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REVIEW: Sonus Faber Amati Homage Speakers Review by Hyperion at Audio Asylum

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A date with the Amati Homage (serial # 105)

There she was. The biggest baddest Sonus faber ever. Almost 4’ tall, and 2’ deep – she is anything but compact but she, like the rest of the brood is a very lovely and elegant beast. Her red orange and black gloss finish begs to be caressed. The pictures simply don’t do her justice. A mere 2D representation just cannot possibly portray the exquisite curves of the Catherine Zeta Jones among speakers.

As usual nothing escapes the microscopic scrutiny of your inquisitive Sonus faber maniac. She has the softest and most acquiescent … woofer suspensions I have ever touched. Softer than other speakers equiped with Scanspeak drivers? Yes, they are so. The carbon doped paper woofers does not look like the typical Scanspeak OEM drivers either. There is none of the lightly crumpled look of the infamous 8545W. The typically concave dust caps/phase plugs have been replaced with inverted shallow cones - titanium in the case of the midwoofer. The Revelator tweeter has a mesh grill, which for me is the only thing that seems out of place in the Amati. At least the tweeter is protected from naughty fingers. The chunky heavy duty WBT binding posts are a first for a Sonus. The only thing that is not good about it is that it reminds me of the Watt/Puppy. At least these WBTs have barewire holes for the barewire fanatic like me.

So on to the listening session. For such an special ocassion, I brought my Audio Note AN-Vz interconnects, AN-SPz speaker cables and FT Audio LW-1 passive line stage. The source was the reliable Sony XA7ES, and power amps are Mesa Baron and Plinius SA250. The Plinius did not see action for long because it kept blowing its fuses. There is a Plinius active preamp on hand as well but it has hum. Hmmm … initially I was disappointed that I did not have any better power amp on hand aside from the Baron but since the EA 2 and Concerto Grand Piano did nicely with it before, then I was sure, it would be at the very least, decent for the Amati. For fear of scratching the speakers, I did not move them from where the dealer has put em, about 7’ away from the back wall, about 8’ apart. Hey these speakers are heavy and they are not mine so don’t blame me for not giving more effort!

And yet … the Amati sounded thin, hard and in your face! Fortunately I am familiar with the Baron. That only meant one thing: the amp is in all pentode mode w/c is probably how the amp sounds when it provides juice for electric guitars in its previous incarnation. Switching to all triode transformed the Amati to gooey, lush and limp – again as expected, so I dialed in 2/3 pentode and 1/3 triode – the mode that worked best in the past.

Let’s cut the suspense. Is she the best speaker I’ve ever heard? Absolutely!

But she is not perfect to begin with. Some, for instance will be disappointed because she sounds unmistakably Sonus faber. She does not have any extreme leanings, she is neither too laidback nor too upfront, nor is she too rich, nor too thin etc. Just like the Guarneri, she is exquisitely balanced design but nevertheless, she will not be mistaken for any other speaker brand even in a blind test. The richness, the speed, the playfulness of sound, the depth of tones gives her away all too easily. I think the Dynaudio Confidence 5 and ProAc Response 4 have less intrinsic tonal characteristics, but then neither can they provide palpable power packed aural images like the Amati, nor do they caress the soul better, and both of em do not look anywhere as gorgeous and room friendly. (but hey, I can live with those two juggernauts as well, so ProAc and Dyn fans – PEACE! :-) )

The first thing I really noticed was the bass. Deep bass was definitely present. Not quite fully extended to 20Hz but plenty of it was there, and it was very well controlled. This is most surprising because the XA7ES is not the last word in bass control, ditto for the Mesa Baron w/c in fact has a tendency to sound wooly in the bass. The Genesis V in the same room (different system tho), put out deeper bass, but it took tears, sweat and time to persuade it to cooperate with the room. The Amatis w/c are barely one day old out of the box puts out bass notes and tunes with ease, as long as they are not too near a wall. And dont ask how the bass went with the Plinius in tow - it should be pretty obvious. :-) The only qualifier is that the ports should not be blocked, because when the foam plugs are used, the speakers sound shut in. Evidently, the plugs are an afterthought, not an integral design to the speakers. Half expecting to hear the ugly bass plot in the $tereophile review, I was relieved to hear no midbass bloat whatsoever. The upper bass sounds a shade too lean though. This is however a pervasive Sonus faber characteristic and is part of the Sonus “sound” that is still present, if in somewhat reduced state in the Amati. This results in very fast bass that has both weight and plenty of tune. This reminded me of ProAc Response 4 w/c is an equally agile and thunderous beast and u guessed it – it also has slightly lean upper bass. Scratch one: this is indeed the best bass ever from Franco Serblin.

Midrange is classic Sonus faber. Richer than the Guarneri, closer to a clearer and more refined Amator 2. Like the Amator 2, the upper midrange is a bit shelved down, w/c puts vocalists well behind the speakers. The Baron tho, is not a high res amp so I cannot judge how good the Amati is when it comes to resolving details. What I can tell is that the Amati is very dynamic, reminescent of the mighty Extrema but without its lightness in the lower midrange or the tendency to sound too aggressive. The combination of dynamic authority and richness, gives the Amati high density aural images that are so palpably real. Pianos in particular sound so rock-solid, I haven’t heard anything better from hifi (and note, this is with the Baron w/c is merely a competent amp!) - altho I guess that is partially due to the great bass foundation as well. Scratch two: best midrange from Serblin? You betcha. Too bad he could not keep it as neutral as the Guarneri but the better dynamics more than makes up for it. Plus I guess anything that bears the name of Nicolo Amati just have to sound sonorous, no? :-)

The highs are as one would expect from Sonus faber, delicate, sweet, airy, lush and tuned for stringed instruments. Resolution is not a Baron forte’ so again, I cannot judge how resolving the tweeter really is. I can tell however that the highs have also exceptional dynamics that manifest in high density high freq sounds. Triangles, cymbals, vibes etc sound more solid than typical speakers as well. Good treble dynamics mean however that the Amati, just like the Extrema which share this characteristic is not a forgiving speaker when it comes to components and records with wayward highs because it is not afraid to shred ears. The more docile and less dynamic Guarneri is more friendly in this regard. Scratch three: Best treble from Serblin? I am reluctant here since I love forgiving speakers. I will play it safe and reserve judgement when I hear the speakers with a better amplifier. :-)

Focus, imaging and soundstaging blah blah blah are of course, as expected top notch although the Guarneri seems to disappear easier, and seems to soundstage taller (well she has narrower front baffle and does have higher pedestals!). Depth lovers will probably be disappointed as the Amati sounds pretty immediate. She is not upfront or shallow but the dipolar Genesis V easily has more depth in that same room.

Just like the Guarneri, the Amati is seamless and very coherent. Pace and rhythm are very good, giving credence to the fact that good timing is related to good dynamics. The Amati is in short an artistic tour-de-force for both audiophile and music lover – not an easy feat!

The audiophile in me was easily overwhelmed. But not the music lover though. The Guarneri or even the EA 2, despite being far from the Amati league in the audiophile stakes are surprisingly not so far behind the Amati’s ability to seduce the listener. The essence of the Amati exists even in the cheaper Sonus fabers, down to the lowly Concertinos. Not served on a silver platter, and spoon fed to the listener as in the Amati’s case but it is there nontheless.

Will I buy em? If I am wealthy enough to have a Linn Sondek CD12, LAMM stuff, etc and a big room … I would have no second thoughts about the Amati. But I am not writing off the ProAc Response 4 or Dyn Confidence 5 either since the Amati is back-ordered by as much as 50 pairs.

Btw, the pair was already SOLD (approx $14K) the next day it arrived. In fact three lucky bastards vied for it but the guy who was able to show up at the shop at the earliest time with the checkbook won. The owner however was generous enough to leave the speakers in the shop for at least one more week so Sonus maniacs like me can drool and have a date with the beauty.



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Topic - REVIEW: Sonus Faber Amati Homage Speakers Review by Hyperion at Audio Asylum - Hyperion 03:51:30 07/13/99 ( 16)