Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada’s National Research Council can be found through this link.
If you’ve been following this column, you might know I’ve recently developed a preference for white speakers in my living room. It started with the striking Estelon Auras, which I reviewed a year ago, and continued with the sleek Totem Bison Twin Towers, featured in August. So when my review pair of Sonus Faber Sonetto V G2s arrived and I found out they had the dark-color wenge wood veneer, I was somewhat disappointed. Not for long, though. Once set up, they looked so good that they may have cured my fixation on white speakers.
Cabinet and plinth
The Sonetto V G2 is the middle offering in Sonus Faber’s trio of floorstanders in the Sonetto G2 lineup, which also includes one center-channel speaker, an on-wall speaker, and two standmounts. (The G2 designator is omitted hereafter; all references to specific Sonetto speakers in this review refer to the G2 models.) The Sonetto V is priced at $6499 a pair (all prices in USD), $2500 more than a pair of Bison Twin Towers in painted or wood finish but only about one-third the price of a pair of white Auras ($19,900/pair). It stands about 43″ tall, including the concrete plinth and short metal posts that raise the cabinet off the plinth (more on this later). Four carpet-piercing spikes are supplied, which thread into metal inserts on the plinth’s underside to give the speaker a firmer footing on carpeted floors. Viewed from the top, the cabinet and plinth have a slightly curved trapezoid cross section, wider at the front, about 9.5″, 15″ deep. The plinth is about 1.5″ wider and deeper than the cabinet.
Sonetto G2 cabinets are all made from MDF, but the series incorporates materials and design elements that make its models look more expensive than they are. The veneer work of my sample pair was exceptional in its quality, consistency, and intricate detail—the way it was laid on the top, for instance.
The Sonetto floorstanders and standmounts all have a concrete plinth. This is not sidewalk-grade concrete, it’s more like a finely formed smooth board, but it does feel rock solid and heavy. Concrete was selected for the plinth precisely to add weight and stability—the Sonetto V weighs almost 75 pounds! But its out-of-the-ordinary visual appeal was a factor too. It is basic and raw, and it strikes a sharp contrast with the speaker cabinet, highlighting its refinement and elegance. An unintended advantage of a concrete plinth that I’ve serendipitously discovered is how impervious it is to repeated strikes by a vacuum cleaner. I doubt the fine wooden cabinet could withstand such an assault unscathed.
The cabinet is raised about an inch off the plinth by four metal posts, which allows the downfiring port to vent freely. The Sonetto G2 models share the same 1.1″ Damped Apex Dome (DAD) tweeter, whose motor system employs a copper shorting ring to decrease distortion. The DAD technology brings in a damper to press against the tweeter’s silk dome. This structure keeps the center of the dome stationary while permitting the area around it to move, resulting in better control of deformation of the dome’s surface, particularly at high excursions. The designers at Sonus Faber favor the use of silk domes because of their milder breakup behavior compared to metal domes, which, they believe, results in superior sound.
The Sonetto G2 models come in a light-color walnut veneer, a gloss-black painted finish, and the dark, luxurious wenge veneer of my sample pair. I saw the three finishes at the factory and liked the wenge finish the most, although the walnut finish was a close second. The midrange and tweeter are housed in a teardrop-shape section high on the front panel. It is covered in black textured leather, which enhances the speaker’s luxurious appearance—a nice touch. Raised metal rings encircle this section and the two woofers, another fine detail.
Unusually, the Sonetto V comes with three separate grilles: one for the midrange-tweeter section and one for each woofer. These grilles are offset about an inch from the front panel. I did most of my listening with the grilles off, but I found that the grilles did not impair the sound much, if at all, nor detract from the speakers’ appearance, and I left them on for driver protection when people were around.
A gold-color plastic cup can be fitted over the dual binding posts (for biwiring or biamping) to hide them. But they fit only if you use spade lugs or bare wire. With my banana-type connectors, I couldn’t fit them over the posts. The Sonetto V is a seriously attractive speaker, however, made in the best Italian tradition of craftmanship and design. In my living room, the pair looked smashing—more like $10,000 speakers—and the exposed binding posts did not take away from that.
Midrange and tweeter
Unique to the Sonetto V and VIII floorstanders in the series is a 6.5″ midrange driver with a white paper cone that has a flower-like shape, which Sonus Faber calls Camelia (the center-channel model has a 4″ version). This cone shape was first introduced in the Suprema, Sonus Faber’s statement loudspeaker system, which retails for a whopping $750,000 a pair and includes two towers and two subwoofers and the necessary crossover to stitch it all together. Due to the varying radii of the multilobed cone shape, undesirable resonance is distributed over a wider range of frequencies than from a circular cone, and its adverse effect overall is thus lessened. The midrange driver’s motor system, like that of the tweeter, also employs a copper ring to reduce distortion.
Hidden from sight within the cabinet structure, attached to the back of the baffle section where the midrange and tweeter drivers are mounted, is an oval chamber made of cork. This unique acoustic element, which was also pioneered in the Suprema loudspeaker system, helps dissipate back radiation from the midrange to prevent interference with sound radiated forward into the room. Acoustic damping material is used in the interior of the chamber, and several ridges protrude into it from the rear to serve as acoustic baffles. Thanks to the clever shape and acoustic baffles of this chamber, I was told, a lesser amount of damping material was required to attain performance goals than would have been with a boxy, flat-panel, unbaffled chamber.
The taller brother
The Sonetto V’s taller sibling in the series’ floorstanding trio bears close resemblance to it. Both are three-way, two-woofer designs, and both sport the Camelia midrange cone, as mentioned. The main difference between the two is the size of their drivers and cabinets and, consequently, their bass output. The Sonetto V has two 6.5″ paper-cone woofers while the Sonetto VIII (which costs $1500/pair more) has two 8.5″ paper woofers in a taller, wider, deeper cabinet. These cones don’t have the floral shape of the Camelia drivers, but their surrounds do and, purportedly, offer similar benefits. With its larger woofers and cabinet, the Sonetto VIII can deliver deeper bass than the Sonetto V can: it is rated down to 33Hz; the Sonetto V is rated down to 35Hz.
In both models, the midrange is crossed over to the tweeter at 2500Hz, but it crosses over to the woofers at 280Hz in the Sonetto V, at 350Hz in the Sonetto VIII. Both models are rated at 4 ohms nominal impedance and have a recommended minimum amplifier power of 50W. The upper amplifier limit is 320W for the Sonetto V and 400W for the Sonetto VIII (presumably into 4 ohms, the speakers’ impedance). I drove the Sonetto Vs with three amplifiers during my audition, which should give you an idea of their real-world power requirement. Sensitivity is almost the same in the two models: 89dB for the Sonetto V and 90dB for the Sonetto VIII (both 2.83V/m).
Setup
I positioned the Sonetto V pair about 8′ apart, tweeter center to tweeter center, their backsides about 1.5′ from the wall behind. My living room is about 16′ wide by 18′ long, and the speakers were set along one of the short walls, which left about 4′ between each tweeter and the nearer side wall. Toe-in was a modest 10 degrees.
Listening with a low-power amplifier
For the past few years, I’ve been auditioning speakers with multiple amplifiers to get a fuller picture of their behavior in different setups. While it can be difficult to distinguish between many solid-state amplifiers, subtle differences—particularly in handling different speaker loads—do exist and can lead to noticeable variations in sound.
I began critical listening of the Sonetto Vs with the Musical Fidelity A1, a $1779 integrated amplifier rated at just 25Wpc into 8 ohms. Though quite low in power, this class-A integrated is said to handle challenging loads well, and I wanted to test that too. For this setup, I used a Pro-Ject Audio Systems X1 turntable (about $1000) and a Pro-Ject CD Box S2 CD player ($549) and cued up a few favorite records and CDs. The X1 was connected to the A1’s phono input, the CD Box S2 to an analog input. The X1 had the default Pro-Ject Pick it S2 moving-magnet cartridge and the Connect it E phono cable that came with it. An XLO DNA single-ended interconnect ($120) was used for the CD player. I used QED XT25 speaker cables throughout (under $100 when available).
To my surprise, even with this low-powered amp, the Sonetto Vs delivered a powerful, weighty sound up to fairly high volume levels. The bass was slightly deeper than that of the Totem Bison Twin Towers had been in the same setup. In the upper-bass range (around 60 to 100Hz), in particular, the Sonettos had much greater impact and in-room slam than the Bisons had had, especially with drums.
When I pushed the A1 higher and higher in volume, I didn’t notice distortion, but I did notice it wasn’t getting much louder, a sign that the amp was probably running out of power. Still, at that point, the Sonetto Vs were already very loud. Evidently, in a medium-sized listening room like mine, the Sonetto Vs don’t require much power to sound loud and deliver an impressive bass punch.
The small, modest A1 elicited remarkable sound from the Sonetto Vs, something I hadn’t heard in other Sonus Faber speakers. Apart from that punch in the upper bass, the midrange had greater definition and immediacy, and the highs were cleaner and not quite as bright as the highs from the Lumina III ($2399/pair) and the Lumina II Amator ($1499/pair), which also use DAD-type tweeters.
Although many would find the well-priced, sleek Musical Fidelity A1 in combination with the Sonetto Vs most enjoyable, I felt this was not an ideal match. For the Sonetto Vs to reach their true potential, more power is needed.
Listening with a higher-power all-in-one amplifier
During my audition period of the Sonetto Vs, the Naim Audio Uniti Nova PE streaming integrated amplifier ($9999), which Roger Kanno had reviewed for SoundStage! Simplifi in August, came into my possession. The robust all-in-one Uniti Nova PE is specified to deliver 150Wpc into 8 ohms or 250Wpc into 4 ohms, which our measurements confirmed, a much better match for these speakers.
Driven by the Unity Nova PE, the Sonetto Vs produced the same punchy upper bass as when driven by the A1 and had the same excellent midrange clarity and clean, not-too-bright highs. With the Uniti Nova PE, however, the bass had slightly more weight, and the sound was smoother across the entire audio range. This difference in smoothness was likely due to the amplifiers themselves, as I had noticed similar results when driving various speakers with other amplifiers, such as the Marantz Model 40n and Model 50—the sound was always coarser with the A1.
The increase in bass weight could have been due to the Uniti Nova PE’s higher power output and ability to handle more demanding loads. Unlike the A1, it readily obliged high volume settings with no evidence of nearing a limit. Bass weight may also be attributed to another aspect of the Uniti Nova PE’s performance, which was revealed in our measurements: its frequency response slopes down slightly from 40Hz to about 20kHz—it has an inherent bias for bass frequencies above 40Hz. It’s unusual to see a nonlinear amplifier. It seems to be a deliberate tuning choice by the Naim engineers, but whether or not it was voiced in this way, I loved the result.
When I streamed St. Vincent’s “Los Ageless,” from her album Masseduction (16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC, Loma Vista Recordings / Tidal), using the Uniti Nova PE’s built-in streamer, it sounded gloriously rich with musical details and nuances. Her close-miked vocals stood out in their clarity, and the piano accompaniment had impressive weight. Bruce Cockburn’s “Pacing the Cage” (16/44.1 FLAC, True North Records / Tidal), from his The Charity of Night, was equally affecting, with appropriately deep bass, a natural midrange, and pristine guitar highs. I may have had some reservations about early DAD tweeters, but I don’t anymore; they have come a long way.
With its ample power, the Unity Nova PE pairs up exceptionally well with the Sonetto Vs. What I heard from this setup was fantastic. The convenience of having an all-in-one streaming amplifier is a definite plus too. But I still wanted explore these fine speakers deeper.
Listening with high-power separates
I next partnered the Sonettos with some reference-class separates: the Simaudio Moon 791 streaming preamplifier ($16,000) and Moon 761 power amplifier ($14,000), which is capable of delivering more than 200Wpc into 8 ohms or 400Wpc into 4 ohms. My analog source was a Denon DP-3000NE turntable ($2499) equipped with a Denon Ojas DL-103o moving-coil cartridge ($549), which I connected to the 791’s phono input using the DP-3000NE’s stock interconnect. (Since the DP-3000NE was set up only recently and I’m still getting used to it, I didn’t use it much for this review.) My digital sources were a Marantz CD 50n CD player ($1800), using its own DAC, which I connected to one of the 791’s single-ended analog inputs, and a Shanling ET3 CD transport ($729), which I connected to one of the 791 coaxial inputs. The digital interconnect for the Shanling was a Furutech FX-Alpha-Ag coaxial cable (under $100). The single-ended analog cable connecting the Marantz to the 791 and balance cable connecting the two Moon components were XLO DNA ($160 and $120, respectively).
Some may balk at the idea of using amplification worth $30,000 with speakers that cost less than one-quarter of that. But the Sonetto V punches well above its weight, so this combination is not that unreasonable. In fact, in this audition, it provided the best sound, with a few caveats, as you’ll read next.
With the Moon components, as before, the Sonetto Vs displayed tremendous punch in the upper bass. Seeing this with three very different amps, I had to conclude that this characteristic is inherent to the speaker. But again, I believe this was likely a design choice meant to allow the speaker to deliver a sense of power and authority, which it does. Listeners generally favor impactful bass, so this is bound to be appreciated—I know I liked having that punch. But the Sonetto Vs couldn’t reach quite as low in the bass as my Estelon Auras had when driven by the 761 in the same room at essentially the same positions. (“Misguided Angel,” from The Trinity Session, by Canada’s Cowboy Junkies, either ripped from the Canadian-pressed CD [RCA 8568-2-R] or the CD itself, is my default for checking bass extension.) Admittedly, the Auras didn’t reach the bottom of the audioband (i.e., 20Hz) with any real sense of energy, extending down only to the low-30Hz range; but the Sonetto Vs didn’t take it bellow the high-30Hz range. So neither is a true full-range speaker. The Aura is just a little closer to being one than the Sonetto V is. Moving up to the Sonetto VIII would likely match the bass extension of the Aura.
Another difference between the Auras and the Sonettos that was apparent with both the Naim integrated amp and the Moon components was in the midband frequency range: although the Sonetto Vs had great immediacy and clarity in the midband, the Auras sounded more open in this range. Vocals, guitars, and other instruments that populate this frequency range sprung more freely from the Auras’ cabinets.
My impression of the Sonetto Vs’ slight deficiency in openness was reinforced when, for a short time, I hooked up a pair of Sonus Faber Concertino G4s that had just come in. The Concertino G4 ($5000/pair) is newer than any of the Sonetto G2 models, but it is a tiny two-way speaker with a midrange-woofer that measures just 5.25″ across, so it can’t reproduce deep bass, nor can it produce high SPLs. And compared to the Sonetto Vs, in the same setup and listening room, they weren’t as weighty or as room-filling. But when playing tracks with a dominant lead vocal, such as “Pacing the Cage” or “Los Ageless” or with an instrument with a heavy midrange presence, such as Van Morrison’s alto saxophone on “Spanish Steps,” from his Poetic Champions Compose (CD, Polydor 314 537 547-2), I noticed that the Sonetto Vs’ midrange sounded slightly closed-in compared to the Concertino G4s’, whose midrange openness was akin to that of the Auras. Although they lacked the room-filling ability of the Sonetto Vs, the Concertino G4s consistently laid out a more spacious soundstage and cast sharper center-stage vocal images.
Despite those small deficiencies, every time I switched back to the Sonetto Vs after listening to the Concertino G4s, they impressed me far more for their much deeper and more powerful bass, increased dynamics, and ability to play very loud when needed. They can simply move air more easily than the Concertino G4s can. For instance, throughout Poetic Champions Compose, the Concertino G4s’ highs were supersweet; the midband was beautifully liquid, detailed, and open; and the width and depth of soundstage was holographic and precise. But the bass range below 80Hz was wholly missing, and the sound was just “too small” for my listening room. Through the Sonetto Vs, the bass was as fleshed-out as this recording requires (it doesn’t have much going on below 50Hz); midrange sounds, such as Van Morrison’s saxophone on “Spanish Steps,” or his vocals on the other tracks, punched through with more immediacy; and the sound on the whole was more bigger and more involving. On “Pacing the Cage,” when Rob Wasserman’s bass came in, it never reached deep enough through the Concertino G4s, but it was there in full force through the Sonetto Vs. Cockburn’s voice was comparable through both sets of speakers, but through the Sonetto Vs, I could play it louder and better experience the recording’s dynamic range.
On the flipside, the Auras sounded every bit as good as the Sonetto Vs, and sometimes a little better, thanks to their greater bass extension and midrange openness. Of course, the Aura costs three times as much as the Sonetto V. Aesthetically, while the Sonetto V and Aura look very different, they both exude luxury and look very impressive, which is really a plus for the Sonetto V, given its much cheaper price. And while I liked the look of the Sonetto Vs in my living room very much, I was still partial to the elegance of the Auras.
All told, if I were purchasing and price were not an issue, I’d get myself a pair of Auras. But if price were a consideration, as it is for most people, I’d take the Sonetto Vs, accept the wood finish over the white, and not worry about the subtle sonic advantages that the Auras could provide. Sonus Faber has crafted a high-value winning combination of looks and sound in the Sonetto V, one I could happily live with.
Conclusion
Earlier this year, I wrote an article about the Sonus Faber Suprema speaker system, where I expressed my view that in terms of the sound and styling of its speakers, the company has gone through three distinct periods, which I think of as the V1.0 (prior to 2011), V2.0 (after V1.0 but prior to the Suprema launch, which was earlier this year), and V3.0 (post Suprema) eras.
The Sonetto V is a product of the V3.0 era and exhibits the brand’s newest sound: tremendous punch in the bass, refined highs, and incisive presentation across the audioband. But what I liked most was how easily the Sonetto Vs could play different types of music without becoming tiresome. Cycling through these three system setups wasn’t accomplished in days or even a few weeks—it was done over months, and I never once tired of the Sonettos’ sound. Had the company not needed the speakers back to send elsewhere, I would have loved to keep them longer—even if it’s only the midrange cone, not the whole cabinet, that comes in white.
. . . Doug Schneider
das@soundstage.com
Associated Equipment
- Speakers: Totem Acoustic Bison Twin Tower, Estelon Aura, Sonus Faber Lumina III, Sonus Faber Lumina II Amator, Sonus Faber Concertino G4
- Turntables: Denon DP-3000NE with Denon Ojas DL-103o moving-coil cartridge, Pro-Ject Audio Systems X1 with Pick it S2 moving-magnet cartridge
- CD players: Marantz CD 50n, Pro-Ject CD Box S2
- CD transport: Shanling ET3
- Integrated amplifiers: Musical Fidelity A1, Naim Audio Nova Uniti PE
- Preamplifier: Simaudio Moon 791
- Power amplifier: Simaudio Moon 761
- Speaker cables: QED XT25
- Balanced and single-ended interconnects: XLO DNA
- Digital cable: Furutech FX-Alpha-Ag
- Power cord: Shunyata Research Venom HC
- Power distributor: Shunyata Research PS8
- Acoustical treatments: BXI Sound Absorber panels (20), Tönnen Sound panels (2)
Sonus Faber Sonetto V G2 loudspeaker
Price: $6499 per pair
Warranty: Five years, parts and labor
Sonus faber Spa
Via Antonio Meucci, 10
36057 – Arcugnano (Vicenza) Italy
Website: www.sonusfaber.com
