Multitest bookshelf speakers – 2500 euros – part 2

Sonus Faber Sonetto I

Sonus Faber once again lives up to its name. What a beautiful speaker to behold this is! It really is a piece of furniture you place in the living room. Now of course it is not just a nice box what enthusiasts are looking for. The technology and reproduction must also be right. Especially in this price range where the competition is just very tough.

Just a bit about the construction. The Sonetto I is a two-way, bass-reflex system. At the top we see a 29mm (big!) soft dome tweeter with DAD technology, which stands for Damped Apex Dome. In short, it means that the silk soft dome is damped by the “bracket” in front of it. Below the tweeter is a 15cm woofer (paper). The bass reflex port is in the base and ventilates forward.

The sound

Remarkably, the Sonus Fabers already play very well at low volume. The speakers surprise at Beethoven with nice separation of notes, the bright, lively violins that do not sound sharp and the nice sound of the woodwinds. There is little ambience from the hall and the imaging is somewhat limited in depth.

With Mammal Hands on the Pass Labs, you immediately notice the full sound of the piano and the reverb. It is easily audible that the saxophone is a reed-blown metal instrument; the reproduction is balanced in terms of sound. There is cohesion in the soundstage, the musicians are really playing together. The attacks on the drums are nice, it is a fast speaker. With the Nilai, we get more air in the highs, but the timbre becomes a bit softer overall. The response to the tabla is faster, the Sonus Fabers have no trouble at all with this. The soundstage grows in width and depth.

With Sohn there is a lot of control, The sound in the soundstage sounds very spacious and intelligibility is good. You can hear the layering in the effects of his voice.

Conclusion: Sonus Faber puts a very attractive speaker here, which offers a lot for the money. Handsome performance.

Measurements Sonus Faber Sonetto I

The Sonus Faber Sonetto I is clearly more neutrally tuned than the Lumina series. We still see a “Bowers Bump,” as we have christened the hump between 5 and 8 kHz. Now this is handled slightly differently with the Sonus Faber, but here too we see an ‘elevator’ on the highs. This gives openness and sparkle. Can be nice, but we generally just prefer a straight response.

Distortion is low. Everything is under 0.3%, which is just very neat. We see an alternation between 2nd and 3rd harmonics that are dominant. In the vocal region mostly 2nd, which is nice.

Impedance is very friendly with a minimum of 4.5 Ohms. The peak around 1800 Hz is 32 Ohm, which can give coloration on a tube amplifier. But this speaker is not difficult to drive.

Specifications Sonus Faber Sonetto I