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Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage loudspeaker Page 4

Sound
Once everything was in place, the Guarneri really sang. Forget mainstream hi-fi; forget head-banging levels; forget gut-wrenching bass; forget the garage-door slam! Instead, remember the purity, unmistakable sense of liveness, scale, and sense of presence of real sounds in the listening space—this is what the Guarneri is all about.

In these abilities, the speaker that comes closest to the Guarneri is the Quad ESL-63. I admire the Guarneri's ability to conjure up a Quad-like, electrostatic sound from a pair of moving-coil drivers, even if they're encased in a truly remarkable…

Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage loudspeaker Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Limited-edition, two-way loudspeaker with matching stand. Drive-units: 1.1" (28mm) silk-dome tweeter, 6.5" (165mm) polypropylene-cone woofer. Manufacturer's specifications: None. Measured specifications: crossover frequency: 2.5kHz. Electrical crossover slopes: 1st-order, 6dB/octave. Frequency response: 55Hz-20kHz, ±3dB. Sensitivity: 86.5dB/W/m (2.83V). Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Power handling: 100W peak program.
Dimensions: 15" (381mm) H by 7.5" (190mm) W by 14.75" (375mm) D. Approximate internal volume: 10 liters.
Price: starting at $9000/…

Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 2: Measurements

The Guarneri's reflex-port tuning was set at 52Hz—a region where the power handling was enhanced for heavy midbass inputs on typical program material. Deep bass was beyond the compass of this system, and the -6dB bass rolloff point was at 49Hz, giving the potential for satisfactory in-room bass reproduction down to 42Hz—the lowest note of both the orchestral double-bass and 4-string Fender bass.

Fig.1 shows the overall low-frequency output in the nearfield (upper trace); to achieve the moderate bass extension, there is no need for the low-frequency…

Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage loudspeaker Measurements part 2

Examining the transient responses, the Guarneri's impulse response (fig.7) indicates a quick signature, the minor ringing due mainly to the grille. The infinite step response calculated from the impulse data reveals an out-of-phase relationship between high- and mid-frequency drivers, chosen by the designer to provide a well-integrated output over the designed listening window. The high-pass nature of the speaker's low-frequency response causes the step to decay to the zero line after several milliseconds—this is normal. The step's appearance was changed very little by the grille [presumably…

Fine Tunes #19

Good Lord, it's 2000. Happy New Year, everyone!

And what's the hot audiophile topic of the new millennium? Looks like e-commerce to me. To what extent can a specialty audio manufacturer, whose business model has traditionally depended on bricks-and-mortar retailing, define and protect its market? It's a dilemma, all right. Companies such as Equity (B&W and Rotel) are rabidly against e-commerce. They take great pains to track down unauthorized online sales and the offending dealers shipping product out the back door to these sites. VTL's Luke Manley points out that his company's…

Aerial Acoustics Model 8 loudspeaker

Got a garage, a router, and a band saw? Poof! You're a speaker designer. How many audiophiles dream of buying some raw drivers, some MDF and veneer, building a baffle, soldering up a computer-designed crossover, and assembling the Shmendrick Audio 2001? Plenty.

The rest of the fantasy goes like this: You book a room at the Consumer Electronics Show and, driving the new speakers with your home stereo system, you wow the journalists, the dealers, and the foreign distributors. Your speaker is the talk of the show. You head home with a half-million dollars in orders and quit your day job.…

Aerial Acoustics Model 8 loudspeaker Page 2

The large midrange driver, which Kelly chose so it can be crossed over at a relatively low frequency, is a 7.1" multi-fiber coated paper-cone unit, made by VIFA. It incorporates a 40mm voice-coil and a long, large magnet set in a cast magnesium frame. According to Kelly, it's a very smooth-measuring driver.

The tweeter, sourced from the German MB Quart company, is a custom-built 1" titanium-dome design. It features a flared pole vent and five surrounding vents opening into a deep rear chamber that diffuses the driver's backwave. It is, says Kelly, "the most neutral, delicate, and…

Aerial Acoustics Model 8 loudspeaker Page 3

Kelly left worried. I don't blame him: A manufacturer wants a product to work well under review conditions. He doesn't want to have to rely on the reviewer's ability to extrapolate from a less than ideal listening situation. Part of what makes speaker reviews crap shoots is the room interaction, but that holds true for you too: When you listen to a speaker in a showroom, how much does that really tell you about how it will sound in your room? Kelly left troubled by the bass overload and what he felt was my overly damped room. "We voiced this speaker for a more 'lively' room," he told me.…

Aerial Acoustics Model 8 loudspeaker Page 4

Now that's in my room, driven by big-transformered tube amplifiers. What happens (aside from getting a hernia) when you haul the 8s into a much bigger room, drive them with big Rowland solid-state amps, sit farther away, and crank them up even louder?

Greg's dedicated listening room
What a difference tripling or quadrupling your listening space can make! Greg's room is gigantic compared to mine—over 28' wide and about 20' deep to the listening position, which has another 8 to 10' behind it filled with fiberglass batting. The 8s looked and sounded cramped in my room. In his, they…

Aerial Acoustics Model 8 loudspeaker Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Three-way, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" titanium-dome tweeter, 7.1" paper/composite-cone midrange, 10.7" woofer. Crossover points: 250Hz and 2.5kHz. Frequency response: 28Hz-22kHz, ±2dB, -6dB at 23Hz. Impedance: 6 ohms nominal, 3.5 ohms minimum. Sensitivity: 86dB/2.83V/m on-axis. Power requirements: 50W minimum, >100W recommended. Dimensions: 45" H by 9" W by 20" D. Weight: 120 lbs each.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 080105/106.
Prices: $4500/pair in black ash, $5000/pair in walnut, $5200/pair in cherry or maple, $5500/…