Sonus Faber speakers are lauded for their exceptional aesthetics and enjoyable sound quality, making them a consistently pleasing choice for music lovers, though they have some drawbacks in terms of manufacturing history, resale value, and specific design elements.
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okay this is uh second in our series of
the brutally honest videos first one was
Macintosh if you haven't watched it uh
Allison will put the link down below
this is about sonus fber again we're
we're going to only cover products or
brands that we carry uh although I
certainly have thoughts about products
that we don't carry because I don't have
as much intimate experience with those
products I'm not going to talk about
them okay son this far let's start with
the good
uh obviously gorgeous the moment you see
them most people will say that is a
stunning looking speaker even from all
the way to their luminous series um
where they're quote unquote essentially
rectangular boxes they're so beautifully
done with little touches that just set them
them
apart um and also gorgeous sonically um
it's it's it's a line of speakers where
I find
I can consistently enjoy music through I
don't have to play audio file recordings
to enjoy the speakers and I'm not being
phous there are lots of great speakers
out there that sound
amazing but you have to play audio file
appr prooof recordings and to me that's
just not good enough I want to play
music that I care about that I love and
um unfortunately recordings are not
always going to be that great so with
sonus Farber I have a fighting chance of
getting really good music through those
speakers and enjoy them okay second
thing they've got a slightly warm tone
which again I like given the fact that a
lot of recordings tend to be on the
bright side on the har side it it tends
to warm it up a little bit which again I
like um sort of um airing on the side of
ss of omission rather than commission if
that makes any sense another great thing
about the speakers beautiful workmanship
again starting from even these the least
expensive luminous series all the way to
the top the the the physical work is
spectacular the way they fit and finish
everything um you don't see uh Corners
being cut the kinds of binding post they
use the way that their serial numbers
come on a plaque for example on the
Sonet series I've gone into great lens
if you watch any of our son
unboxings and so on you'll see it um the
way that they they they cut their Grill
if you look at the Luminous series again
this is their least expensive stuff it's
so well done um so workmanship wise it's
fantastic um I I made a note here I've
never had any cosmetic flaws or failures
out of the box we've had that with some
very expensive high-end speakers never
with um sonus Farber among the clients
that I know pride of ownership is very very
very
high um recent models will play most
genres of music from very well to
stupendously well again depending on the
genre so if your music tends to run
towards a lot of uh harsh recordings
it'll do it fairly well that's
ultimately the the the the weakness is
due to the the the source but if your
Rec if your music tends
towards U Jazz acoustic large orchestral
music music um rock and so on it'll do
it just fine you'll you'll really enjoy
it okay so these are just some points I
didn't want to make a huge list now
let's go to the bad okay let's start
with one that uh I think was a Strate
strategic error that Sonos Farber made
um I want to say early to mid
2000s sonis
Farber um decided that they wanted to
release a line of speakers that be
um at a lower price point but offer
tremendous value in other words really
high performance um relatively large
speakers to small and so on and so they
released a line called the vener I guess
that's how they pronounced it back then
we were not a dealer back then um the
design was all done in Italy but it was
all manufactured in
China and while the speakers certainly
sounded very good um we've had lots of
them traded in over the years and we
have clients still to this day who have
them and of course the reviews uh
consistently said wonderful things about this
this
line the problem was a stigma
that somehow attached itself to sona's
fber which is kind of intriguing we'll
go into that in a moment um and as a
result of that I hear from time to time
people say oh aren't they made in China
you know the sonas Faber line and I
would say no no sonus Faber is all
designed designed and manufactured in
Italy just that one series at the time
called a vener that was made in in China
um but because of I think this um uh uh
belief uh some people felt that uh sonus
Farber is maybe not as good as it could
be just simply because of
that I find it fascinating
because lots of Brands out there have
products made in
China bows and Wilkins they're uh most
of their series is manufactured in China
I shouldn't say most a lot of
it um Paradigm Martin Logan which we
sell their um uh uh speakers a lot of
other than in fact I think the
electrostatic hybrid speakers if I'm not
wrong the rest are all made in China
nobody seems to care
um I I I don't understand why it seems
to be primarily afflicting sonus Farber
and it could just be maybe that people
have a higher expectation of sonus
Farber anyway that was a strategic error
in my opinion second point is uh the bad
is that resale value is average in some
models below average which is sad to say
because the products certainly are worth
in my mind every penny that they sell
for and more I can't think of a another
line of products that is as wellmade as
lovingly made and that's a very key
point about sona's far if you ever get I
don't know if they do public um visits
but when you tour the factory you see
how passionate the individuals are when
they build the
product um yeah so it's it's a shame but
on the other side of it is that that
means that when you are looking for a
used pair ofon as far Barber you get a great
buy um okay the manual specifically the
subwoofer manual the rest of the manuals
are okay they're fine um they used to be
better in my opinion but that's we'll
come to that in a moment the subwoofer
manual as to put it in words uh that my
my friend nsh says sucks in six
languages it's basically a pictogram
much like what you would get from an
Ikea box right it's it's six different
languages and it's basically pictures of
how you would do it um with very
little text and to me that's just not
good enough you know first of all the
subwoofer is a sophisticated product
it's got an amplifier built in the
connections are unusual compared to a
regular subwoofer because they uh want
you to hook it up to the highlevel
connections and so you have to make sure
that you connected right uh with the
right color codes on the wires and then
depending on the kind of amplifiers you
use you have to connect it in a
different way I remember the first time
I saw a Sonos Farber manual many many
many years ago I bought a pair of uh
early generation of M I think it was a
second generation of M
M
and I opened up the box and the speaker
remember this is going
back 20 something years ago maybe more
the speakers had this velvet suede cloth
over the speaker it was just luxury as
the finest when you touch certain
materials you know how you get tingles
that's that's how I felt and then you
took it off and then suddenly you see
you see this stunning looking speaker uh
finish in absolutely Flawless gloss and
then you you look at the manual and the
presentation of the manual the manual
was a
hardbound with again a certain material
on The Binding on the actual cover
itself and then the paper inside was
like old parchment paper with Jagged
edges not the typical you know uh sheet
of paper like this it it it evoked all
these feelings of being handmade even to
the point where the manual was so
lovingly done unfortunately the the new
generation doesn't do that anymore I'm
sure it's partly because of cost cutting
um and I miss that so
that's another
bad um crossovers while the parts are
certainly as good as they need to be and
in the case of the higher models they are
are
exceptional um they are mounted on PR of
circuit boards
now I have never done a direct A2B
comparison between hard wirring of uh
crossover Parts versus putting those
parts on a on a PC board having said
that I know a number of speaker
designers friends of mine people I trust
and they tell me having done their own
experiments that to get the best sound
possible the crossover Parts should be
pointto Point soldered uh as opposed to
putting them on a circuit board I'm sure
knowing the people behind son Farber
that they didn't do it uh uh because
they thought that it would uh
depreciate or degrade the sound uh but
I'm sure it's partly due to the fact
that they think that the sound is not
degraded but also at the same time it
makes for easier and more consistent
production and this is important again
even though I say it's a negative I want
to also balance it in production one of
the challenges is that um if you're not
careful uh you may end up with a product
that you ship halfway around the world
and then it's doesn't work the way it's
supposed to so you want to try and
streamline the production process in
such a way so that it's as consistent as
possible without losing any of the
quality uh so I believe that that's why
sonus farit does what they do um but
anyway I thought I point that out since
we're being
honest um okay this is another negative
but it's more to do with the
history early models I want to say from
about 15 years and prior um they tended
to be
more uh they were less capable when it
came to a wide variety of Music in other
words they were very very good and in
some cases stunningly good with vocals
female vocals uh violin
caneros light music basically but they
were not great when it came to more
Dynamic more demanding music I'll tell
you a story uh we had just become
officially a son deal this was in the I
want to say 2003 2005 thereabouts I
can't remember in that period of time
and Sona Faber had just released their
new amadis um and so we ordered them and
of course love at first side absolutely
gorgeous always Lov the speakers and so
so happy to get them and got them in
broke them in and all throughout the
listing process I was so happy it was
like um you know the first time you fall
in love you infatuated can't do anything
wrong and that was in my mind couldn't
do anything wrong I was so in love with the
the
speakers uh few weeks after we got our
shipment a client of mine called me up
and said uh so I hear you got the son's
Harbor line do you have the amadi I said
absolutely can you bring them over I'd
like my partner to see them he approves
the the visuals and then I of course
have to like the sound I said absolutely
brought them over played it for him left
them with him for a week or so uh in
about two three days he calls me up he
says Adrian they're not really quite
cutting it
um do you have the matching Wilsons and
at the time if I remember correctly they
were the W papy 6 could have been the
seven but I can't remember I said
yes but I thought your partner wouldn't
like the look of it that's why you
wanted to go with the son robber he says
well I convinced him to uh at least let
us listen to it so I brought them over
and connected them side by side so that
I could also hear the difference for
myself now keep in mind up until then I
had not done the direct comparison I was
just so infatuated anyway hooked them up
and seconds later my jaw dropped I'm
thinking wow the Wilsons are so much
more Dynamic so much more engaging with
more difficult music um I was absolutely
blown away I didn't expect the
difference to be that
big anyway client ended up buying the
Wilsons even though it was not
aesthetically to their taste but they
were happy enough with it so they bought
it I came back thinking the emperor has
no clothes if you don't know the
reference look it up uh for those of you
as old as I am Alison do you know what
uh no see she's shaking her head Allison
is like 12 you know she's she's she's
too young to understand these these
stories but anyway um and suddenly I
thought wow here is a stunning looking
speaker that sounds beautiful with the
kinds of music I've been playing with uh
playing through them uh all through that
time and then when I saw when I played
something more difficult they couldn't
do it very
well that's no longer the case I'm happy
to say the the current generation of
harbers and and going back I want to say
about 12 15 years uh um have equi
themselves very very well so it's no
longer an issue but if you do think if
you do think you'd like to buy earlier
ones used ones be careful be aware that
uh they tend to be more music dependent
than the current generation is okay now
we get to the
ugly I had to struggle hard to think
about ugly because this really not a lot
of ugly when it comes to these speakers
um so I came up with two and the second
one I completely forgotten first of all
the big ones the big heavy ones like the
aidas the se7 so Allison will insert
some pictures so you know the se17 weighs
weighs
6 I think 680 pounds and it's a big
monolith now it looks gorgeous but it
doesn't come apart like with Wilson's
when they're 680 lbs they come in
different modules so we can move them we
can assemble them and they make it
easier to move back and forth these
don't they're just one big giant
monolith uh very hard to move uh
especially when you're trying to adjust
for um final tow in and setup and so on
and that's another thing there is no uh
wheels at the bottom so very very very
um careful you have to be very careful
when you're adjusting these
speakers uh um you you want to be sure
that you have enough people to help you
to do that so that's one ugly and again
I I'm stretching when I say ugly because
it's not ugly it's just pain in the
butt this one might qualify for ugly
when the Lumin series was first
introduced um we sold a pair to a client
he watches a lot of our videos so you'll
know who you're talk who I'm talking
about he is one of these guys that I can
trust to tear apart anything because
he's so he's like OCD time
1,000 calls me up and he says oh or no I
think he emailed um I just noticed that
um the arroe head of the Tweeter does
not quite touch the apex of the silk
doome now if you don't know what I'm
talking about um Allison will insert a
picture of the Tweeter uh one of the
claim of claim to flames of sonus fers
silk doome tweeters is something they
call the damped Apex Dome so imagine the
Dome is like this the silk Dome and then
right in front of the silk Dome there's another
another
Arch and sticking in the center of this
Arch is like an arroe head like a point
uh a penpoint if you will that is
supposed to just touch the tip of the silkone
silkone
um we've gone into uh detail in the past
as to why they did that but suffice to
say uh sonus Fara discovered that by
having this mechanical interaction
between the tip of the um of the Dome
and the tip of the um curve The Damp
Apex Dome device they're able to
suddenly stop the weaknesses of symptoms
in other words at high frequencies they
don't break up as much or if any and the
The High Frequency extension of the
subdome can go out to over 30,000 Cycles
which previously they couldn't and
simultaneously maintain a wide dispersion
dispersion
angle so uh and and that is a pattern
that Sonos Farber
has uh but some of the early ones didn't
quite touch so as soon as he told us
this I immediately contact sonus Farber
they stopped production right away they
had to get the people who made their
tweeters redo it and then subsequently
uh replace all of the speakers that we
had that had this issue so kudos to them
for looking offer it right away but that
is bad almost ugly but that that's
that's what it
is beyond that I can't think of anything
else I really really can't think of
anything else so to sum
up why do I love the speakers so much
well there's really nothing of any
consequence uh for me not to love them I
from from the first time I saw the
speakers to this day I fell in love with
them Head Over
Heels um and it's not just the visual
over the time that I've I've listened
and owned and sold the speakers they've
been they've just
consistently made it even more easy for
me to continually fall uh uh stay in
love with them sort of like a really
great relationship you fall in love with
your partner and then as time goes on
and you face challenges and crises and
and difficulties and and experiences
together there's even more of that
person to love so anyway that's son as
Faber in a
nutshell uh let's see I think that
covers everything as usual this is uh if
you have any questions or comments and
so I'd love to see them I I love reading
your comments I don't always have time
to respond but please add them to the uh
comments below and if you like this
series we'll continue with them uh we've
got a whole bunch more to come all right
take care [Applause]
[Applause] [Music]
[Music] [Applause]
[Applause] bye-bye
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