The spikes are necessary to provide clearance for the reflex port, which fires downward from the speaker's base. The "Natural Sound" will have to wait for the results of my auditioning, but with respect to "Luxury Sound Experience," the Lumina III is a slim, elegant tower standing 38" tall on its spikes. Sonus Faber explains that the word "Lumina"Latin for "to brighten" or "to illuminate"is a contraction formed from "Luxury Sound Experience" (LU), "Minimalist Design" (MIN), and "Natural Sound" (NA). I asked for a pair of the Lumina III towers, which cost $2199/pair, for review. In the fall of 2020, Sonus Faber announced an affordable series, the Luminas. Italian company Sonus Faber is primarily known for its high-performance, relatively high-priced designs, like the $130,000/pair Aida that Michael Fremer reviewed in October 2018 or the $15,900/pair Guarneri Tradition, which I reviewed in June 2018. I felt that a floorstanding loudspeaker would make for an interesting change. All these loudspeakers sounded excellent, though different from one another. In recent months, a succession of standmount speakers has passed through my listening room: GoldenEar BRXes, Bowers & Wilkins 705 Signatures, Marten Oscar Duos, original KEF LS50s, and the new LS50 Metas. In other words - you can grow with these.Time for some towers. Highly recommended speakers especially given $1,500 used price which may prevent you from spending money on expensive front end but investing in the front end will transform these speakers from very nice, clear lively sounding speakers to first row immediacy and intimacy experience. () using Joule-Electra LA-100 Mk III pre-amp () NAD 317, Antique Sound Labs AQ1003 DT, Meridian 105's, Meridian G57, Bryston 4B, Simaudio W5, McAlister Audio PP-75 and MB-130, Rogue Audio M150 I finally found the ultimate bliss with JAS Audio Array 2.1 300B/805 A2 SET Amp I dislike the new Cremona M as well (boomy and dead to my ears). I did not audition the Domus in my room but hooked to some Linn gear I was not impressed at all. They lack the scale and fullness of larger and more expensive speakers but at what they do good (Jazz quartets, small scale chamber music, acoustic guitars, even well recorded pop like Roxy Music's Avalon) they are very hard to beat. Light and fast drivers (Glass Fiber/Carbon), narrow and very well braced box (minimal box colorations), low cross over point (200Hz) which prevents the bass driver from blending too much into the mid-range (so many speakers out there including ultra expensive ones like Von-Schweikert Anniversary 5 and including some of the current Sonus-Faber higher line offerings do that and blur the mid), very well designed bass-reflex implementation - most ported boxes sound like a cell phone on vibration mode.:-) not these ones and finally - relatively easy to drive due to 90 db and STABLE 6 Ohm impedance makes them a candidate for many non-traditional tube amps like medium powered SET amps. In my mind, the GPH are one of the best hi-fi bargains out there.ĭismissed by many snot-nosed audiophiles as Home-Theater-in-a-box speakers with high WAF due to very elegant lines, these are very smartly designed speakers: I have been living with the GP Homes for 5 years now trying many amps, sources, cables and so forth. That is if you can spare the extra capital while you're selling of course. Or, since hi-fi gear retains its second hand value so well, get the Concerto Domus, snag a pair of GP Home when you find them, and hock the Concertos if you prefer them to the GPs. You'll just end up cycling through substitutes and ultimately get what you wanted in the first place after much time and money. If the GP Home is your dream speaker, don't settle for anything less and be patient. I thought maybe it was just my ears, but then I got my Concertinos and WOW that beautiful emotive bliss is all there. Although very open and detailed I did not feel the SF "magic" - they sounded more cold and analytical than I had remembered the older SF speakers (very surprising since they were driven by bridged MC 275 tubes). Before they arrived I went to Magnolia and listened to the Cremona M, Liuto, and Concertino Domus. I just picked up a pair of Concertino Home after dreaming about the Signums for many years.
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