Sonus faber hand crafted loudspeakers from Italy. To be a Sonus faber reseller is a pleasure and a privilege – for us at Totally Wired, Sonus faber embody all the good qualities of audio which bought us to the business in the first instance. A conscious choice to place quality before quantity. Faultless workmanship combined with originality of thought & design.
The disregard for conventional commercial criteria make Sonus faber more than just a brand for us. With Sonus faber loudspeakers, it’s all about music and relationships. To become a Sonus faber owner is to bypass the bloodless pursuit of the technical and become immersed in the emotional pleasures of music.
Read our most recent pages on Sonus faber models
- Duetto – the affordable comprehensively featured wireless stereo system for a new generation of music enthusiasts
- Listening better; a post where we contrast both the Sonus faber and Monitor Audio high end ranges and explore how they both deliver better sound for all listeners.
- Omnia update. The introduction of the Duetto has resulted in a significant performance upgrade for the already award winning Omnia all-in-one wireless system. And in an earlier post we also do a comparison with Tivoli Music System Home.
- Olympica Nova II. Taking a really close look at an unashamedly luxurious floor standing speaker system to understand what makes Sonus faber better.
- Minima Amator II. The Heritage collection embodies the classic Sonus faber attributes of Italian craftsmanship and rich sound in a completely modern setting. Minima is the affordable introduction to this series.
- Lumina I compact bookshelf speakers and the Lumina III floor standing model. These are Sonus faber’s entry level options that offer amazing sound and value while benefitting from all the core qualities of the brand.
- Sonetto III A beautiful and accomplished floor standing speaker that combines the best qualities and attributes of smaller speakers with an ease and poise allowed by greater capacity.
Why fight Music? The Sonus faber philosophy
As we see it, Sonus faber are one of the very few loudspeaker designers to work with music rather than against it. Consider this – the characteristics that separate the sound of a basic violin from that of a treasured heirloom instrument are there for anyone to hear – the tonality, precision, resonance and warmth are readily apparent. The same applies to any musical instrument used in performance – and this is by no means the exclusive province of Classical music – the qualities we associate with voice, drums or electric guitar are all defined by tone and resonance. With any instrument these qualities are direct reflections of the materials and craftsmanship used (with a human voice we may assume a higher source but the same physical principles apply.) So why fight resonance and by implication other musical qualities when designing loudspeakers – for speakers are simply musical instruments we play with a HiFi system. If this makes sense to you, then we are speaking the same language.
But for the technically literate we have to point out that Sonus faber designs can more than compete on a specification level. If you choose to harness music to work for you, rather than devote design resources to eliminating character, then aspects such as phase coherence, frequency response and dispersion become tools with which to produce better sound. Everything happens for a reason and in the physical world you can measure it – you just have to know what to look for and what is actually important!
And much of that judgement comes down to experience and intellect. Sonus faber are a brand able to stand on the performance and quality of their products – no sexist advertising, no mass market-a-pair-in-every-home aspirations.
Although a speaker can contain the most sophisticated of electronic components, it’s timbre can only be determined through listening. Sonus faber’s unique philosophy based on the craftsmanship of musical instruments is that a loudspeaker is, in a sense, a musical container like the body of a violin. Traditional hand crafted cabinets are therefore at the heart of the design. Sonus faber put more soul into their smallest speaker than most companies can muster in their entire range. Resolutely handmade in relatively small quantities, by a family (in that special Italian sense), all Sonus faber speakers feature the finest European components nested in a cabinet of selected solid timber with not a veneer in sight.
For Sonus faber there is one very simple principle – the loudspeaker is an instrument to play music. And like any other handcrafted instrument, it follows that the materials used and quality of craftsmanship will have a direct bearing on the sound produced. Sonus faber don’t waste time fighting resonance (and by implication music), they simply employ it to further their pursuit of more enjoyable sound.
So you’ll understand, that the sound of any Sonus faber speaker will reflect this approach. Nothing else has quite the richness, especially when it comes to vocals and stringed instruments. You may well think that this would confine their talents to the realm of classical music – in fact, this richness and generosity of tone works wonders with just about any recording, making the previously mundane suddenly listenable and the well recorded simply sublime.
