Reactivating this thread: I own one of these - the chrome plated Ikarus (I think mkII).
Purchased new in the 1990s with phono stage after a lot of listening tests with various low-mid power integrated amps (Meridien etc). It absolutely killed them all, superb open sound with - as the magazines say - tons of air around all the instruments and a huge 3D soundstage. Glorious strings, vocals, piano. Mids and highs like velvet. Very fast. Bass a little jelly-like since this is not an massive Krell or something. That could have been the room also - andit was driving massive speakers (though high sensitivity).
I met Kostas Metaxas once in Melbourne in his cafe and I told him just how good I thought it was - which was satisfying for both of us. He answered emails last year. He said MAS no longer provides service on his gear. He put me on to a technician in Germany who could service his stuff if need be. Corresponded with said technician who said under no circumstances sell my Ikarus - they are collectors items and high end audio folk in Europe do not let them go. Pity, MAS stuff is fantastic.
It's been in storage for years but now I'm putting this chrome-plated marvel back into service! Yay!
Question: what small speakers to get for a small odd shaped room with this wonderful amp? Where I am I can't try out a lot of brands. Metaxas used to recommend BBC-style bookshelf speakers for this as I recall (Rogers etc).
So, looking at the web, I thought maybe Harbeth Compact 7-es3 or P3ESR. Or maybe Dynaudio Excite X12 would be good (half the price)?
What speakers have people tried with these? Comments?
Edit: adding an image which I found on the web