne Vega's vocals on "Tom's Diner," from Solitude Standing (CD, A&M Records, CD-5136), were as three-dimensional as heard on the LS50s, as well as being natural and pleasing. The Olympica Nova 1s' soundstaging and imaging matched that of KEFs on JA's recordings of the music of Latvian composer Eriks Eenvalds, performed by Ethan Sperry and the Portland State Chamber Choir on their The Doors of Heaven (24/88.2 WAV files, Naxos 8.579008/ HDtracks). The Nova 1's bass response, though not as even as the KEF's, went deeper, so the floor stomps of the Portland State Chamber Choir from that recording were more impressive. This difference in sound quality favored the Nova 1s, which, after all, are several times more expensive than the KEFs.
Conclusions
The Olympica Nova 1 may be small and relatively affordable, but it delivered a large amount of musical satisfaction. It didn't play extraordinarily loud or pump out the deepest bass. Its strengths resided in its imaging, its midrange richness, and the absence of fatigue in this listener. My appreciation grew over the time I lived with the speaker.
As with the Sonus Faber Minima I reviewed so long ago, the Olympica Nova 1 excelled in the midrange and treble, and less so in the deep bass—unsurprisingly for a smallish loudspeaker. The 1/3-octave warble tones on Editor's Choice extended cleanly down to the 40Hz band. The 31.5, 25, and 20Hz tones weren't audible at my normal listening levels. I heard no chuffing sounds at the lowest test signals when I listened behind the speakers.
For this review, I used two of my Mark Levinson amplifiers: the 25W class-A ML2 monoblocks and the 250Wpc No.534 stereo amplifier. The Olympica Nova 1 has a specified voltage sensitivity that's about average, but I worried that the 250Wpc amplifier might be necessary. The original Minima review had been conducted in both the large listening room and in a smaller study in my previous house. Because the Minimas had sounded better in the study, I anticipated that the Nova 1's would do well in the new condo listening room, which is similar in size to my former study. To explore this idea, I listened to many of the same recordings I had used for the original Minima review.
When I fed the Nova 1s some heavy metal music, they didn't flinch; indeed, they brought out the anguish and sweetness in James Hetfield's bittersweet ballad, "The Unforgiven," from Metallica's Metallica (aka "the Black Album"—CD, Elektra 61113-2), putting across well the harmonies in the guitars and the battering energy in Jason Newsted's bass and Lars Ulrich's drums.
ComparisonCompared with the KEF LS50s, the Sonus Faber Olympica Nova 1s had a richer balance, reproducing the full vocal tones of Stephen Roberts singing the solo bass part of the priest in the recording of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius cited above. Suzanne Vega's vocals on "Tom's Diner," from Solitude Standing (CD, A&M Records, CD-5136), were as three-dimensional as heard on the LS50s, as well as being natural and pleasing. The Olympica Nova 1s' soundstaging and imaging matched that of KEFs on JA's recordings of the music of Latvian composer Eriks Eenvalds, performed by Ethan Sperry and the Portland State Chamber Choir on their The Doors of Heaven (24/88.2 WAV files, Naxos 8.579008/ HDtracks). The Nova 1's bass response, though not as even as the KEF's, went deeper, so the floor stomps of the Portland State Chamber Choir from that recording were more impressive. This difference in sound quality favored the Nova 1s, which, after all, are several times more expensive than the KEFs.
The Olympica Nova 1 may be small and relatively affordable, but it delivered a large amount of musical satisfaction. It didn't play extraordinarily loud or pump out the deepest bass. Its strengths resided in its imaging, its midrange richness, and the absence of fatigue in this listener. My appreciation grew over the time I lived with the speaker.
