A graceful and elegant looking speaker, with either grill's on or off, easily adjustable for leveling & tilt. Nice and stable with a good solid cabinet. Refined in sound quality, very balanced but also clear tight and accurate. Imaging & soundstage is excellent, pair these with good gear and cables, and they will impress. If you can find these under £1000 in good order I'd say it's Mony well spent, considering what you get new for that bugit.

None at all.

Great sounds.. clear, concise, warm and very very very smooth.

With proper set up, these speakers image like crazy.

To get good sound quality, you need to treat your listening room..

The price.

Equipment:
Amp: Adcom 545
Preamp: Meridian 541
CD player: Primare
Interconnects: double shielded cables from Blue Jeans Cable for about $20/each
Speaker cables: 10 gauge copper zip cord from AVCable.

----------------

These speakers are absolutely amazing and a pure joy to listen. The high end frequencies are clear, conscise, smooth and not harsh on the ear.

Midrange is superb and these speakers excel in replicating voice. Sound is smooth and clear. Not clinical or cold. Just a natural sounding voice like you hear in everyday conversations.

Bass: Really good considering that these speakers are 2.5 way. I play lots of electronica/techno with heavy bass and these speakers go way down. If you want the walls or the glass to shake or feeling of deep bass penetrating your body, then get a subwoofer to complement.

If you use these speakers for home theatre, then these speakers will do very well. Just get a subwoofer with it.

For music: jazz, classical, techno/electronica (which I listens mostly) rock.. It does it well for all music type. For some reason, my U2 CDs don't come out well. But for bands like Flamming Lips or Pink Floyd, they sound awesome from the sonus faber.

If you can find yourself a pair, get them. You won't be dissapointed.

Also.. no need to spend stupid money on speaker cables and interconnects. Spending hundreds of dollars on cables is for gullible people who don't know any better.

Customer Service

No comment. Did not need to use it yet.

Similar Products Used:

Auditioned
B&W.. sounded bland
Triangle... good
Audio Physic... good but too expensive.. also require a powerful amp to drive it.
B&O.... hurts my ears... harsh and sounded shrilly.
Martin Logan -- ok.. too hard on the ears
Bose... unimpressive.
Revel Studio and Ultima -- Great but again too expensive. Also very heavy speakers and stick out like a sore thumb.

A bunch of other speakers from Best Buy & Frys and Circuit City.. they all sounded unimpressive.

Airy, clear, detailed, extended and sweet vocals....

Surprising bass for such a speaker ...


very very balanced sounding speakers and not demanding to equipment

Yet to discover

I picked up these SF GrandPiano Home used and found them incredible sounding. They are extremely musical with airyness in the highs and never harsh sounding. Its vocal quality is superb and i must say that these are the best value for money speakers you can find at this price range.

Similar Products Used:

Many many branded high end stuff which I will not list , just too many

very clear, solid construction, very high quality!

none

Simply amazing!!!!! I looked at Martin Logans as well, but the quality of these speakers stood out. They sound rich, clear, and really natural. I recommend them to anyone as they are unbeatable for their price.

Mids, Mids and Mids!
The SF forte.
Surprisingly powerful and tight bass for such small drivers’ size.
Huge potential to grow with the rest of your equipment unlike many other speakers that require the best of the best in electronics to sound half decent.
Once you hooked them to truly high-end gear they sound superb.
Beautiful speakers that look like an elegant furniture in your living room- hence high WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor).
Sound best with Acoustic material (acoustic guitar, Jazz trios, chamber music) and Vocals (I dare you to listen to Dianna Krall's "The girl in the other room" and claim that Dianna did not physically come to perform in your living room... ).

There are Sonus Faber Guarneri Memento out there...

I was dreaming about these babies since my parents got the older Grand Piano some more than 10 years ago.
I loved their mids, their clarity and especially their vocals reproduction.
When I finally had the money to buy these, the first GP model was unavailable and I went for the GP Home edition and a good thing too.
I know a lot of folks will swear by the older GP version but when I had the chance to compare between the GP and GP Home, hooked to Audio Research CD2 Player and ARC tube amp, the GP Home sounded better to me, especially in the bass department but not just. It was a beefier sound with more air around the instruments and a sense of volume. Definitely an improvement over the former GP.
One of the more impressive qualities of these speakers is the fact that unlike some more expensive SF models (Electa Amator, Extrema, Guarneri, etc) they are very forgiving to the electronics.
I started by using NAD 317 integrated with, embarrassed to say, Sony DVP-S550D as a player with some low end Monster cables and interconnects. You know what? they sounded more than decent.
Went though many players (Nad 541i, Rega Apollo, Naim CD5, Unison Research) and amps (Some tube amps, Meridian 105 monoblocks) and ended up with Meridian 596 player/Meridian G02 as pre-amp /Meridian G57 amp (200 w/channel) with Madrigal Labs Cz Gel and MDC-1 interconnects and Cardas Crooslink speaker cables.
The result? Out of this world!
Such clarity and definition without sounding harsh, metallic or fatiguing, such sense of volume and space, such powerful but tight and controlled bass.
Quiet moments sound as dramatic as music!

By the way in my humble opinion they sound better with SS electronics than with Tubes but that is my personal view and it is based on limited tube listening sessions and this is a generalization as I recently listened to a Joule Electra LA100 MKlll Tube Pre-Amp which sounds heavenly (Lush, Sensuous, fast and detailed)

Generally speaking I find that Meridian and SF is a marriage made in heaven.

All in all It is a matter of personal taste but nothing compares in my mind to SF as these are speakers that were made with true love!

Customer Service

Did not need one but my parents did and had excellent service from the local dealer.

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber Cremona, B&W (805, 802 and other various models), Magnepan (various models), Dynaudio Contour 1.4S, Dali ikon 6, Triangle Naia, Thiel CS2.4, PSB Platinum T8, Paradigm Signature (latest flagship model hooked to Clear-Audio Turntable and a pair of Mark Levinson Monbolocks), Kef, Polk Audio SRS 1.2TL, Kef 105/4 Raymond Cooke Signature, Infinity Kappa 8, Acoustat 3, and more.

Beauty, balanced sound mainly for Jazz, acoustic and vocals...and modest price.

Not for heavy rock. Require very carefull positioning.,must be toed in. Need good amps, source and cables as all fine speakers do..

After using them for years,i am still hooked on these beautiful speakers..These ripe transducers produce great sound..Highs are well extended, mids are mesmerising and lows are satisfying.They sound best with jazz,vocals and acoustic material..Soft rock and pop sounds ok,but if are a heavy metal fan you may not get the kicks. I use them with both valve amps(audioresearch) and solid state krell. Valve amps drive them better for long listening/.Depth and width of soundstage is very very good.
Overall they are very well balanced speakers,both for music and movies.I rarely use subwoofer while listening to music. They need to be partnered with good electronics and cables ....I will only think of replacing them, if I have enough money to get Amati's.

Customer Service

Excellant.

Similar Products Used:

B&W , Mission , Sonus faber concerto.

lush voice..
great for jazz, mainstream pop / rock.
great cabinet construction.

Needs space
Narrow sweet spot.

I bought these used last year. I pair them up with Rotels and they sounded great. A lot of people has negative thoughts about this but all I can say is this is better than Arcam + BW803 series which I initially auditioned.

Just word on cables. These babies seems to prefer solid core cables compared to multi stranded type. It just opens up the upper frequencies to a level which is significant. Cymbal seems to pop out of the box... soundstage and difinition becomes wider and precise.

Similar Products Used:

Tannoy R3
JBLs
BW 603

a. wide and deep soundstage b. sweet transparency and detail c. wonderful layering with seamless musical presentation. d.rich sounding and non-fatiguing presentation of any sound textures.

None. Ask your dealer for an audition!

After using or testing several speaker brands for several years (B&W, Mission, Kef, Triangle, Castle, etc), I heard my first pair of this italian brand (the Sonus Faber Cremona model). Cremonas were to expensive for me, but problem was that once you hear Sonus Faber special voice, look (gourgeous) and feel (you are really "into" the sound) there is no way back, other just sound too artificial and unnatural. So I tried with the Grand Piano Home model. At more than half of the Cremonas price you get 75% of its extraordinary qualities, specially the "soul" of the Sonus Faber sound. Without doubt purchasing these speakers will be your "best buy" if you really want to get into real hi-fi, high end sound.

Similar Products Used:

Mainly B&W Nautilus 803/4/5, Viena Mozart, Triangle Celius, Tannoy

Soundstage (width and depth) Voice Awesome bass Especially good with chamber music, blue grass, and jazz

Treble

I love these speakers. They have great imaging with a wide and deep soundstage. The sound never sounds like it is coming from a fixed point or a box; very diffuse. Really impressive bass for such a small floorstander. Very detailed with the human voice. A little on the warm side with rich sound. Great with all kinds of music especially chamber music, bluegrass, and jazz. Just as strong with movies too. The solo home is matched to voice the GPHs perfectly. I feel they are well worth the money and compete well against speakers like the B&W Nautilus 804, Martin Logan Aeion, Revel F32, Vienna Acoustic Beethoven, Thiel CS2.4, etc.

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Thiel, Paradigm, Vienna Acoustics, Magnepan, Martin Logan, Revel, Totem, Dynaudio, Monitor Audio

Looks, fit and finish. Fast and deep base Fluid midrange Intimate presentation Looks, fit and finish. :)

Slight preference toward upper frequencies Somewhat geared towards small scale music, although it still does well everything else

Let’s state the obvious first. These are beautiful speakers. Looks are subjective, but no one can deny that Sonus Faber is one of the few companies in today hi-fi world that still take personal kind of pride in creating its speakers. Grand Paino Home come in either Piano Black lacquer or Walnut side panel finish. I owned the former version, and while black speaker might be easier to blend with home interior, I honestly think that with walnut sides Grand Piano Home look more exclusive and bigger without dominating the room. It’s worth noting that while leather is synthetic, walnut sides are of the hand- sanded, solid walnut type. Sonus Faber wizards describe their creations as instruments rather than speakers. Even though Concert line is the lowest in the Sonus Faber lineup, it still holds to the same philosophy. Grand Piano Home (GPH) create a relatively small, intimate yet deep soundstage. As such, in my opinion, they are more suited for small scale music rather than rock concert or a big time classical. Yet, they are capable of producing precise imaging, but only if you take care of setting them up in your room. In fact in my experience, GPH are very picky about their placement, a small change makes a huge impact on how they sound. The task is not totally unpleasant though - speakers come with easily adjustable spikes and speakers are not very hard to move around. Classical guitar sounds absolutely real through GPH, every plucking of the string, every tap of the player – all reproduced with pin-point accuracy and most of all – with real emotion. Across the frequency band these speakers stay balanced, with possibly a) slight emphasis on upper frequencies and b) some dip in response around lower midrange/upper bass region. The former might cause some “s” in female voices and some special effects to exhibit some brightness; the later is another reason why these speakers might not be the best for rock. That being said, these speakers go deep and under right setup they easily can fool you into thinking there is subwoofer present. Base is very tight and fast, that’s expected due to the use of 7in woofer. What’s not expected however is the bass impact GPH can deliver given that it’s relatively small 2.5 way speaker. Still, due to the dip in response (to my ears) in upper bass region, these speakers can sometimes sound like a satellite/sub combo. Looking from the spec point of view, these should be an easy load for any decent amp. Because of that I do not punish them for some brightness I noticed, they are not bright speakers, and with easy load there are plenty of choices for matching amp. Their upper range is limited to 20kHz at -3db, which might be an issue, if like me, you are looking into Hi-Rez formats. As an example even on regular CD’s there are better speakers in and under the price range that can reproduce special effects like water drops or triangle with better accuracy, air and reverb decay. But again GPH will do other things better and there certainly no other speaker in the price range that can match their level of finish… not even close. Overall GPHs are great performers, they have their limitations but these have to be looked in the context. Being “instruments”, GPH are geared toward jazz, small scale classical, even pop music. They also do very well in home theater setup which is a plus for those who consider doing 2ch/HT setup.

Similar Products Used:

Monitor Audio Gold 60, Polk Audio Lsi15, Martin Logan Aeon i. Gear Used: Marantz SR7000 Rotel RCD991 Sony C555ES (SACD playback) Monster Cable HTS5100 Secondary gear used: Pioneer Elite SACD source B&K Ref 50 pre B&K Ref 200.5 amp