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f all dre world's greatloudspeaker companies,there is surely none moreItalian than sonus faber?

True, there aren't that marty speakermakers based at the Mediterraneanend of Europe - but of those that dohail fiom dlis part of the world, thiscompany occupies a unique position.Just like Sofia Loren or RobertoBaSgio, its products have theircounfry oforigin running throughtheir very DNA. And surely tlat canonly be a very good thing, or can it?

Of course, culture plays a pan, butanother vital defining charactedsticof any company is who runs it, andindeed how it is run. Sonus faberisn't one of those 'committee' t)?ecompanies, doing bland, Iowest-common-denominator stuff. It's fairto say is loudspealers aie voiced in aparticular way and with a distinctivesound, one that won t appeal to all.Things could only be this way whenthe founder Franco Serblin is still thechief designer for the company Justas the company name suggests, allhis speakers deliver a 'haadcraftedsound', something that could onlybe the product of skilled people withdecades of experience.

Rather than bulng in proprietarydrivers, Sonus faber has always paidspecial attention to the driveunits - whose importance in theovemll sonic scheme of things isoften as urderstated as it ismisundentood. Bespoke driversalso allow the designer to followthe 'less is more' school of crossoverdesign too (most Sf models havea simple fust order design), savinga good deal of money to put intodoing the best cabinet possible.

The Venere 2.5 is - as its namesuggests - a 2.5 way floorstandingspeaker, sporting a shape whichis said to be an hommage toits 'mother' speaker dre Aida.Considering its f2,000 price ta&you just cant help wondering howon earth the company malaged to

www.hitichoi.e..o.uk

achieve such high levels ofbuild andfinish. This price point is a distincdytricky niche for a big floo$tandelas the larger a loudspealer gets(and dre Venere 2.5 isn't small at1, 107x340x437mm) the harder(and more expensive) it is to control.Thint of a standmounter as a

nimble litde Mini (the real one, notdre modem genetically modifiedmutant) able to change directionat the blinft of an eye - and thenimagine trying to do the same thingin a big Bendell witl all that weightwallowing around. Speakers are thesame, inasmuch as the bigger theyare, the harder it is to get a grip onthe physics. Floorstanders have longcabinets which can variously flexanvor store unwalted mechanicalenergy like a capacitor does cuEent.Dealing with dris takes careful desigrr,something that s simply not a problemwith a small standmount speal<er

The profile of dris box is shaped likea Llre, which the manufacturer

*$"'"'$?ayF[T533 REVI EWS

claims ensures structural strengthand control ofspurious resonance.while tiis is true to a large extent, Ihave to say it was still slighdy lively- or to be more accurate - tndead'.But then the same can be said formany €5,000 floorstanders, and it'sonly when you get to the likes ofB&W's f10,000 B01Ds that rhecabinet seems to be hewn from rockthat reaches down to the very centeof the earth itself. So we'll say theVenere 2.5 passes the knuckle-raptest very comfortably given its sizeand price.

Lil<e Sofia Lorenor Roberto Baggio,Sonus faber's countryof origin is in its DNA

The piano gloss lacquer finishis superlative at its price. There islitde sense of this speaker being thepoor relation to the marque's higherend offerings, despite being madein China. Indeed Sonus faber hasworked very closely with its fareastem partne4 training is peopleat the Arcugnalo head office inItal]I with Italian technicians andcarpenters working in China too.The result is a beautiful design byPaolo Tezzon and Livio Cucuzza(engineer and stylist respecrively) ,

made to very high standards yetsold at a price that's considerablyless than would otherwise havebeen possible closer to home.

So, the Venerc 2.5 gets offto agood start in life, wifi a beautifullyfinished yet very substartial and'quiet' cabinet, into which somehigh quality Sonus faber-designeddrivers arc bolted. The treble unitis a 29mm German DKM silk domewith no ferofluid, daimed togo from 25kHz up top, down to2,500H2 whereupon a 180mmdriver with a composite plastic curvcone takes care of the midrangeduties. It then passes the baton toanother similar driver that goes liom250H2 down to a daimed 45H2.These are set into a curved, inclinedbaffle - wi*t the bass driver loadedby a reflex pon on the ftont.Tempered glass is set into the baseand top, and the spealer sponsadjustable aluminium feet.

The overall package really is quitesuperb you can't help feeling youget an awful lot of speaker for yourmoney, something that looks threetimes its price. It sat very happily inmy largish listening room, its shinysurfaces glinting in the daylight. >

Giaobella!ls Sonus faber's affordable newVenere 2.5floorstanding loudspeaker more than just abeautiful body? Dovid Prlce says hellooo...

tr DETAILSPRODUCT:SonusfaberVen€re 2.5

ORIGIN:Italy/China

TYPE:Roorstandingtoudsp€aker

W€IGHT:19.45kc

DttriR.lstoNs:(wxHxD mm):340)d,1o7x437mm

FEATURES. sp€clffedsensitivity: 89dB.specifi€dimpedance6ohmg.29mmsilkdome

.r8omm Curvnidrang€unit. rSomm Cuwba55 unitDISIRIBWOR:AbsoluteSounds

IETIPHONE:o2049n3909WEBSnEIabsolutesounds,

aRcH 2013 ll{ftdce t7

REVI EWS P3}33"A'-'I-""'45[N'

Dh whotl the o lm of the newYenere seies of speokers?ilo. To address the music and

cinema lovers' desires and needsdoingthis with an'audiophiLeattitude', with a strong designconcept, with a natural and'easy'and'happy' sound performanceand with a very good overaltvaluefor money ratio. lt represents theenter door into the Sonus faberword and itreaLLyaimstobe suitable foreveryone.

How do yo! solYe the classicprcbten ol gening o larye

floorstonder's coblnetto be stltQln the mosttraditionalSonusfaberway, by usinga curved side instead

ofastraightonewhich is nowto be

stronger and stifferthan a straightone and adding insidea proper

amountof sub-structural ribstostiffen and reinforce the structure,

alhy dH yut .hoose Eflex loodingonthts g.otfinePGenerallyspeakingit means betterextension to the low frequencie5when compared toaclosed boxdesign havingthesamedimensions.Another important reason is retated tothedrive units, there's awidechoiceof types for ref lex toaded boxes.

Why dltl you .hoose silk lor thetweetetmote ol, and why doesn'tit hqve Feftofluld .ooling?Silk material has been chosen simplybecause itsoundsthewaywe like,andthesilkdiaphragm is produced

bVthe best European componentsmanufacturer. Ferrof luid badty af fects

thetransientresponse sowe did notuseit.

why does Sonts fober use iEplosticcqwmotethllo hemldronge ond boss uniE?Th is therm o"mo utded po lypropytenetextile m ateria I perform s m uch betterin terms of detail resoLution than a

standard in jected polypropyLene

cone- and offers bettersound perpo und. The additio n of a pa per-coated

dustcap confers on them avery nice,

naturalandwarm sound.

la fifigdce MARCH 2013

tlend L qulte tl;t b.foru . 3dB

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Sound qualityThe great thing about a speaker of this size

is dlat it's possible to make it usefully efficient

- and so the Venere 2.5 proved. With a quotedsensitiviry ofBgdB, you don't need a direct feedro Didcot power station to tickle its transducers.I auditioned it with two amplifiers - the newsolid-state Musical Fidelity M6 500 integratedand anot-so newWo d Audio K5881 tubeamp fed direct ftom dre variable output ofan Audiolab M-DAC. In both instances, thesespeakers were well able to communicate therelative differences in sonic character betweenthe amps (and there sure is a difference),telling me that they weren't interfering toomuch with the signal sent to them. This canonly be a good thing...

The speaker prcved relatively easy to set-up,with no strange rituals requircd. It certainlywasn't an),where as sensitive to toe-in as someof rhe odrer speal<ers I ve had in my listeningroom rccendy, such as the Maninlogan Montis,for example. Just a few degrees of anglingtowards 'the couch of revelation' (i.e. my sofaupon which I do the listening) saw themimaging very nicely indeed. The only issue(ifthais not too strong a tem) was the distancefrorn *re rear wall, which needed to be a littlemore than many floorsranders I audition in myroom. The Venere 2.5 needed to come out agood 25cm,lest its bass wasn't boomy - manyspeakers I've tried work closer to the back wall,I've found.

Properly set up, the Venere 2.5 gives a wide,smooth and spacious sound. As you'd expectat rhe price (and considering its junior statusin a very prestigious range which spans up tothe heavens, in pricing terms), it's not quite

as delicate, incisive and subde as is biggerbrodre$, but it still retains very large amounts

of Sonus faber character in the way it behaves.This of course is no bad thing. Feed this speakersome pulsating pop, and it dives into it with theaplomb of something that's had an energy drinlor t}ree too many- there s plenq of emotionand brio. Yet hit it with some contemplativeclassical and it steps back respecdully andquietly decants the sherry as if ifs aware of thedeference it needs to show such programmematerial. Cleve!, that.

Tonally it is generally closer to the deep, dark,sultry school of speaker design that a greatmany modern boxes. You'd never call it dull,but neither is it from the 'blow your wig off'school ofspeaker design. The tlveeter is a nicedelicate device; inferior ffeble units have anamazing ability to spoil things lower dovr.n thefiequency spectrum and lop the bite ftom theleading edges of instruments but this does

not. Ride cymbals on C aravan's Nine Feet

Underground tackwere very well carriedindeed, although there's a little less top endsparkle and nuance than you'd get from a

spealer wi$ a good ribbon such as MonitorAudio's GX200.

A11 three drivers integrate well - ifs a

two-and-a-half-way design but it gives theimpression ofbeing cast from solid. This meansthat while t}le speaker is able to tell you allabout the vivid attack ffansients ftom the steelguitar strlmming on - for exarnple Tears forFears'Pole Sheiter, it doesn't lacerate yourlugholes, leaving you dripping blood on thecaryet. And moving to valve amplificationsmoothed things even more ofcourse, makngfor a magically mellow listening experience,even with shouty modern digital remasters.

Although the Venere 2.5 is a peppyloudspeake4 it gets its speed not from anartificially edgy tonal balance, but from high

@ON TE5T

Sonus laber chlms 89d85€nritMlylortheV€n.re r,5,which 13 abo[t rdB optlmlsticacaordlng to our plnk noi5eneasuremenl ot 88.adB,alErag€d for tho rovlew pair.The Ep.cmod noniml lnD€danc.ot 6 ohns is abo sonewh.t ftlthgh,€n our ne$ur€d mlnlmumlllodllus of 3,5 ohm5, whlchindicates th.t. 4 ohm r.thawould h€ mor€ .ppropdate. Bl|tthe YeneE 2.5 15 nonothetcs5 ar€htlv€ty e.sy load to drlY€ wlths mlnlmuln EPDn (€quinlcntpe.k dls5ip.tlor lellltance,whlch also takes lnlo accoontlmpedance phese engle) of 2.2ohlll! at 9oH2, Fllquencyrcsponse elm152ooHz-:okHz,rneasurcd on thc tweeter axi!,w€re a lltth hlgh at t6.{d8 andr6,6dB lb5pocfi v€ty, piinclpauybeaaus€of a na]mwnotrh lnoutput betw€on 6kllz end 9lHz,but .arrful s€hctlon of li3tenlnghelght nay educe thltOtherwlse the oYerall rcsponsa

O 29nnsiltdometvreet rgiYes i slllooti sou

A r8onn turu potypopylene- nid driver inteSntes ni..ly

O r8omn fuBvoofergiwsDterty of basi heft

O bi.wircable billdirt posts ar€- b€autitullyfinished

at ftDnt momted slot lvm- relter port nwes e ioiofrlr

O itttenatlyihh€d,.sned(abin.tlrsuD.rblyff nished

phteau ln tlr6 L5t audiblcoatave. Bass cxt€n3lon i5colnmcdable at toHz for -6dBrcf 2ooHz, erpLlnlng the nodestsensitMty figur€. P.h m.tchhgwes e llttle dlseppolntirg.tfi.4d8. The cunuteth,€ spoctr.lde6y watefall show5 fastlnltlal eneqy d€.ay with orlysome low.tovel resonances alt.eble trcquencl€s. KH

quality dive units - which arefaster than a Britney Spears weddingand held back very little by thosecapacious cabinets. For this reason,these loudspeakers excell tlroughthe midband. True, theyre not totallytransparent - you'd never confusethem for a Martinlogan CIX forexample - but you can forgive thevery slight opacity of those Curvdrivers lend to the sound becausethey are basically accurate andconsistent. This makes it easy for theear to tune in to them, and for thebrain to tune them out. Kate Bush'sIhe Big sry is relatively compressed,but really gets going as she gives herll,rics both barrels towards the end ofthe song. The Venere 2.5 proved wellable to impart the subde dynamiccontmsts in the song, hanging thingstogether beautifully as the songprogressively gets more complex,without descending into any hintofhardness or muddle.

Indeed detailing was generally verygood, the Sonus fabers proving wellable to spodight Johnny Man's deftrhythm guitar work on The Smiths'Headmaster Ritua.L And they sqthedthrough the mix to tlrow up plentyof detail about the backing guitartracks. I also found myselfverypleased with the way they handledvocals, showing not a sign ofnasalityor edge - they were nicely balancedand let the emotion in Monissey'splaintive voice shine through. Theresult was a engaging, sometimesmesmedc performance dlat totallybelied the fact that I was listening toa mid-priced pair ofloudspeakers.

www.hitichoi.e-.o-uk

It's a very matureperformer at a pricewhere many rivalsalltoo easily betraya lackof breeding...

I'm sure those elaborately shapedand angled cabinets play at leastsome part in the success the Venerc2.5s have with imaging. Again,theYre not up with electrostaticpanels in their ability to hang voicesor instruments in space like specificstars in dre night sky, but still provedvery handy at aniculating a coherentstereo image and ramming it out intothe room with no apologies made.Jazz is of cou$e a grcat test for fiis,so I donned my black polo neck aldsparked up a Silk Cut for JohnColtrane and Johnny Hartman's MyOne and Only Love - a seminal earlysixties Impulse offering ifyou're ofthe goatee bearded, Jack Kerouacreading peBuasion. These boxes suregot on this track on the road; thesaxophone sound was sublime, thevocals arresting and the piano ajoy

None of this would have beenpossible of course witiout a powerfulyet disciplined bass performance.You'd never call it light - evenwhen carefully positioned theIow frequencies announced theirpresence on everything I playedbut it was always enjoyable. Therewas a physicality to tie proceedingsthat suited rock and jazz really ratherwell, but you might find it a litde

*$'"'"'s?'^1lFlT533 R EVI EWS

overpowering in smaller listeningrooms, or ifyou like the sort ofanechoic chamber bass which is ultradamped. In my room it was great

- sumptuous and extended rightdown to the bonom octaves.

So many floorstanders of this sizeand price seem to slui the leadingedges of new notes and cling on tothe fading remains of the old ones,but you could never say that aboutthese Sonus fabers. But neitherdoes the low bass stop and stafi withthe speed of a light emitting diode.Instead it always feels weighty, andthis tends to push the song alongvery enjoyably Grace Jones' Slcveto the Rhythm prcved wonderfullyfulsome and powerful sounding, butthere was just t}le f€ensiest sense ofoverhang on those bigger bass notes.

The only other mark on anotheri,{ise squeaky-clean copybookwas the very slight compression youget when the volume is tumed upin anger. At high levels, the dynamicaccenting on hard hit snare drumsisnt quite as explicit as, say on asimilarly priced PMC. Generally thisis pretty hard to spot, it's just whenthe drummer gives it ten tenths theVenere 2.5 doesn't quite go the extramile. Again howeve4 as soon as youremember the price, such criticismsseem churlish...

Sound qualityAlthough not quire the most forcnsicor revealing at the price, this spealerboasts a wonderfully smooth aldsumptuous balance that's delightfulto set ears on, yet still exhaustivelyimparts the music embedded inany recording. It's a very matureperformer in a way that's fiarklyunexpected at the price - one wheremany rivals all too easily betraytheir lack of breeding. Factor in thesuperlative build, styling, finish andpedigree - and Sonus faber's newVenere 2-5 floorstanding speal<er ispretty hard not to love. o

OUR VERDICT50UNDQUALIIY

*****

*****eurroounirri*****EASEOfDRIVE****t

especiaLlyin

OVERALL

THEPRINCEIYSUorf2,300BUYsYOUrrO |TORAIIDIOISSUPERBGX2o0. This is oneofthe closest pricerit"dlsoftheSonusfab6l ven€r€ 2.5,butyou'dneverknowillisteningtoihe two together...

They're as difierent

DB5 and a FerrariDaytona, th€ ltalianspeakersoundins

emotionally, a little

andgeneIallyamore engaginslyemotional

The British box isan altog€ther moremeasurcd affair,andiftruthb€tolda good deal moreaccurate. Bass i5

stightty tishterimidbandoff€rsatouch mor€ d€tait(although th€soundstaging 6n'tquite matchthatoftheltalian).andthatgorgEous tweetergives the sort ofhigh frequencyinsishtthatyoujust can't get ftonsomethingsportinga cloth dome.

Annoyingtythough,iustsimplycantascribeanoutright win to€ither. They'r€simplydifierent,theMonitorAudiobeinga calming,dryEa{Greyteato the sweet frothyCappuccinothat istheSonushb€r.That's €xactty u,hy -y€s thafs right - youne€dtoffndagooddealerand goandlisten foryouEelf,preferdbty with yourownamplifierandancilaries. Either

happycustomet

LIKE:Smooth,polishedtonal balancei expansivesoundstaging; overall

rnusicality; supe ativebuildardslyLing

olsllll,t: Bass prominert,

WESAY: Beautitullypresented, ffeatsounding

*****

faRCH 20rt llfigrice 19