Hi Jkirk,
Great stuff. I owned the SF Guarneris original and then the Strads, and have heard Electa Amators, Extrema, all the Homages, all the various generations of the Homages, the Aida...ok...big SF fan, 'nuff said.
Relative to the SF Amati Original (which one do you own?), i found the original Amati treble a bit more forward (not unpleasant and sometimes preferable on things like movies where every bit of talking/high-end detail can help). I found the Strad (imho) to have a very complete, full balance that is really satisfying when playing full-scale orchestral in a way that i could not get the Amati to do. I am sure it CAN be done, but the dealer and i did not get it to match the Strads.
The Strads balance is more similar in some respects to the original SF Guarneri, but now with a very full, complete bottom end. But a note here...the amplification has to be high-current stuff (or whatever the tech-folks would say drives bass drivers and controls them)...to get the bass as tight, disciplined and yet supple as the treble/mids. You can get wonderful sound out of midpowered tubes, but i think when it came to my own CJ MV60...there was a world of improvement (imho) when i subsituted the Gryphon Antileon 100watt Pure Class A amp.
Overall, i have always been a big fan of SF, and when i went thru the various options from my Guarneris, i was fortunate to come across a great deal on the Strads and was exceptionally happy with them. I told my dealer the day i took the Strads i knew of only one speaker for which i would trade them back in...and 12 months later, as you can see by my signature, he found them and did a great deal for me (cashless trade other than shipping).