New Sonus Faber Guarneri Tradition

Sonus Faber is traditionally combined with Mcintosh electronics and Audio Research, a colorful speaker, not very clinical and therefore not very tiring. There are not many people who use SF with Naim; this is because everyone tries to follow the experiences of others and often many opportunities are lost to discover winning alternatives. The new Sonus Faber Guarnieri Tradition have an extremely refined sound and certainly more modern than the models of the past years. I believe you would make a good match with your set up

I own a Superuniti and Sonus Faber Signums and have to tell you this is a perfect match for the music you listen to.

I will upgrade soon but most probably again Sonus Faber. But then SF Olympica 2. I worked in audio sales and heard

many speakers but for me Sonus Faber just fits what i like. For me always a contender.

The Signums are old school and designed by the genius of Franco Serblin, the historical founder of the brand; today the new models, although very high-end, are different.

keep them very carefully

Sonus Faber and Naim are an exellent match, I owned them..i heard several more combinations, they work great together...

Trust only your ears.

Regards, 

I was looking to upgrade my Wilson Bensch Curves.. tried Focal Sopra 2.. took some to tune it to the room andgot it to sound very nice.. but had to give the thumbs down as the physical size of the speakers were too big for the room.

Looking around for alternatives led to to listen to a pair of Wilson Sabrinas, Sonus Faber Olympia IIIs and Sonus Faber Serafinos

The Wilson Sabrinas sounded good but I thought the Olympias were better.. and better looking, more tuneful and with similar bass.. stepping up to the Serafinos was improvement.. better bass, sweeter top end... I wondered how it would sound in my home.. the thought being that if the Serafino bass was too much for my room I would go with the Olympia

After three days having the Serafinos in my setup I am smitten... beautiful to look at, great clean sound.. They do cost more than than the other speakers.. but they do sound exceptional.

I think do need a powerful amp to get the best out of them and I think when/if I upgrade my N272+XPS DR front end they have the potential to show any improvements. 

Yes I also found that the Olympica sounded very nice, but the Guarneri just took the whole thing to an other, exceptional level. Can’t imagine how the Serafinos sound, but they’re beyond my budget. Will settle for the wonderful Guarneri

that's a 15,000 dollar speaker, looks very nice indeed.

blimey.

question though, how does it sound with Rock/metal music?

I heard these speakers at a dealers with 252/300 non DR playing some traditional Sri Lankan music and they sounded beautiful and the workmanship and finish is better than on any speaker I have seen.  He switched between these and a top of the range set of Odeon speakers and although not a speaker traditionally paired with Naim they too sounded excellent but the SF's were better.

This guy had an old school very rare Musical Fidelity CDP connected to a Japanese Audio Note Dac connected to the 252/300 and he used silver speaker wires connected to horn loaded speakers and also SF Guarneri supposedly a complete mismatch but this system sounded fantastic. 

We connected the ND5XS I was trading in with him up to that system and he then connected his iPod to the streamer and I had no idea an iPod playing mp3 could sound that good. 

Analogmusic - I tried a range of music with each of the speakers - everything from Rock to Jazz to soul, Male vocal to female vocal - all the speakers (Focal, Wilson and both Sonus Fabers) presented each type of music very well. A definite step up from my Wilson Bensch (specifically in the very top end and ultimate bottom end). For Metal - I would say that the Wilson had a slight edge in my view... 

I have enjoyed my Wilson Bensch Curves for a long time and I think they still sound very nice, it's just that the speakers I tried out were even better... not surprising as they do cost more then the original price I paid for the WB and clearly the technology has move forward.. 

As a general comment - listening to speakers back to back takes a lot of time - very enjoyable but time consuming - and I found that while all the speakers sound very good at the dealers, one never knows what they will sound in your system at home...

The two speakers I took the time and effort to try at home were the Focal Sopra 2s and The SF Serafino, both were very good - sound wise I could live with either of them - however the Focals were just too big for my room....

The Wilsons were not attractive in my view from a visual point - even though they were physically smaller than any of the speakers I listened to.

Having the speakers home allowed me to fine tuning the positioning to get the absolute best out of them... it's the the only real way to check out speakers for your specific system in your specific room.

I would have loved to try other alternatives - i.e. Monitor Audio PL300 the SP Olympias - but it takes so much time and effort (i.e. arranging the delivery, positioning the speakers in the room, etc.), never mind with speakers that come in big boxes and weigh upwards of 45 kg each...

And then it's difficult (at least for me) to remember the finer points from one speaker demoed in particular week in a specific position in the room vs another speaker demoed in a different week maybe in a slightly different position...

In the end I made my decision based on how much I enjoyed the longer term listening experience... and how it compared with my current speakers...     

And for me the SF Serafinos sound great and look fantastic - although they did cost more than I had budget that I originally allocated... but I believe that will be ok with the future upgrades I am planning to do over the next few years... 

Gerome - Did you get the stands that are specific to the Guarneris? Also did you compare the the Olympica I.

Just wondered as I did compare the Serafinos with the Olymoica III and they were very close in my view... not surprising as they appear to share the same speaker technology - the difference being in the implementation in two areas (i.e. cabinet volume, and the ports - i.e. side firing vs rear)

I got lent these speakers by my dealer. They were on the end of a 500 series with super lumina cabling in a room measuring 3.7M by 4.9M (or 12 by16 feet for the prog rockers amongst you). I also had them to compare against the previous incarnation of this speaker (Homage was it called?).

Compared to the homage it is more upbeat and brighter in tone. Overall the homage was preferred but for looks the tradition looked very neat. I did not buy a pair though. The dealer also leant me some ATC SMC40s and these speakers at almost £10,000 cheaper were superior. I'm now waiting to try the active versions before deciding what to buy.

Best etc.,

Ghetto Yout'.

fernar posted:

Gerome - Did you get the stands that are specific to the Guarneris? Also did you compare the the Olympica I.

Just wondered as I did compare the Serafinos with the Olymoica III and they were very close in my view... not surprising as they appear to share the same speaker technology - the difference being in the implementation in two areas (i.e. cabinet volume, and the ports - i.e. side firing vs rear)

The Guarneri in the demo room were on their dedicated stand indeed. I didn’t listen to the Olympica I though, as I felt the Guarneri blew the Olympica 2 out of the water in terms of clarity, detail, and precision and an even more beautiful colour. I was also very happy with the bass (again, listening to classical and opera, bass is not so much a priority for me). To be fair I would have been quite happy with the Olympica 2 had the dealer not suggested I’d give the Guarneri a try. Damn him! 

I'm glad you are are enjoying your Guarneri.... it's always an expensive mistake to listen to something more higher up the range than you originally budgeted... :-)

We use SF Olympica 1 with our 552/250 and love the sound 

analogmusic posted:

that's a 15,000 dollar speaker, looks very nice indeed.

blimey.

question though, how does it sound with Rock/metal music?

it would be like asking Andrea Bocelli to sing Back in Black. 

for Rock/Metal I would look at ATC, Klipsch, JBL etc..  SF is perfect for relaxed and refined music like classical and jazz

Bob the Builder posted:

I heard these speakers at a dealers with 252/300 non DR playing some traditional Sri Lankan music and they sounded beautiful and the workmanship and finish is better than on any speaker I have seen.  

as in the best tradition of true Made in Italy

I disagree... I know a lot of people used to equate SF in the past with classical and jazz... but the newer SF are well able to rock with best of them... the Olympica III and Serafino i listened to was fully able to do sing with a wide range of music.. in some respects better than the Wilson Sabrinas..

To be fair I didnt tryany heavy metal and maybe for this type of music ACT, JBL and the likes are more suitable... but SFs are able to sound wonderful with more than classical and jazz

I own 300DR / 252 / SupercapDR and SF Guarneri Homage....great combination. But this SF really needs space to sound best.

Very true - But I think that it true for many speakers - especially ones with a rear port.... There are some speakers specifically designed to be used to walls... but sadly there are not too many of those these days..

I know when I was trying the Focal Sopra 2 - they needed a clearance from walls even though their port was front facing at the bottom of the speakers... in fact I found that they were sensitive to the tilt as well - in my room they worked best with the front spikes screwed to the max and the rear spikes screwed to the min... 

I understand that sealed speakers are more flexible with regards to room placement - but I have yet to try any... all the speakers I have owned have always been of the ported type...

So I own these speakers.  I had my dealer's demo pair for a couple of months and now have had my own pair (on dedicated stands) for about the same period, so probably not fully run in.  555CD / 552NAC / 300NAP (all DR).

The important caveat is that at a similar time as upgrading from Sonus Faber Grand Pianos (version 1 rather than 2) I upgraded from Chord Super Aray (but cheaper Chord speaker cable) to a full loom Chord Music and installed a separate mains consumer unit.

My system now sounds utterly superb; it was good before but now wow stunning.  My dealer does several systems (mostly active I suspect) costing a lot more than mine but I am both their first Guarneri and first Chord Music full loom customer and they are raving so much about it that they are finding excuses for their staff to come and listen.  And my room dimensions (complex to explain) are perhaps not ideal and equipment stands are not Fraim or Quadraspire Reference (because of the room dimensions).  So how much down to the speakers and how much down to the cables?  Well I'm a cables convert so I'm going 50-50 which is very roughly consistent with cost, but these speakers sound even more amazing than they look, and they look like Sophia Loren in her prime (keeping the Italian theme!).