Solamente una faccia bella?
At first glance, the Sonus Faber (pronounced Fah-bear) Electa Amator appears to be a typical minimonitor: a small vented box with two drivers. The speaker is significantly better-looking than Franco Serblin's first speaker system, the Snail, a subwoofer with two satellites attached via arms (see photograph in Vol.11 No.3, p.34). And, like the Oracle Delphi turntable or Goldmund Apologue speakers (the latter also an Italian design), the Amator's appearance has received at least as much attention as its performance. But is it just another pretty face? …
With the general exception of deep-bass limitation, such generalizations are nonsense: above the missing bass foundation, minimonitors like the Wilson WATT and ProAc Super Tablette are near ruler-flat. These two excellent speakers also tend to sound analytical, with superb resolution of detail and state-of-the-art soundstaging. Conversely, minis like the Celestion SL600Si and Ensemble PA-1 are more musical overall, but equally adroit at soundstaging. Still others may have a forward midrange balance (JA's oft-praised Acoustic Energy AE-1), or even achieve a psychoacoustically balanced sound…
I was surprised at how deeply the Amators extended into the bass range. Properly set up, they were as powerful in the bass as my reference ProAc Response Threes (which are hardly minimonitors). The character of the bass performance was generally very natural, with minor anomalies. The bottom octave simply wasn't re-created, this obvious only on a small number of recordings. There was a very minor thickness or lack of articulation in the midbass. At low volume settings, the bass was less powerful than I would have expected, given how strong it was at higher levels. In fact, at higher volume…
The Amators really came alive above a certain volume level (85dB), energizing my room with sound. Surprisingly, they continued to sound fine at much higher levels. It wasn't until somewhere around 95dB that the diminutive Amators began to lose their ability to fully unravel all of the little nuances contained in my cherished recordings. Many moments in the Saint-Saëns, or almost anything from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, provided good illustrations of this phenomenon. At these higher levels, detail was slightly smoothed out or blended together—that thickening character again. This minor…
Sidebar 1: Specifications Description: Two-way dynamic ported minimonitor. Drive-units: 1" soft-dome tweeter, 7"-cone long-throw midrange/woofer. Crossover: 2.8kHz, 6dB/octave slopes. Frequency response: 42Hz-20kHz, ±3dB.
Dimensions: 13" H by 8" W by 13" D. Weight: 65 lbs/pair.
Price: $4500/pair (1992); no longer available (2003). Matching stands: $950/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 25.
Manufacturer: Sonus Faber s.r.l., via A. Meucci 10, 36057 Arcugnano, Vicenza, Italy. Tel: (39) 444-288788. Fax: (39) 444-288722. Web: www.sonusfaber.com. US distributor: Sumiko, 2431 Fifth…
Sidebar 2: E le misure? The Amator's plot of impedance magnitude and phase vs frequency (fig.1) reveals an easy-to-drive reflex design. The port tuning, indicated by the saddle between the two bass peaks, lies at 40Hz, supporting JE's positive feelings about the speaker's low-frequency extension. Though a slight wrinkle in the impedance amplitude trace at 480Hz might be thought to correlate with an enclosure resonance problem, the Amator's cabinet was relatively inert. The main side- and top-panel modes lay at 360Hz but were well down in level.
Fig.1 Sonus Faber Amator,…
EMMYLOU HARRIS: Spyboy
Eminent EM-25001-2 (CD). 1998. Emmylou Harris, prod.; Buddy Miller, prod., eng.; Dean Norman, Doug Dawson, engs. AAD? TT: 67:07
Performance ****?
Sonics ****? In discussing the concept for this album, Emmylou Harris told No Depression magazine, "In a very real sense, a performer is naked onstage....If an artist doesn't allow the audience to see the essential truth, then it's Las Vegas time."
Harris is a long way from playing Sin City. Or maybe not. In some ways, she's still using the emotional lessons about her essence that she… The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon every one else; they were full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real.—Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
Music lovers listen to songs about trains. Audiophiles listen to trains.
At least that's how it was at the dawn of the stereo age, when record stores did brisk business in titles like Sounds in Space and Hear the Whistle Blow, and a portion of the nascent audiophile community made no bones about being less interested in the deeper meaning of music than in the sound on its surface—or in the meek thrill of…
One of my mentors, John Crabbe—my predecessor as editor of the English magazine Hi-Fi News—used to insist that a magazine's soul is its "Letters" column. If a magazine was able to publish a lively collection of readers' letters, said John, it would enjoy a lengthy life. Conversely, if its letters column was dull or nonexistent, then no matter how much advertising it had or how many readers it could boast, it was just a matter of time before it had the lid shut on it. In the 28 years since John told me this, I have not found an exception. The kicker, of course, is that there's no easy way of…
Sometimes you have to make peace with a loudspeaker. You have to accept it on its own terms rather than ask it to bend to your sonic wishes, or to be something it's not. This is especially true when you're auditioning a seemingly endless succession of them, as I have this year. Like beauty-pageant contestants parading across the stage, all different-looking yet all enticing in one way or another, each speaker I've listened to of late has sounded different from the rest, and each has had a unique combination of strengths and weaknesses—yet each has been sufficiently "in the pocket" to paint a…
