0:04 okay this is uh second in our series of
0:06 the brutally honest videos first one was
0:09 Macintosh if you haven't watched it uh
0:11 Allison will put the link down below
0:13 this is about sonus fber again we're
0:16 we're going to only cover products or
0:18 brands that we carry uh although I
0:20 certainly have thoughts about products
0:22 that we don't carry because I don't have
0:24 as much intimate experience with those
0:26 products I'm not going to talk about
0:29 them okay son this far let's start with
0:31 the good
0:35 uh obviously gorgeous the moment you see
0:38 them most people will say that is a
0:40 stunning looking speaker even from all
0:43 the way to their luminous series um
0:45 where they're quote unquote essentially
0:49 rectangular boxes they're so beautifully
0:51 done with little touches that just set them
0:52 them
0:56 apart um and also gorgeous sonically um
0:59 it's it's it's a line of speakers where
1:00 I find
1:02 I can consistently enjoy music through I
1:05 don't have to play audio file recordings
1:07 to enjoy the speakers and I'm not being
1:09 phous there are lots of great speakers
1:12 out there that sound
1:15 amazing but you have to play audio file
1:17 appr prooof recordings and to me that's
1:20 just not good enough I want to play
1:24 music that I care about that I love and
1:26 um unfortunately recordings are not
1:27 always going to be that great so with
1:30 sonus Farber I have a fighting chance of
1:34 getting really good music through those
1:38 speakers and enjoy them okay second
1:40 thing they've got a slightly warm tone
1:43 which again I like given the fact that a
1:44 lot of recordings tend to be on the
1:47 bright side on the har side it it tends
1:50 to warm it up a little bit which again I
1:54 like um sort of um airing on the side of
1:57 ss of omission rather than commission if
2:01 that makes any sense another great thing
2:04 about the speakers beautiful workmanship
2:06 again starting from even these the least
2:08 expensive luminous series all the way to
2:12 the top the the the physical work is
2:14 spectacular the way they fit and finish
2:19 everything um you don't see uh Corners
2:22 being cut the kinds of binding post they
2:24 use the way that their serial numbers
2:26 come on a plaque for example on the
2:28 Sonet series I've gone into great lens
2:30 if you watch any of our son
2:33 unboxings and so on you'll see it um the
2:35 way that they they they cut their Grill
2:37 if you look at the Luminous series again
2:39 this is their least expensive stuff it's
2:44 so well done um so workmanship wise it's
2:47 fantastic um I I made a note here I've
2:50 never had any cosmetic flaws or failures
2:53 out of the box we've had that with some
2:55 very expensive high-end speakers never
2:58 with um sonus Farber among the clients
3:00 that I know pride of ownership is very very
3:01 very
3:04 high um recent models will play most
3:08 genres of music from very well to
3:10 stupendously well again depending on the
3:13 genre so if your music tends to run
3:17 towards a lot of uh harsh recordings
3:18 it'll do it fairly well that's
3:21 ultimately the the the the weakness is
3:24 due to the the the source but if your
3:26 Rec if your music tends
3:29 towards U Jazz acoustic large orchestral
3:33 music music um rock and so on it'll do
3:35 it just fine you'll you'll really enjoy
3:38 it okay so these are just some points I
3:41 didn't want to make a huge list now
3:44 let's go to the bad okay let's start
3:46 with one that uh I think was a Strate
3:50 strategic error that Sonos Farber made
3:53 um I want to say early to mid
3:56 2000s sonis
3:59 Farber um decided that they wanted to
4:03 release a line of speakers that be
4:06 um at a lower price point but offer
4:07 tremendous value in other words really
4:11 high performance um relatively large
4:12 speakers to small and so on and so they
4:14 released a line called the vener I guess
4:16 that's how they pronounced it back then
4:19 we were not a dealer back then um the
4:22 design was all done in Italy but it was
4:24 all manufactured in
4:27 China and while the speakers certainly
4:29 sounded very good um we've had lots of
4:31 them traded in over the years and we
4:32 have clients still to this day who have
4:35 them and of course the reviews uh
4:37 consistently said wonderful things about this
4:38 this
4:43 line the problem was a stigma
4:45 that somehow attached itself to sona's
4:47 fber which is kind of intriguing we'll
4:51 go into that in a moment um and as a
4:53 result of that I hear from time to time
4:55 people say oh aren't they made in China
4:57 you know the sonas Faber line and I
4:59 would say no no sonus Faber is all
5:00 designed designed and manufactured in
5:04 Italy just that one series at the time
5:08 called a vener that was made in in China
5:14 um but because of I think this um uh uh
5:18 belief uh some people felt that uh sonus
5:21 Farber is maybe not as good as it could
5:24 be just simply because of
5:27 that I find it fascinating
5:30 because lots of Brands out there have
5:32 products made in
5:35 China bows and Wilkins they're uh most
5:38 of their series is manufactured in China
5:40 I shouldn't say most a lot of
5:44 it um Paradigm Martin Logan which we
5:47 sell their um uh uh speakers a lot of
5:49 other than in fact I think the
5:51 electrostatic hybrid speakers if I'm not
5:53 wrong the rest are all made in China
5:57 nobody seems to care
6:01 um I I I don't understand why it seems
6:05 to be primarily afflicting sonus Farber
6:08 and it could just be maybe that people
6:09 have a higher expectation of sonus
6:11 Farber anyway that was a strategic error
6:14 in my opinion second point is uh the bad
6:18 is that resale value is average in some
6:21 models below average which is sad to say
6:25 because the products certainly are worth
6:28 in my mind every penny that they sell
6:31 for and more I can't think of a another
6:34 line of products that is as wellmade as
6:36 lovingly made and that's a very key
6:39 point about sona's far if you ever get I
6:42 don't know if they do public um visits
6:46 but when you tour the factory you see
6:49 how passionate the individuals are when
6:51 they build the
6:54 product um yeah so it's it's a shame but
6:56 on the other side of it is that that
6:58 means that when you are looking for a
7:00 used pair ofon as far Barber you get a great
7:06 buy um okay the manual specifically the
7:08 subwoofer manual the rest of the manuals
7:10 are okay they're fine um they used to be
7:12 better in my opinion but that's we'll
7:15 come to that in a moment the subwoofer
7:19 manual as to put it in words uh that my
7:22 my friend nsh says sucks in six
7:25 languages it's basically a pictogram
7:27 much like what you would get from an
7:30 Ikea box right it's it's six different
7:32 languages and it's basically pictures of
7:35 how you would do it um with very
7:40 little text and to me that's just not
7:41 good enough you know first of all the
7:45 subwoofer is a sophisticated product
7:47 it's got an amplifier built in the
7:50 connections are unusual compared to a
7:52 regular subwoofer because they uh want
7:55 you to hook it up to the highlevel
7:57 connections and so you have to make sure
7:59 that you connected right uh with the
8:01 right color codes on the wires and then
8:03 depending on the kind of amplifiers you
8:04 use you have to connect it in a
8:07 different way I remember the first time
8:10 I saw a Sonos Farber manual many many
8:13 many years ago I bought a pair of uh
8:15 early generation of M I think it was a
8:16 second generation of M
8:18 M
8:22 and I opened up the box and the speaker
8:23 remember this is going
8:27 back 20 something years ago maybe more
8:33 the speakers had this velvet suede cloth
8:37 over the speaker it was just luxury as
8:39 the finest when you touch certain
8:41 materials you know how you get tingles
8:43 that's that's how I felt and then you
8:45 took it off and then suddenly you see
8:48 you see this stunning looking speaker uh
8:51 finish in absolutely Flawless gloss and
8:53 then you you look at the manual and the
8:55 presentation of the manual the manual
8:57 was a
9:00 hardbound with again a certain material
9:02 on The Binding on the actual cover
9:04 itself and then the paper inside was
9:07 like old parchment paper with Jagged
9:10 edges not the typical you know uh sheet
9:13 of paper like this it it it evoked all
9:17 these feelings of being handmade even to
9:19 the point where the manual was so
9:22 lovingly done unfortunately the the new
9:24 generation doesn't do that anymore I'm
9:27 sure it's partly because of cost cutting
9:29 um and I miss that so
9:31 that's another
9:35 bad um crossovers while the parts are
9:38 certainly as good as they need to be and
9:40 in the case of the higher models they are
9:41 are
9:46 exceptional um they are mounted on PR of
9:47 circuit boards
9:51 now I have never done a direct A2B
9:54 comparison between hard wirring of uh
9:57 crossover Parts versus putting those
9:59 parts on a on a PC board having said
10:03 that I know a number of speaker
10:07 designers friends of mine people I trust
10:09 and they tell me having done their own
10:13 experiments that to get the best sound
10:17 possible the crossover Parts should be
10:19 pointto Point soldered uh as opposed to
10:22 putting them on a circuit board I'm sure
10:24 knowing the people behind son Farber
10:28 that they didn't do it uh uh because
10:31 they thought that it would uh
10:34 depreciate or degrade the sound uh but
10:36 I'm sure it's partly due to the fact
10:38 that they think that the sound is not
10:40 degraded but also at the same time it
10:43 makes for easier and more consistent
10:45 production and this is important again
10:47 even though I say it's a negative I want
10:50 to also balance it in production one of
10:54 the challenges is that um if you're not
10:56 careful uh you may end up with a product
10:58 that you ship halfway around the world
11:00 and then it's doesn't work the way it's
11:02 supposed to so you want to try and
11:04 streamline the production process in
11:06 such a way so that it's as consistent as
11:09 possible without losing any of the
11:11 quality uh so I believe that that's why
11:14 sonus farit does what they do um but
11:16 anyway I thought I point that out since
11:17 we're being
11:22 honest um okay this is another negative
11:25 but it's more to do with the
11:28 history early models I want to say from
11:33 about 15 years and prior um they tended
11:35 to be
11:38 more uh they were less capable when it
11:40 came to a wide variety of Music in other
11:43 words they were very very good and in
11:48 some cases stunningly good with vocals
11:51 female vocals uh violin
11:54 caneros light music basically but they
11:57 were not great when it came to more
12:00 Dynamic more demanding music I'll tell
12:03 you a story uh we had just become
12:06 officially a son deal this was in the I
12:09 want to say 2003 2005 thereabouts I
12:12 can't remember in that period of time
12:15 and Sona Faber had just released their
12:20 new amadis um and so we ordered them and
12:22 of course love at first side absolutely
12:24 gorgeous always Lov the speakers and so
12:27 so happy to get them and got them in
12:29 broke them in and all throughout the
12:32 listing process I was so happy it was
12:34 like um you know the first time you fall
12:37 in love you infatuated can't do anything
12:39 wrong and that was in my mind couldn't
12:41 do anything wrong I was so in love with the
12:41 the
12:44 speakers uh few weeks after we got our
12:46 shipment a client of mine called me up
12:49 and said uh so I hear you got the son's
12:51 Harbor line do you have the amadi I said
12:53 absolutely can you bring them over I'd
12:56 like my partner to see them he approves
12:59 the the visuals and then I of course
13:01 have to like the sound I said absolutely
13:03 brought them over played it for him left
13:06 them with him for a week or so uh in
13:08 about two three days he calls me up he
13:10 says Adrian they're not really quite
13:13 cutting it
13:16 um do you have the matching Wilsons and
13:17 at the time if I remember correctly they
13:19 were the W papy 6 could have been the
13:22 seven but I can't remember I said
13:26 yes but I thought your partner wouldn't
13:27 like the look of it that's why you
13:29 wanted to go with the son robber he says
13:34 well I convinced him to uh at least let
13:37 us listen to it so I brought them over
13:39 and connected them side by side so that
13:41 I could also hear the difference for
13:44 myself now keep in mind up until then I
13:46 had not done the direct comparison I was
13:49 just so infatuated anyway hooked them up
13:51 and seconds later my jaw dropped I'm
13:56 thinking wow the Wilsons are so much
14:00 more Dynamic so much more engaging with
14:04 more difficult music um I was absolutely
14:05 blown away I didn't expect the
14:08 difference to be that
14:11 big anyway client ended up buying the
14:13 Wilsons even though it was not
14:15 aesthetically to their taste but they
14:17 were happy enough with it so they bought
14:21 it I came back thinking the emperor has
14:22 no clothes if you don't know the
14:24 reference look it up uh for those of you
14:26 as old as I am Alison do you know what
14:29 uh no see she's shaking her head Allison
14:32 is like 12 you know she's she's she's
14:33 too young to understand these these
14:37 stories but anyway um and suddenly I
14:40 thought wow here is a stunning looking
14:43 speaker that sounds beautiful with the
14:45 kinds of music I've been playing with uh
14:47 playing through them uh all through that
14:50 time and then when I saw when I played
14:52 something more difficult they couldn't
14:54 do it very
14:56 well that's no longer the case I'm happy
14:58 to say the the current generation of
15:01 harbers and and going back I want to say
15:05 about 12 15 years uh um have equi
15:07 themselves very very well so it's no
15:10 longer an issue but if you do think if
15:12 you do think you'd like to buy earlier
15:17 ones used ones be careful be aware that
15:20 uh they tend to be more music dependent
15:23 than the current generation is okay now
15:24 we get to the
15:27 ugly I had to struggle hard to think
15:29 about ugly because this really not a lot
15:32 of ugly when it comes to these speakers
15:36 um so I came up with two and the second
15:40 one I completely forgotten first of all
15:42 the big ones the big heavy ones like the
15:46 aidas the se7 so Allison will insert
15:49 some pictures so you know the se17 weighs
15:50 weighs
15:54 6 I think 680 pounds and it's a big
15:57 monolith now it looks gorgeous but it
15:59 doesn't come apart like with Wilson's
16:01 when they're 680 lbs they come in
16:03 different modules so we can move them we
16:05 can assemble them and they make it
16:07 easier to move back and forth these
16:12 don't they're just one big giant
16:15 monolith uh very hard to move uh
16:18 especially when you're trying to adjust
16:22 for um final tow in and setup and so on
16:25 and that's another thing there is no uh
16:29 wheels at the bottom so very very very
16:31 um careful you have to be very careful
16:33 when you're adjusting these
16:35 speakers uh um you you want to be sure
16:37 that you have enough people to help you
16:41 to do that so that's one ugly and again
16:43 I I'm stretching when I say ugly because
16:46 it's not ugly it's just pain in the
16:49 butt this one might qualify for ugly
16:51 when the Lumin series was first
16:55 introduced um we sold a pair to a client
16:57 he watches a lot of our videos so you'll
16:59 know who you're talk who I'm talking
17:02 about he is one of these guys that I can
17:05 trust to tear apart anything because
17:09 he's so he's like OCD time
17:13 1,000 calls me up and he says oh or no I
17:16 think he emailed um I just noticed that
17:19 um the arroe head of the Tweeter does
17:23 not quite touch the apex of the silk
17:25 doome now if you don't know what I'm
17:28 talking about um Allison will insert a
17:31 picture of the Tweeter uh one of the
17:34 claim of claim to flames of sonus fers
17:37 silk doome tweeters is something they
17:40 call the damped Apex Dome so imagine the
17:42 Dome is like this the silk Dome and then
17:44 right in front of the silk Dome there's another
17:45 another
17:49 Arch and sticking in the center of this
17:52 Arch is like an arroe head like a point
17:54 uh a penpoint if you will that is
17:57 supposed to just touch the tip of the silkone
17:59 silkone
18:02 um we've gone into uh detail in the past
18:04 as to why they did that but suffice to
18:07 say uh sonus Fara discovered that by
18:10 having this mechanical interaction
18:14 between the tip of the um of the Dome
18:17 and the tip of the um curve The Damp
18:21 Apex Dome device they're able to
18:25 suddenly stop the weaknesses of symptoms
18:26 in other words at high frequencies they
18:30 don't break up as much or if any and the
18:31 The High Frequency extension of the
18:34 subdome can go out to over 30,000 Cycles
18:36 which previously they couldn't and
18:38 simultaneously maintain a wide dispersion
18:39 dispersion
18:43 angle so uh and and that is a pattern
18:44 that Sonos Farber
18:49 has uh but some of the early ones didn't
18:52 quite touch so as soon as he told us
18:54 this I immediately contact sonus Farber
18:56 they stopped production right away they
18:58 had to get the people who made their
19:01 tweeters redo it and then subsequently
19:03 uh replace all of the speakers that we
19:05 had that had this issue so kudos to them
19:10 for looking offer it right away but that
19:14 is bad almost ugly but that that's
19:15 that's what it
19:18 is beyond that I can't think of anything
19:20 else I really really can't think of
19:22 anything else so to sum
19:25 up why do I love the speakers so much
19:30 well there's really nothing of any
19:34 consequence uh for me not to love them I
19:36 from from the first time I saw the
19:39 speakers to this day I fell in love with
19:41 them Head Over
19:45 Heels um and it's not just the visual
19:47 over the time that I've I've listened
19:49 and owned and sold the speakers they've
19:51 been they've just
19:55 consistently made it even more easy for
19:58 me to continually fall uh uh stay in
19:59 love with them sort of like a really
20:01 great relationship you fall in love with
20:05 your partner and then as time goes on
20:08 and you face challenges and crises and
20:10 and difficulties and and experiences
20:12 together there's even more of that
20:15 person to love so anyway that's son as
20:16 Faber in a
20:19 nutshell uh let's see I think that
20:22 covers everything as usual this is uh if
20:23 you have any questions or comments and
20:25 so I'd love to see them I I love reading
20:26 your comments I don't always have time
20:29 to respond but please add them to the uh
20:32 comments below and if you like this
20:34 series we'll continue with them uh we've
20:36 got a whole bunch more to come all right
20:37 take care [Applause]
20:38 [Applause] [Music]
20:42 [Music] [Applause]
20:45 [Applause] bye-bye
