Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Sonus Faber Concertino Home Speakers by Arnel

Model:	Concertino Home
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$1095
Description:	9-litre two-way, front-ported design. 150 mm fiberglass multicoated woofer, 26 mm silk dome tweeter. 88 db/1W/1m, 6 ohms, 30-150W, 50-20K Hz, 210 x 275 x 325 mm (W D H), 15 kg / pair. Magnetically shielded.
Manufacturer URL:	Sonus Faber
Model Picture:	View

Review by Arnel on August 24, 2001 at 02:44:49
IP Address: 202.108.97.218

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for the Concertino Home

Right out of the box, you will notice that these speakers are not just plain hi-fi gear but some gorgeous Italian work of art. The materials quality and craftmanship are simply superb. Those thick walnut panels on both sides of the leatherette clad baffle clearly makes a visual statement. Visitors not just love to stare at them, but to touch its smooth texture as well. Couple that with the equally gorgeous Sonus Faber stands, and you're in for a real eye-candy treat.
But all of these won't matter if the sound disappoints, right? Well, it's your lucky day because this baby is a graceful performer, too. It's not uncommon to hear the word "graceful" being associated with how Sonus Faber speakers sound. In terms of musicality, I can't think of any better word to describe the Concertino Home.
As with all other speakers, one must be careful not to judge these speakers until full break-in. The first thing I noticed about these speakers when I auditioned them in the showroom is that the treble is so shut-in that one would suspect something's wrong with the tweeter. It's too often that I notice this same thing with other soft-dome tweeters that are not broken-in.
So how does it sound now, after nearly two months of use in my living room? The treble has opened up, but the speaker still has a dark tonal balance. This leaves me missing some sense of air that gives clue about the ambience of the recording venue. But in my system, this is more of a good thing than otherwise -- it's a great escape from the irritating harshness of treble that most non-audiophile recordings impose on my system. It is on these grounds that my B&W CDM 1NT lets my system down sometimes, because of its more resolving, unforgiving treble.
The greatest strength of the Concertino Home, I think, is its ability to project a harmonically rich sonic image. Instrumental textures are kept intact. But even if it excels in these "microdetails", I can't really call these babies highly resolving of details. They lack some ability to flesh out details, especially those coming from cues in the treble region. This is where the CDM 1NT beats the Concertino Home.
While the overall balance is not flat, I think this Sonus baby has been voiced with good judgment. It was designed to perform in home theater installations as well as it does in a two-channel system. We all know how a well-behaved treble balance benefits movie soundtracks. What still needs to be mentioned is how the Concertino Home's bass impresses on both HT and two-channel. It is tight, fast and surprisingly extended for the woofer's diminutive size. There is little tendency to boom, although upper bass could be light weight on bigger rooms (where its bigger brothers Concerto Home and Grand Piano Home will be more, well, at home). I'm surprised to find that its 6" woofer (which actually looks more like a 5 1/2") extends lower than the CDM 1NT's 6 1/2" woofer. The big and heavy Denon PMA 2000R S3 clearly showed the bass prowess of this baby Sonus, and by the way, also matched the Concertino Home's darker balance better than the Musical Fidelity A3 in the showroom did. The big amp's dynamically wild character makes the rather well-mannered Sonus a bit more mischievous... to my liking.
This baby is also good at coping with the beat. Never did I hear it slowing down the music. This is also a virtue of a good home theater speaker -- it makes the soundtrack music so exciting. I watched Mission Impossible last night with the Concertino Home in a two-channel setup, and even without surround setup, I never felt the soundtrack to be as moving as I did last night.
What the speakers won't do is to give you the same level of dynamic punch in a live rock concert. Heavy metal junkies need not audition these babies. Nor will these speakers give you total feel of a big orchestra. But hey, most small standmount speakers plead guilty to this crime of omission... they are just not big enough.
If musical truth/accuracy/transparency and fleshed-out details are your thing, like the sort you get from good studio monitors, you can find better speakers for the same price to serve your purpose. For one, my B&W CDM 1NT (and better yet, the Nautilus 805) fits well into this category.
But if your goal is musicality that's oblivious of the absolute technical merits behind the tasty sonics you are hearing, I recommend that you go to a Sonus Faber dealer and listen to a well broken-in pair of Concertino Home... it won't disappoint!

Product Weakness: slightly dark tonal balance and thus lacks some airiness of ambience reproduction; lacks resolution of some competition within the $1000-$1500 range; tonal balance is not exactly neutral, and overall sound is tasty but not exactly transparent.
Product Strengths: graceful musicality as consequence of its superb retrieval of instrumental textures (harmonically rich presentation), well-judged tonal balance, rhythmic agility, good bass extension for such a small woofer; excellent build and materials quality.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Denon PMA 2000R Series III. In showroom: Musical Fidelity A3
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	None
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Denon DVD 1000 (buffered by Musical FIdelity X10D). In showroom: Musical Fidelity A3CD, Musical Fidelity X-Ray
Speakers:	B&W CDM 1NT. In showroom: Sonus Faber speakers (Concerto Home, Signum, Electa Amator II, Guarneri Homage), B&W Nautilus 805 and 804
Cables/Interconnects:	MIT Terminator 2 (single-wire), TARA Labs Prism interconnects
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	multi-genre, mostly acoustic: jazz, pop, world, classical, light rock, movie soundtrack
Room Size (LxWxH):	12 x 10 x 9.5
Room Comments/Treatments:	mix of natural reflective and absorptive living-room objects
Time Period/Length of Audition:	more than 2 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	None
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition):	N/A

Product Weakness:	slightly dark tonal balance and thus lacks some airiness of ambience reproduction; lacks resolution of some competition within the $1000-$1500 range; tonal balance is not exactly neutral, and overall sound is tasty but not exactly transparent.
Product Strengths:	graceful musicality as consequence of its superb retrieval of instrumental textures (harmonically rich presentation), well-judged tonal balance, rhythmic agility, good bass extension for such a small woofer; excellent build and materials quality.