Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Here's a hard truth: A written review of a full-sized speaker—any speaker, really—is, at best, semi-useful. We all listen differently, we have different musical tastes, our system electronics are different, and our listening rooms vary a lot. You will gain a general picture of a speaker's capabilities and foibles from John Atkinson's measurements, and I can tell you how the speakers sound to me, in my room. But that's it. You need to hear them for yourself before making a buying decision. The best I can do is tell you how my music brain felt when the speakers were in my house and making music.

But hey, that's better than nothing. If you're in the market for a pair of modestly sized, reasonably priced floorstanding loudspeakers, I encourage you to read on as I describe the lively musical times I spent with the Sonus faber Sonetto V G2s ($6499/pair). If you like what you read, seek out a Sonus faber dealer so you can hear a pair with your own ears. If you like what you hear ...

Description
Italy's Sonus faber is a division of the McIntosh Group, which also owns its namesake company in Binghamton, New York, Sumiko phono cartridges, and the Fine Sounds global distribution companies. Sonus faber refreshed its Sonetto line, which sits above the Lumina and below the Olympica Nova lines, at High End Munich 2024 last May. The company's top line is the Reference Collection, which includes the Suprema four-piece system (footnote 1); some of the new technology in the second-generation Sonettos flows from the Suprema. The Sonetto line includes two standmount models, three floorstanders, a center-channel array for surround systems, and a wall-mounted speaker for whole-house systems (footnote 2).

The Sonetto V G2 is the midlevel floorstander. It's a three-way speaker with a pair of 6.5" "paper pulp sandwich" woofers—that's Sonus faber's description—and a tuned port that fires down onto a concrete base plate. The plate and the speaker itself—hence the port—are separated by four metal spacers; the plate is kept off the floor (and whatever covers it) either by rubber feet or spikes (both screw-in, both included in the box). The first-generation Sonetto V's had down-firing ports but no bass plate; they fired directly into the floor whether it was carpet or hardwood, tile or concrete. Bass dispersion and loudness depended on the deadening or reflective properties of those materials. Florian Marmisse, the acoustic engineer responsible for the Sonetto G2 line, explained that with a concrete plate under the speaker, "the bass will remain consistent because it is fired on a fixed structure, independent of the speaker's position." Naturally then, the bass sounds emanating from the port radiate equally in all directions.

The 6.5" "Camelia" midrange driver is surrounded on three sides by a chamber made of cork, a design debuted in the Suprema. According to Marmisse, "The cork chamber ... is a closed box with a particular internal design—one that does not feature parallel walls or straight edges—that aims to load the back radiation of the driver acoustically and diminish the internal resonances as much as possible." The midrange and woofer surrounds are noncircular "floral shaped" patterns, said to prevent cone resonances. The 1.1" tweeter features SF's "Damped Apex Dome" design, with a copper shorting ring. The speakers' claimed frequency response (–3dB at the extremes) is 35Hz to 40kHz.

SF's marketing materials say the speakers have a "Phase Coherent Crossover" featuring "hybrid IFF and Paracross Topology." I asked Marmisse to explain this marketing lingo in plain language. "When taking measurements of a loudspeaker system, many people focus on the modulus of the sound pressure level, ie, the number of decibels according to frequency," he said. "However, another measurement that can be analyzed is the acoustical phase between each driver. Essentially, when we designed the crossover network, we predicted the timing difference of the drivers and adjusted their behavior on a wide frequency range to achieve a wider and more detailed soundstage."

He continued: "Hybrid IFF/Paracross is the name of the crossover configuration that includes the driver itself as a load inside the network, different from the classical parallel topologies. It also features reactive components such as capacitors and inductors/coils on the negative rail of the circuit. The resulting benefits include a reduction in the drivers' back EMF [electromotive force], allowing them to operate in a maximally interconnected and organic way and a lowering of the crossover's sensitivity to radio frequencies. In the end, it results in improved sound definition."

Lookswise, the Sonetto V G2 is more fine furniture, less tech-sculpture. Its rounded "lute shape" is said to control internal resonances. Marmisse said the speaker "is made of solid MDF panels, CNC machined." He explained the open-pore finish of the outer veneer: "'Open-pore wood finish' refers to a type of wood treatment that highlights the natural texture and grain of the wood. Instead of filling in the wood's pores with lacquer or varnish, the finish leaves the pores exposed, creating a tactile and visually richer surface. This approach preserves the wood's authentic look and feel, allowing its unique character to shine through."

The surface of the walnut-veneered speakers I reviewed had a nice, tactile feel; they even smelled more like wood than MDF. The fit and finish is of a class above the price point. A final classy detail I noted was the Sf-inscribed circular cup that fits over the binding posts, a help hiding connectors and wiring in a thoughtfully decorated room.

Setup
The speakers arrived on a pallet, the two large boxes strapped and wrapped in plastic. Each speaker's box weighed about 83lb and was small enough to fit through doorways and around corners. My wife and I brought the boxes upstairs and noted this text printed on the top of the box: "Warning: Prior to removing speaker, please consult the owner's manual to avoid damaging the loudspeaker." I opened both boxes and found no printed owner's manuals. I did find a PDF online (footnote 3).

The manual suggested easing a speaker out of the box onto its top panel, removing the packing material around the cement base, then screwing in your choice of the rubber feet or spikes. Several options are included in an accessory box; I placed the speakers on an Asian rug, so I used short carpet spikes. Next, flip the speaker over and remove the rest of the packing material, lay the speaker on its side, carry it to where it will live, and stand it right side up. It's a two-person operation, and I'm grateful I married a strong woman—for reasons beyond setting up big speakers. Two reasonably strong adults can set up the Sonetto V G2. Their larger sibling, the Sonetto VIII G2, may require two strapping-strong adults.

In my living room, I located the speakers farther into the room than my Bowers and Wilkins 808s, about a quarter way in. They settled into their sound after about a week of playing punchy material at louder SPLs. (I figure it's mainly the woofers that need breaking in, so I feed a new speaker a bass-heavy diet.) Some adjustment and experimentation was required to get the optimal image depth and height and a rectilinear soundstage rather than a convex or concave one. They sounded best with the centers of their cabinets 88" apart and my listening chair 88" from the center point between their fronts, toed in so that the tweeters fired at the sides of my head. With the right listening material, the speakers presented a sonic picture wider and taller than themselves, with good 3D realism.

I didn't consider the adjustment process very much ado; it's expected with full-range speakers in a large-ish room. I was surprised just how little movement and toe-in it took to fix the convex/ concave issue. Every speaker seems to have a position where it is most "right"—where it sounds best with the widest variety of music—in relation to the walls and the listening seat. In the case of the Sonetto V G2's, I think you can get away with a few inches beyond an equilateral triangle, but not many more, before the center-fill weakens. For two-channel listening, they will work well in a room on the large side of average; they will need that room's volume for their large sound to develop fully and breathe. In a surround system with the matching center speaker, they can probably be spread wider.

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Footnote 1: See tinyurl.com/4bcfhjup.

Footnote 2: See tinyurl.com/5n829up7.

Footnote 3: See tinyurl.com/ycxsshja.