Interview with Paolo Tezzon Chief of Acoustics, Research, and Development for Sonus faber

Another level up has two bedrooms, one used as an office and the other as another listening space. Continuing up to the top floor and a beautiful space for entertaining opens up to you for listening to a larger system while giving access to an outdoor roof-top space.

The people there are great, warm and welcoming and very knowledgeable. They truly contribute to the experience of WOM. They would include; David Mascioni, the Senior Marketing Director, Joshua Dellinger the Experience Director who gives amazing demos, and Franz Stuhlpfarrer, the townhouse Director.

Oh, and under this roof are all the McIntosh Group brands’ products: McIntosh Laboratory, Sonus faber, Audio Research, Pro-ject Audio Systems, and Sumiko.

Secondly, a bit about Sonus faber, headquartered in Arcugnano on the hills of Vincenza in Italy and founded in 1983 by Franco Serblin. The speaker line has developed extensively from the first Parva 2-way, Kevlar cone design to a full line of speakers including cinema, on-wall, subwoofers, and now even headphones.

There is an unmistakable style and quality to their speakers, instantly recognizable are the wood veneers, the use of leather and aluminum along with the “screen” strings as driver covers.

Back in August of last year, I was treated to a demo of the line which includes the Nova I, II, III and Nova V. Giving credit to the gear from Audio Research and Mcintosh, the Nova III sound rich, full and seductively transparent.

These speakers ooze Italian design and attention to detail and craftsmanship. And the wood veneer(s) isn’t the only highlight they possess.

The metalwork, the edges and extruded aluminum ports, Italian leather accents around the tweeter, how the drivers are mounted, and the beautifully machined outrigger supports. On and on, the speakers remind me of an MV Augusta motorcycle.

It was time to chat and as we approached the main (grand) living/listening space, I mentioned to Paolo what a marvelous place to work this is. He smirked and said he took a picture and sent it back to his office and said the same thing. I was curious to know of his background, his feelings about the industry, digital music and where he saw luxury audio heading.

I’m paraphrasing his responses.

PG I understand your background isn’t in audio or engineering.

PT No, surprisingly my background is in psychology. As I graduated from college, I needed a thesis project to intern with a company and because I had been selling speakers and hi-fi I got to know the brand and asked, politely, if I could spend some time with them and they accepted. That was it, I never left and never actually practiced what I’d studied at school.

PG What was it that kept you there?

PT I was so impressed with the culture and working with the founder Franco Serblin. It was that passion for the mission. I enjoyed the process and it didn’t take long before I was taught the technical aspects before getting involved with engineering and design.

PG How long have you been with Sonus Faber?

PT 15 years now, time flies.

PG But if you weren’t in this field, what would you be doing?

PT Probably using my college experience and background to spend time in a social field helping people, in foreign countries.

PT Well, the most important thing is the mid-range, and we spent a lot of time developing those drivers. But it is more, it is the cabinet design, the capacitors, crossovers, the wood, and aluminum. We felt the Nova should continue the brand tradition which is the speaker is like an instrument -You know, the speakers are a tool for the music. Speaker design for us is evolution and it’s very important to be faithful to the roots of Sonus Faber.