Sonus faber Sonetto VIII G2 Floor Standing and Sonetto Center Channel Loudspeaker Review

The Sonetto line is one step up from the entry-level Lumina series in the Sonus faber line of speakers. Yet, the Sonetto VIII G2 derives some of its technology from the $750,000 per pair Suprema loudspeaker system: the Camelia midrange driver. The Camelia mid-range is available on the floor standing V and VIII speakers along with the Sonetto Center Channel speaker. The VIII stands as the flagship of the Sonetto line, and we will be reviewing a pair of these speakers along with the matching center channel.

The Sonetto line won’t set one back the $750,000 required for the new Suprema speakers, either. The MSRP on the Sonetto VIII is $7,999 per pair with the center channel priced at $2,499. The Sonetto line intends to bring high-end sound to a much more affordable lineup of speakers, and the company has set some lofty goals for these rather unique loudspeakers. For a hint at their uniqueness, how many speakers have an integrated concrete bass and lute-shaped enclosure design to make for a much more inert cabinet? Let’s put this trio to the test!

In its 40-year history, Sonus faber has made an international name for itself with designs that deliver warm music to the listener with woodwork that can be called artwork. While retaining a healthy slice of that artistry for the eyes, Sonus faber decided to take the new Sonetto line into ‘flagship’ territory in terms of being a full-range, neutral-sounding loudspeaker that is much more affordable than one would think. It is more traditional looking than many of its other offerings, yet remains a stylish loudspeaker with a stellar fit and finish.

• Sonus faber Sonetto II G2 Bookshelf Speaker Review
• SONUS FABER Lumina V Amator Speaker and CI Center Review.

We will start with the primary differences between the Sonetto Center Channel (which is designed to work with any of the Sonetto series of speakers) and the VIII G2 floor-stander. The center channel uses a pair of 6.5-inch woofers and 4-inch Camelia midrange versus the pair of 8-inch woofers and 6.5-inch Camelia midrange.

The Sonetto VIII G2 is a 100-pound, 47-inch-tall loudspeaker tower system that is relatively straightforward while adding a lot of the fine details for which Sonus faber is well known. Dual 8-inch woofers load into down-firing ports that are anchored above an integrated concrete bass that looks surprisingly elegant in-room. This affords the same bass response whether on a carpeted floor, hardwood, tile, or slate.

The Camelia midrange uses a flower-shaped cone for increased rigidity across the bandwidth and is encased in its own sealed cork enclosure to isolate it from the serious amount of air that the woofers can generate. The 1.1-inch DAD^™ Arrow Point tweeter is similar to the tweeter in their far more expensive speakers, and the crossover uses high-quality materials with an emphasis on being phase coherent.

The system, while appearing to be rather normal for a pair of speakers in the $8,000 per pair range, demonstrates attention to detail and quality components that are rare in today’s world. Sonus faber manufactures the Sonetto line in Italy rather than outsourcing their more affordable lines, and it’s quite obvious that their devotion to the art of speaker building extends to their more entry-level products.

The Wenge finish on the review samples is first-rate. It has the feel of quality furniture and oozes confidence that these speakers will still look new in 20 years. What we have in the Sonetto VIII G2 is a full-range loudspeaker built with fewer compromises than one normally sees for $8,000 per pair.

Since the Sonetto system was delivered with the Center Channel, the decision to put the speakers into our dedicated home theater system was an easy one. For associated equipment, we used the excellent Marantz AV10/Amp 10 pre-amplifier/processor and 16-channel power amplifier. The DVD player was the Panasonic UB-9000 universal player, and the subwoofer was the Legacy Audio Metro subwoofer. All interconnects, speaker cables, and power conditioning were supplied by Audioquest.

The speakers are quite simple in terms of setup and placement. The Center Channel has a dedicated stand to gently point the speaker up towards the listening position and was placed below the screen in our theater room. Since we have hardwood floors, the supplied rubber feet with carpet footers were attached. Not only does this remove any vibrations from the interaction with the floor, but the carpet footers also make minute adjustments in placement a snap, no small thing with 100-pound speakers.

The Sonetto VIII G2 were placed about three feet from the side and back walls of our 24 x 27-foot theater room with about a 15-degree toe-in to the primary listening position. Of note was Audyssey XT- 32 set the speakers to large, reinforcing the idea that these are full-range speakers. After re-setting the main/center speakers to a 60 Hz crossover, it was time to finally put the speakers to the test.

Age of Ultron is not just a series of explosions. In the scene in which the team is each trying to lift Thor’s hammer (Mjölnir, a jazz-style drummer is performing, and even through the hilarious dialogue, the Sonettos rendered a perfect pitch and width to the drumming. One could almost ‘see’ the drummer at work behind the characters.

When Ultron (James Spader) is in the cauldron-like room, the ambiance of the room intends to put one into the performance. The overall integration of the drivers with each other was proof that Sonus faber got everything right, the drivers, the crossover, the cabinet, and the quality of integrating each made for a fantastic movie experience. One could FEEL the effect of being in the room with the players. This is the stuff that separates pretty good from great, and so far, we were hearing great.

Four years later, William finds his way to a gig writing about the band ‘Stillwater,’ headed up by Russell (Billy Crudup), and this is where the sonic fun commences. Russell and Penny Lane (played perfectly by Kate Hudson) act as quasi-brother/sister to young William and William, much to his mother’s chagrin, goes on tour with Stillwater to write an article on the band for Rolling Stone. As a funny aside, Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s character ‘Lester Bangs’ acts as sort of an advisor for William.

The Sonus faber trio got to strut their collective stuff when Stillwater opened with their hit song ‘Fever Dog.” This track is remarkably well done, and the Sonetto brings the kick drum, driving guitar, and powerful vocals to life in a totally believable manner. Later in the film, while on the bus heading to the next destination, the entire bus sings Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer,’ and the array of voices across the front of the room matches up precisely between the movie screen and the audio track.

As the band increases in popularity, they get a plane to take them to the next gig. During one of the flights, the plane is caught up in a storm, and the ensuing chaos as we think the plane may crash while thunderclaps are hitting with extreme dynamics, the rain and wind are ever present, yet the band members and staff are all yelling various confessions to each other over all the cacophony. In a remarkable display of sonic integrity, each person’s confession is easily heard over all the noise. This is a most difficult scene, and the Sonetto VIII G2 and Sonetto Center handle it with aplomb.

The opening credits place us in Egypt, where the orchestra starts, and then we switch to ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ as some obviously American tourists are disembarking a bus to see the Great Pyramid of Giza – or so we think. The son of the tourists attempts to climb scaffolding, falls off, and bounces off the pyramid. Of course, the rubber Pyramid is a fake, and the real pyramid has been stolen. The ‘balloon collapse’ of the rubber Pyramid and the music score are front and center, and we are totally engrossed in the movie.

Sonic cues are abundant throughout the movie, and the LCR arrangement from Sonus faber equals or betters any system we have tried in this room in over 25 years. The Minions, when several are present, talk in a staccato style cadence, often with a wide panoramic field, and lesser speakers miss the individual quality of each little guy. In the scene in which we see Gru addressing hundreds of his Minions, the feel of being in the arena with the entire assemblage is palpable, with an accurate feel of the ambiance all around the listeners. Put simply, the job of the surround system is to suspend disbelief, and the Sonus fabers excel at this.

Gru, as the anti-hero (and who desperately wants to be the world’s greatest criminal) has a nemesis called Vector, who is always one step ahead. Vector and Gru’s constant battles bring us the sonic spectaculars while three little girls who eventually turn Gru into the actual hero provide the delicacy. It takes a special speaker set up to handle both extremes with clarity, and the trio of Sonetto VIIIs and the Center channel never fails to please the listener.

‘Despicable Me’ is a classic in terms of animation bringing characters to life, and the Sonus faber system was beyond up to the task. In fact, the main speakers (Sonetto VIII G2) are so good that it was time to try some two-channel music with them. With a specified floor of 33 Hz, the dual 8-inch woofers per cabinet, and that 6.5-inch Camelia midrange, these speakers promise an almost full range performance in a relatively modestly priced speaker pair at $8,000. Let’s see if they pass this final test!

The next track, ‘H Gang,’ features lots of harmonizing from Fagen and crew, accompanied by several guitars. It’s a complicated number of individual sounds, with guitars panning back and forth, percussion in the back, and the already mentioned vocals. The bass is tight and tuneful, without even a hint of boominess.

‘What I Do,’ has the most “Steely Dan feel” to it, with a well-recorded drum and bass guitar laying down the body of the song. Some nice female vocals harmonize with Fagen, and the Sonettos again are more than worthy. For a studio recording, ‘What I Do’ also has remarkable sound staging in both depth and width, and the VIIIs do a wonderful disappearing act, getting out of the way and letting the music come through. These are not speakers that are designed to thrill one for a few hours and then get old. These are speakers that don’t cause fatigue. They just play music. Let’s find out how they handle a really tough challenge.

On the opening track ‘Flight of the Cosmic Hippo,’ the world-famous bass line pumps out at depths that are ‘OH SO’ close to subwoofer territory. It is wonderfully tuneful, and the keyboard and strings that come in next are neutral and crystal clear.

The next track is Yello’s ‘Rubberbandman,’ which places more value on being ultra quick and the ability of a speaker to reproduce deep male vocals without chesty tones nor with weakness of palpability. The song is toe-tapping, rhythmic, and challenging for lesser speakers. Again, the Sonetto VIII’s are fabulous. These are a speaker that challenges for an excellent value, high-end two-channel reproduction machine. The Bass Cello on ‘Night Train’ is exceptional in its rendering, right down to hearing the strings striking the body with complete transparency. If you want detail without harshness, the Sonus faber Sonetto VIII G2 is something you must hear.

We will finish the listening portion of the review with ‘Power,’ a live cut from Marcus Miller. The bass line, percussion, and brass sections combine for a macro-dynamic fest for the ears. It was time to crank up the volume and test out the mettle of these towers when things get really tough. It was no problem for the now termed ‘mighty 8’s’. These are a speaker that can deliver on anything from classical to jazz to rock and yes, even country.

The Sonus faber Sonetto VIII G2 Floorstanding Speakers and Center Channel Speaker bring flagship design and components to an affordable high performance product line.

Sonus faber has six speaker lines that feature its specially designed cabinets for better in-room placement (in addition to their in-wall and portable speakers), and the Sonetto line is just one step up from the bottom of those six lines. One might expect a lot of compromise in terms of audio performance, but the Sonetto VIII G2 stands at the top of the Sonetto line and is in no way an “entry- level” speaker.

The familiar Sonus faber ‘Lute’ design, with the leather front baffle and furniture quality finish will look right at home in even the most upscale home. Of special note is the concrete base, (not as upscale looking as the Marquina Marble base in the Maxima Amator from their Heritage line, but just as functional), which adds a feel of solidity with the added benefit of minimizing vibrations transferring into one’s floor while still looking elegant.

The bass response is solid to the 30 Hz range and is so well-controlled that one might think one is experiencing larger woofers in a sealed cabinet. The Camelia midrange, which was inspired by Sonus faber’s $750,000 flagship Suprema system, is neutral without harshness. As an aside, this Sonetto VIII G2 with its 90 dB sensitivity is neutral in a manner that would also work well with a variety of tube amplifiers. The tweeter has not had much mention in this review, which is a good thing. All too often, tweeters call attention to themselves due to harshness at volume, and in the case of the Sonetto VIII G2 towers, the tweeters were quite invisible as separate transducers. They merely presented music as it was engineered on the disc.

The matching center channel does a tremendous job of putting the dialogue in a movie where it belongs both in the staging and in its clarity. There is none of that ‘what did she say’ during movies. As sound pans across the screen, it just moves fluidly, instead of with different sounding speakers.

This reviewer was expecting a competent speaker system of reasonable value. What Sonus faber delivered with its new Sonetto VIII G2 Floorstanding Speakers and matching Sonetto Center Channel Speaker is a true high-end system with a heritage that will make your friends think you spent a LOT more money than you did. Your Secret is safe with us. VERY highly recommended.