Mids, highs and even bass...and they're beautiful.

None at the price.

These speakers caught my attention when I saw them at an hi-fi dealer close to the place I used to work. I never imagined I would buy them.
Since I moved to my new apartment, I spent lots of time in hi-fi dealers, listening to lots of speakers before I had the oportunity to start buying my system, and I bought these beauties. Not only because of the way they look, but also because I auditioned the Concertinos before, and I listened to the best mids and highs for the price.
When I had the chance to buy a pair of Concertos for only a few more $ than the Concertinos, I had to buy them.
They have not only excellent mids and highs from the Concertinos, but also a good tight bass.
I disagree with those who said that hard-rockers should forget these speakers. I tested them with Classical, Jazz, Trip-hop, Techno, Metal, Rock, Pop, etc, and they're great for all kinds of music.
They give they're best with female vocals, but they can handle the bass of the first track of "Mezzanine" from Massive Attack (a test lots of speakers I tested failed). I listened to lots of instruments I never heard before at the "S&M" Metallica concert, not to mention the drums...
Mark Knopfler's guitar an vocals never looked so real.
I use to get tired when I listen to music. My ears are very sensible, and start to hurt a little bit. I can't listen to music with headphones for more that 1 ou 2 hours. Even with good hi-fi components, sometimes I have to turn down the volume... well, not with my speakers!!
I'm very happy with them, and I recommend them to everyone with this budget.

Similar Products Used:

Half an year listening to speakers of different prices... brands like Kef, Mission, Mordaunt-Short, Infinity and B&W.

Overall sound quality, deep bass, easy setup, sweet and easy on the ear,
natural voices and instrument. Could easily replace many
floorstanders at same price.

Not for Headbangers or Hard-rockers. Will not deliver 120 db.
May not shake out 20 hz bass lines. Compared to costlier designs,
one could always find something to critizice, both bass-extension,
detail, allround abilities, transparency, and so on. May not suite
your tastes.

I bought these monitors second hand, at a price of £ 850, including Sonus original stands. This is the new "concerto home" model, and should not be compared to the old "concerto", as the new is fitted with new woofer, treble and crossover. Binding posts are also new, and no longer biwire-able. Quality of the terminals are high. They
still look the same, and have the same luxury feel in both speaker cabinet and stands. It is still a 13 liters, 2-way ported design, with a frequency range of 40-20.000 hz, efficiency about 86 db. They represent an easy load, but need an amp capable of delivering some power to reproduce at their best.

My system set up is Pioneer PDS-06 CD player, ONIX A 120 integrated amp, Rega 3 with Grado MM pickup and Project phonostage, all with MIT terminator interconnects (5'er to the CD, and 6'er to the phonostage) and MIT terminator 6 speakercable. Speaker stands are fitted with original rounded spikes, placed 50 cm. from back wall, and at least 1 m. from side walls. Listening position is mostly 2-3 meters avay from the speakers, but it is possible to move
around in the room and still obtain good sound quality. This is said to be one step forward from the old concerto model. The room is about 40 square meters, but L-shaped, partially carpeted, and with normal furniture such as bookshelves, sitting groups, TV and such. I have no
problems with this solution.

I have not had time to change gear since I bought the Concertos. Although I just recently bougt them, I dont think I'll have to either. It seems that my system is a very good match indeed. I placed them on the same
place as my former Infinity Kappa 70 speakers, with very good results. A slight toe in was needed however. I'm not sure if my Onix is a hidden treasure known only by a few odd looking hifi-nuts, but it deserves to be a real hit. I was deeply impressed, as it knocked my pre/power setup
at £ 2350 up pretty bad. My Onix A 120 has a retail price in Norway approx £ 650 or $ 800. I also must mention that the pioneer, although it is not a testwinner in the UK, has a very tasty soundquality.

First impressions is a refined speaker that is able to reproduce music in a way that makes you feel like listening to more music. I am to old to think "hifi" although I'm only 31 (started this maniac activity at 16) instead believable music reproduction is the objective for me. For the record, I have tried out different speakers over the years, such as Monitor Audio R352, Snell K2, Mission Freedom and Infinity Kappa 70. I have also had the pleasure to audition several other speakers; B&W 804, Snell E3,
Snell J2, Audiovector M3 & M3 signature and Dali Evidence 870.

In general terms, I was impressed by the deep bass, that occured when playing e.g. Wyclef Jeans "The eclectic". I did expect some limitations compared to bigger speakers as my own Kappa 70's and from auditioning Audiovector M3's and
M3 signatures, but these limitations were not huge by any means. The concertos are a bit tighter, but has the same extension downwards as the other, except the signatures. The M3's are more hard hitting, but also has some box colouration around 70 hz.

Further up, the midrange has, as I see it, natural voice reproduction, good detail, and a smooth precentation. I have heard other speakers with more attack, killer-dynamics, and hyper-detail, but here is a tasty blend of ingredients that says music. I find the dynamic capability
good enough. Clarity, transparency, detail and ability to seperate instruments and voices are, again as I see it,
at a high level.

Treble is sweet and detailed. Others have rewieved it as too bright, but I have another opinion. It is not too bright, but extended, and does not have the falling response over 13-14 khz as many 1 inch soft-domes has.
Having said that, I suppose system matching is important with all speakers. My system is modified to avoid brightness, as I'm allergic to this. Red eyes, scratching, coughing, etc. and medication does no good, but modifying the stereo helps.

As one grows older and gets more experienced, evolution hits you from time to time. For me this means: give me quality. I dont want much bass but good. I dont want quantity if that gets in the way for the music.
In these terms Cervin Vega is not my cup of tea. I want natural reproduction, musical presentation, of course with decent bass. Silence is also important, my system must be able to shut up when nothing is happening, and then kick it when needed. These concertos seems to have a fine balance here, without beeing exceptional.

Music: I own about 250 lp's and 300 cd's, collected over 15 years. Since listing all will take place and be of interest for one or two (me beeing one of them); here is a shortlist of what I play thes days, and goes well with the Concertos: Wyclef Jean, Ice Cube, Tom McRae, Eric Bibb, Faithless,
I think I'll stop here. I have not tried hard rock, jass or classical yet, but am afraid that hard rock won't suit them too good.

Comparision: I have only been able to compare with my own former speakers Infinity Kappa 70 floorstanders, Snell K2, Mission Freedom (old ones) and auditions of others, such as B&w 804 (not nautilus), Audiovector M3 / M3 signature, Snell J2 and Snell E3. The Kappas beeing closest in general terms, has more oomph due to bigger size, and plays louder. Has however less details all over and more level in high frequencies (se my test on these!) The M3's are more precise and neutral in absolute terms, but sound more "hifi-ish" correct than musical. So does the B&W 804s. The M3 signatures are a better choice, but are a bit more expencive. These are fabolous speakers, and has musical manners, so to speak. The Snell K2's are a cheaper design (older, available second hand only, except the Audio Note AN/K copy which is basically the same speaker design). The Snell K's sing OK, but is unable to seperate happenings from eachother or deal with rythm in a proper way. They are also a tad bass-shy and peaks in the treble somewhere. The Snell J2 are better in all ways. These are also available second hand only, except the Audio Note AN/J design, which is basically the same design. The J2's have a crisper presentation and a bit more thump in the bass. They could tend to get on the cold side if pushed, and does not have the same midrange clarity as the Sonus Fabers. Snell E3 was a disappointment and sounded rather dull. Maybe the surroundings were wrong. B&W 804 did not impress either, beeing correct, but uninvolving.

Limitations are: deepest bass is lost. Killer dynamics is not there. Hyper detail is elsewhere. Correct reproduction is done "better" by others (I have used "natural" on the concertos, not "correct"). Some colouration is added, as the sound is a tad sweeter and easier on the ear than real life. These babies sing, and for some this is good news, for others bad.

In a wider context, where one wants to be future proof, and perhaps add home cinema solutions, Sonus Faber has it all. You may want to add the "Grand Piano Home" as Main speakers, a Gravis Sub and a Solo center channel. This would be a killer setup, according to "Home Entertainment". If music in SACD and/or DVDA is your no. 1 dream, simply add more Concertos and a Gravis or two, and you'll have wet dreams every night.

Maybe you are like me, and change your gear once in a while. And maybe your wife too gets mad once in a while. ("Honey, where's the stereo? You haven't sold it again, have you? I just learned how it's operated, you know") Then you'll see that Sonus Fabers seldom is on the second hand market, and price tends to be high. The more expencive models are almost impossible to find s/h, such as extremas, grand piano, electa amator. Wonder why? First, you won't buy expencive speakers unless they fit your musical tastes.
And your wife wont let you sell them, unless you promise to buy another pair of Sonus Fabers, as they look far more stylish than any thing you'll ever get to own, B&O included ("They really look great, and they don't dominate the room. THATS a good thing"). And one tends to focus on the music once the Sonus Fabers has been fitted to your stereo, and then forget about hifi. Get it?

Similar Products Used:

Infinity Kappa 70, Monitor Audio R352, Mission Freedom, Snell K, J and E, B&W 804 matrix, Audiovector M3 & M3 sign.

Highs and mids, with tight bass and ... beautiful look!

None for their size (well, they´re not cheap and need a "big" amp...)

Hello,

I´ve been searching for an affordable pair of speakers for a long time (some years...) to update my old Interaudio XL 3000 by Bose. I was searching for detail but without loosing bass kick. In fact I always wanted a pair of floorstanders but... to make my task more difficult and for family reasons, the speakers should be bookshelf (so achieving good bass response suddently became a hard work...).

Thus I thought of buying some little minimonitors and adding a sub, but tests quickly recomended to forget this option: the tumbling bass ate mid and high frecs definition. This is not a good option for music (though Anthrax is your band).

Then some dealer showed me the Concertos attaked by a 30W Musical Fidelity A-class amp and I found out love!. Sultans of Swing never sounded so good to my ears: clear and detailed sound but with tight bass; not as good as the bass of the Tannoy Rev 2 or the one from the Monitor Silver 7, but enough for now. I have of course compared them with other babies before buying them: the B&Ws CDM1 sounded a little metalic, so fatigue came out quickly. I liked Monitor 3 and 4, but they have a little artificial bass response that compromises the clearness of the mids (though they´re cheaper, a good buy if budget is constrained, as they´re also easier to power).

Now I have a pair of beauties that sound beautifull whatever kind of music they play (even Dream Theater!), that also look beautiful and that are bookshelf. What else can I ask for?, well, some 200-300 bucks less would have been welcome... or a bigger room to place my beloved floorstanders (who said Grand Concerto?).

My equipment is:

Loudspeakers: Sonus Faber Concerto Home
Amp: Primare A20 integrated (compared to Tag McLaren 60 RV integrated, it won in stereo separation for 400$ bucks less, as it has one transformer for each channel: a must-hear)
DVD Player: Toshiba 200 (HDCH, gold plated posts)
Interconection cable: Ixos Bronze (nice price)
Speakers cable: bad quality, should replace soon, any recomendation?.

Similar Products Used:

Monitor Audio Silver 3, 4, 5, 7 and Bronzes, Concertinos, some Ruark 3.000 $, B&W CDM1 SE & CDM7 SE, TDL RTL3, Tannoy Revolution 2

What can I say? this speaker is simply fantastic. I have never tired of listening to my favorite CDs since I purchased this product 2 weeks ago. The midrange, particularly the human voice and instrumentals, are extremely smooth and soothing. The previous reviews were right; Sonus Faber is the ferrari of speakers. I particularly like the unique leather and walnut classy finish. I know no other speaker with that kind of beautiful built.

Similar Products Used:

NHT Supertwo, Mordaunt Short 207

Beautiful sound and looks

None with a good subwoofer

Nice review Cato.
This second review is because I replaced the Onkyo receiver by:

Tag McLaren AV32R pre-processor
Rotel RB993 3x200 watts
Rotel RB1080 2x200 watts

Well, now I know what people mean when they say the Sonus Faber needs a good amp... I did like the sound before, very much, but compared with now it was all blurred...
The detail is incredible, I can "see" someone clapping different in the middle of the audience, it sounds like I have a speaker for each instrument playing, and precussion is a lot sharper...

And they still look gorgeous...