Sonus Faber

Owners-

how many of you guys are enjoying a system featuring Sonus Faber speakers?

 

I've heard the Sonus Faber speakers many, many times. The finish is awesome... but I'm not 100% happy with their sonic signature. Sometimes too lush and the dynamics are behind the best from Wilson Audio.

 

I auditioned a few Sonus Faber speakers and really liked them, but went with Wilson in the end.

 

Which models of Wilson?

 

SF

I have a pair of Sonus Faber Electas in my main system. I also have a pair of Walls.

Great speakers, that respond well to improvements upstream.

Scott

 

Not sure what model of the Sonus Faber you are looking at but I would definitely compare them to either the Wilson Sophia mk3 or the Wilson Sasha based on your price point.

 

My dream is to own a pair of the Amati Homages one day, I absolutely love them.

Romantic sound yet with detail and micro-dynamics galore.

 

I have a pair of "Extremas", before that I owned "Electa Amator II" & prior to that, "Minima Amator". I also used to have the "Musica amp", which is what they use in their factory to test their speakers.

Extremas are the best speakers I've ever heard, although the usual caveat applies; they need loads of juice!

 

I use their new entry line mini spealers with subwoofers and couldn't be more happpy . Playing the new Neil Young LP "Clementine" from americana atm. and the speakers rock as well as bring out the charmes in vocals from Ella & Louis armstrong or the beautiful tone of a piano, violin, string quartet or full symphonic orchestra. Even Hip Hop + techno sounds good Their new somin line is really good, check their top lines for 200 K among the very best speakers ever !
I like every little thing about that company and the finish of my leathe clad minis with their golden speaker binds - Little things like that make Sonus faber so unique !

 

I've always thought they sounded pretty good. They are warm, detailed enough, but kind of bland and heavily overpriced for my tastes. You certainly could do way worse, but IMO they perform better on looks and sound. YMMV of course, and subjective preference varies. I'm a dynaudio guy, so you can calibrate your tastes against that if you wish.

I always enjoyed installing them (besides their on-walls, which are annoying), and they sounded great, but like I said, always surprised at how much they cost. "Gosh, you could have gotten X for that much..." was always my inner voice...

 

Best speakers I've heard to date are the Strads. They absolutely kill anything else I've heard or owned.
I'll be honest, I not a Wilson fan.

 

Thanks! all.

 

Strads & tubes here.

Bob

 

Just like all speakers get pigeoned toed into sound excellence, Sonas sounds great with Classical and instrumental and Women signers, like Def-Techs are great for Home Theater and Cervin Vega good for....nothing....just joking had S1 Vegas from 1980 one of the best bookshelf speakers I had, are good for loud Disco and Rock.
Sonas farber are great for everything but real instruments it shines on. Had the Cremona for a month or two back in 2005. Same old story , try them all...John M.

 

Right on, I am interested in the 'Toy' series of speakers.

 

I was thinking about buying the Sonus Faber Amati back in 1999 or so. I did not like what I heard. Way too much bass arround 100-150 Hz. Like a small speaker pretending to have deep bass. And the tweeter is very important to me. The Amati had not enough detail, not enough air and sounded "throaty", a lot of high frequencies were missing (?). But I have to say, that I heard the acapella violon with the fabulous plasma ion tweeter right before the Amati.

 

Thanks! YorkeS9. i would like to learn more about a 'Plasma ion Tweeter'.

 

Overrated, imo.

 

Sonus Faber is one the few speaker manufacturers I absolutely love (the others being B&W, Vienna Acoustics and DeVore Fidelity). I've long lusted over a pair of Guarneri Mementos, but buying new was not an option. $15k for bookshelves is a lot of dosh! Everything about it is superb though. Fidelity, fit and finish. Of course, to play you have to pay, but that's how it is for most things worth your time in life. Now that the Guarneri Evolution is out however, it's a great time to buy Guarneri Mementos used. You can get them for around $8k (or slightly under) used. My dealer has a demo pair for around $9k. If I find a pair in red violin gloss for around $7k, it will probably come home with me.

My first pair of "real" speakers was the Sonus Faber Concerto Domus. I'm currently in the process of doing some upgrades, and the Cremona M is on the shortlist. I had a pair on loan for about a week.

 

IMHO in the recent years Sonus Faber tried hard to make their speakers sound beautiful and ended up sounding seriously colored. I don't want all of my music sounding sweet and romantic. It's just not real. Gimme B&W 800 Diamond series over Sonus Fabers anyway.

 

Beautiful sounding speakers? How dare they? The horror!

Not directed at you anton, but in general, I keep reading time and time again from people (usually on the internet) about this "sweetness" of Sonus Faber, almost like they are alluding to them being tender, soft and not capable of laying down the hammer. I think it's one of those things that has been embellished to such levels, that it's now the reputation of the brand (in my experience, a reputation held primarily by people who have spent little time with the full range of SF speakers, or they have a bias against them because they put a lot of time into aesthetics, because heaven forbid you look beautiful while sounding beautiful).

IMO, this is a disservice and it doesn't tell the full story. Unfortunately, these people are the most vocal. Most SF owners aren't going to counter the claims of people whose only experience was a 5 minute demo in some terrible listening environment. It's not just this tender, delicate, romantic speaker people keep describing. They are capable speakers that play music well. Extremely well. Granted, they might not be everyone's cup of tea, but they aren't speakers that just whisper delicate sweet nothings into your ear. Well, they can if that's your thing, but they are serious business too. This is all assuming they're being powered adequately. I'll never forget visiting the now defunct Tweeter several years ago and seeing Cremona Auditors hooked up to a run of the mill receiver (I think an Onkyo). They sounded bad. I know what those speakers are capable of when matched with capable amplification & electronics. I bet people left wondering why these $5K+ speakers didn't sound much better than some $400 Polk speakers. Now someone who heard them in that condition probably talked about how terrible they sounded, and how their big box store JBLs, Klipschs, Polks etc are much better.

All I can say is when fielding opinions on hifi, always consider the source. Then go out there and experience it yourself (preferably in an optimal setting), then draw your own conclusions.

 

Years ago I auditioned the SB Cremonas. I really liked them a lot. They didn't have that "wow factor" that a B&W has, but I wanted to just sit there and keep listening to music. They didn't sound overly sweet/lush/romantic to me. When/if I ever get a chance to upgrade, I will seriously consider auditioning them again.

 

Thanks! again all.

 

The current Sonus series have lost the coloration of the past, retain some midrange magic and have great dynamics. A different animal than my 802D's but equally enjoyable. I've got a pair of the latest Ellipsa SE's and they are very impressive.

 

I don't own any onus Fabers but I have enjoyed them when I had a chance to audition them. I think I could live with most of them quite easily.