I believe Sonus Faber makes outstanding speakers. I am one level below, with Sonetto setup in home theater. I originally ordered the Sonetto III, but it turned out they are too small for my living room. Now I am waiting for Sonetto V. My center is Sonetto Center II, and surrounds are Sonetto Wall, and also in the kitchen I have Soneto Wall. All that is in order and waiting… I only have the Sonetto III and the center now.
From what I can tell/hear, it is an outstanding speaker. I don’t really care about how it measures. I tried Dirac Live - from my point of view, Dirac Live killed the character of my Sonus Faber Sonetto speakers. They sounded dull and lifeless with Dirac, so I turned Dirac off, and will not bother with it.
“House sound”? What do you mean can you explain what is house sound? I am convinced they are not neutral, but I don’t really care how they measure, I like them.
“House sound” is, well, whatever a particular manufacturer thinks their products should sound like. Like Klipsch having military grade treble from the horns, Bose’s “no highs, no lows, must be Bose” etc.
If you agree with Mr. Serblin’s idea how speakers should sound, you’ll like SF sound.
Measurements are good to filter out something entirely terrible, but they will measure differently in your room anyway.
What @Kelly_Burkhart said, he founded Sonus Faber. After he left SF he founded another company, named after himself, that still makes speakers that are just as good looking. Never heard them, but supposedly they sound quite good, too.
@PixelPopper is a fan. I’ve never heard them but they are beautiful. The Sonus Fabers I have are glorious in form and function, which is what I want in a speaker. The electronics, for me, are out of sight and only need to be sonically beautiful. I could even be happy with a Chord as it would be behind a cabinet door
I think some ideas about SF are about misleading. As is with Klipsch and Bose.
The late Franco Serblin was not in charge anymore for SF´s sound characteristics since almost 20 years. He founded the company named after himself somewhen around 2005, received good reputation for his ´Ktema´ model (being also pretty neutral and monitor-like) and died eventually.
Whatever ´SF house sound´ might had been established before, in last 15 years there was no such thing. Especially the midrange to high end models sounded in the majority absolutely neutral (to an extent that some people might have called them ´monitors´). Some entry level and ultra high end models might have shown a tendency towards heavy (upper) bass, but I would not call this house sound.
It is quite a similar story as with Klipsch for some 15 years already producing pretty warm-sounding and forgiving horn tweeters and Bose relying on rather bass-flooding subwoofers for last 30+ years.
Interesting replies. I think we can all agree that that measurements don’t matter all that much if the speakers sound good to you. (Not so for DACs and amplifiers, I guess, as you want to get an undistorted signal to your speakers.)
At the risk of veering off-topic, I wonder if with DSP measurements matter at all for speakers (irrespective of them sounding good to you). I use Dirac Live in my chain (via miniDSP SHD Studio), so the original sound of the speakers is considerably altered (whatever original here means, as they will sound different in each room). Unless the original sound is so off that it can’t be easily corrected with DSP.
DSP can only correct so much and, should only really be used for relatively minor corrections. A passive speaker still needs to have a good design to ensure good driver integration, an even on- and off-axis response and a sensible amplifier load.
My thinking with speakers in addition to starting with a good design is:
Placement. Position in the room affects where the “nodes” are. DSP can’t correct deep nulls.
Room treatment. Diffsorbtion at key reflection points, bass traps if necessary.
Well, yeah, not every Klipsch is terrible (apologies to people who like them; wouldn’t say that about Bose though…) but the concept of “house sound” still stands, even if not every Klipsch speaker can be used to drop bats out of the sky…
Doesn’t the same group that owns McIntosh own SF now?
Some companies grow and then sales numbers get really important. If Bose would be interested in High-end speakers then it would for sure come up with something really interesting, like they also do with pro-audio. There are many scientist working there and not just one guru like with Wilson.
I heard big Sonos Fabers being compared to Avalon Time. I liked the SF better because they were much more neutral, the Time was just way too mid-bass heavy (+10dB!, It sounded like there was something wrong) and restless, although it had incredible resolution that I never heard anywhere else even to this date.
In these circumstances, when buying another new equipment, I suggest you consider buying studio equipment - there are still remnants of decency left?
Although some influencers say that studio equipment is not for “SoundQualityphiles” - but they may be wrong…
Good advice. A large part of the loudspeakers from the past that are still popular and can still compete with the high-end of today are studio speakers, like the Yamaha’s and Tannoys, BBC ls3… or even Quad electrostatics.
Also the worlds best measuring mid driver is the ATC 75mm dome that can be found in many studio’s for decades.
Studio speakers are cost effective, neutral and analytic. They usually don’t have a particular sound that the company-guru likes, and last longer.
The influencers are being paid by audio (marketing) companies.
No. High performance audio, DACs , speakers and amps, have never been more affordable. You’re taking about jewelry which has little to do with performance.
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