2. speakers
  3. 1065759599

Sonus Faber - Final and difficult choice

Dear fellow music lovers,

(Loooooong post below. Thanks in advance to Sonus Faber connoisseurs for reading through it ; I'm facing a difficult purchase decision.)

Brief history : I owned a pair of SF Concertino Home for a year and was completely taken by their beguiling midrange voicing and overall sound, but... ultimately found it lacking in the lower octaves, in both extension and slam (no suprises there, given the design choices for this model). For orchestral music, this translated for me in a reduced sense of scale and authority. And for rock, jazz and techno, the shortcomings were even more obvious ; bass guitar easily sounded constricted, sustained synthesizer notes were not as tight as one would hope, and double bass played at realistic volumes (not overly loud) would simply cause doubling of the woofer and send a scary woosh of air from the ports past my ears...

A year ago, I changed the Concertinos for Dynaudio Audience 122s, hoping for equal midrange virtues with added oomph and tolerance in the bass. I did get the bass, and a very "accurate" midrange... but gone was the magic, the instrumental textures, the stunning realism and palpability, on acoustic intruments and vocals especially.

What to do, what to do...

Back to today. Well, it had to happen : I just have to come back to Sonus Faber, aiming now to find a model that will combine the virtues of the Concertino... with more bass. So here are my choices so far, which must be carefully weighed against the fact that even though my room is medium-sized (16' X 12' X 8'), I am forced to listen with speakers facing the width of the room, not its length, to avoid a nasty room mode/bass cancellation ; this means that I can only sit at a maximum of 8 or 9 feet from the speakers, with them about 8ft apart, and a maximum of 2-3 ft from the front wall, and 2 ft from one of the side walls.

With that in mind, here are my options, many of them available through classifieds.

- GRAND PIANO HOME**. Do I risk bass overload from having the speakers sit only 2 - 3ft from the front wall ?
- CONCERTO, original version on adjustable wood iron stands.
- CONCERTO HOME. (Not currently available in the classifieds, but I would wait for it to come up if consensus gives it the favor over the original version)
- ELECTA AMATOR I (available) or II (not available for now)
- SIGNUM + ulterior subwoofer purchase. Only if the small woofer is more capable than the Concertino's...

My amplifier is a YBA Integre DT, 50-90W, decent current capability.

Your answers will go a long way towards helping my final decision.

Many, many thanks,

Jean-Benoît
Montreal

**About a month ago, I put up post here inquiring about whether the newest Grand Piano was superior to the older model, and received great insight. Special thanks to Hyperion for his advice and in-depth knowledge of the various models - btw Hyperion if you're reading this : I read the description of your "Musica" system, and the qualities you say it has are *precisely* what I'm looking for. Even our musical tastes seem similar, and WIDE-ranging :-)
ollan

Showing 1 response by mfkeleher

mfkeleher
146 posts
 
I have owned EA I, Minuetto, Concerto Home, and Signum. All mated really well with my REL subwoofer, a modest Q100E (my listening room is particularly bass friendly). With the last two, I found stand height to be critical for getting the bass dialed in. The Signum was fussy about matching electronics, and maybe the Concerto Hoems were too, because I never had them dialed in to a point where I felt satisfied, but I only drove them with a Krell Kav 300i, which was great with the EA I's.

My choice would be the EA I's for loud, or Signums for quieter listening and small rooms with an appropriately sized REL sub for your environment.

I seem to like them at about 26" in my room so the fixed height stand was out. The Signums sounded fine on Osiris 24", with work out closer to 26" in my setup, and cost a lot less than the adjustable stands.

With the sub, best distance from the back wall, to my taste, varied from 48" with the EA I's to 11" with the Signums. I located them, and adjusted the REL controls, so that I could hear the plucking of acoustic bass strings most clearly. This came at the expense of ultimate bass power, but that's just how I prefer it.
More to discover