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Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Sonus Faber Grand Piano Home Speakers by Dmitri

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REVIEW: Sonus Faber Grand Piano Home Speakers

204.62.9.95


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Model: Grand Piano Home
Category: Speakers
Suggested Retail Price: $3499
Description: System: Is there really no high pass in the crossover? Not even at the 3,000 Hz point for the tweeter
Manufacturer URL: Sonus Faber
Model Picture: View

Review by Dmitri ( A ) on December 10, 2004 at 14:54:20
IP Address: 204.62.9.95
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for the Grand Piano Home


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 cabinet 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.

I ended up trading in the speakers, even though I was impressed with all the qualities above. What I was missing with Sonus Fabes was transparancy and airiness of treble (epsecially for SACD) and ability to throw a big soundstage.


Product Weakness: Slight preference toward upper frequencies
Somewhat geared towards smaller scale music, although it still does well everything else
Product Strengths: Looks, fit and finish - I had to question myself whether I was initially biased towards them because of it.
Fast and deep base
Fluid midrange Intimate presentation
Did I mentioned fit and finish? :)


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Marantz SR7000
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): None
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Rotel RCD991, Sony C555ES
Speakers: Sonus Faber Grand Piano
Cables/Interconnects: AR
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Diana Krall
Type of Audition/Review: Home Audition
Your System (if other than home audition): Speakers where auditioned in 2+hr demo on B&K Ref 200.5 with Ref 50 pre.




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Topic - REVIEW: Sonus Faber Grand Piano Home Speakers - Dmitri 14:54:20 12/10/04 ( 4)