Sonus faber Serafino Tradition In-Depth Review

Sonus faber Serafino Tradition In-Depth Review

Arri Alexa    November 11, 2018    Comment   

Anyone familiar with Sonus faber will love the superlative craftsmanship of the Vicenza- based company’s loudspeakers. Although pretty much all high-end designs are extremely well turned out these days, this Italian company remains on another level – producing speakers that resemble art pieces, rather than just big boxes trying to look expensive.

For a while, some thought that the brand had become too synonymous with visually arresting designs – almost acquiring the sense that form overrode function. In recent years however, the sonic performance bar of Sonus faber loudspeakers has been raised significantly, and they’re right there in the fray – fighting it out with the very best of the rest...

Sonus faber Serafino Tradition

LA BELLA FIGURA It is loudspeakers such as the Serafino that carry this solemn responsibility. Its name literally translates as ‘seraph’ in English – a celestial or heavenly being. Costing a whisker under £18,000 per pair, it’s a beautiful high-end product for which no excuses need be made, the very embodiment of the Italian aesthetic of la bella figura.

The woodwork is flawless, with deep colour, superb texture and an immaculate lacquer surfacing. Reminiscent of a luxury yacht’s exquisite wooden hull, there’s a choice of Wengè finish with maple inlays, and a Red finish. This counterpoints with brushed aluminium in a choice of titanium or black finishes respectively, with Sonus faber’s traditional front baffle finished in coffee or black leather.

The Serafino may look like a slightly smaller version of the Amati Tradition [HFN Oct ’17] but in the flesh it still feels big, and it’s soon obvious that a lot of work has gone into its design. A large 3.5-way system, it is said to be a full para-aperiodic vented box and has a striking rear end treatment – the back panel is an aluminium extrusion that forms both part of the speaker’s exoskeleton, and also part of its so-called Stealth Ultraflex system where the port ducts are lined to reduce turbulence.

The drive units are all Sonus faber’s own of course, the tweeter being the H28 XTR-04, which many audiophiles will surely know is a 28mm silk dome, complete with a natural wood ‘acoustic labyrinth’ rear chamber. This crosses over to the M15 XTR-04 midrange unit at 2.5kHz – this being a 150mm diameter design complete with neodymium magnet system. At 250Hz the first of two Sonus faber W18XTR-08 woofers pitches in, both with 180mm cones made from a syntactic foam core between external surface skins of cellulose pulp. At 80Hz, the second joins the party.

As it’s such a sizeable thing, you might expect the Serafino to be fairly efficient, and the manufacturer does indeed claim a sensitivity of 90dB that was largely met in our tests [see Lab Report, p65]. Alongside its 350W power handling rating, the speaker is obviously designed to go very loud. So while you’ll need a large-ish listening room for these 52kg cabinets it’s worth knowing that their bass is readily ‘tuneable’ by positioning.

Sonus faber Serafino Tradition

BRISTLING WITH DETAIL From the moment you fire up this loudspeaker, it’s clear that you’re listening to something special. It simply does not sound like most examples of the breed, regardless of size or price. There’s a certain vibrancy that makes pretty much any type of music you play through it unerringly good fun. Recordings feel alive, bristling with detail and nuance – with the Serafino, Sonus faber appears to have mastered the secret of making highly transparent loudspeakers that are nonetheless extremely musically engaging. It is powerful, shows great poise, and yet is also the life and soul of the party. This isn’t the most common of combinations, as many will know.

ROCK-SOLID For example, feed it a clean slice of well-recorded classic pop music, such as Malcolm McLaren’s ‘House Of The Blue Danube’ [from Waltz Darling; Epic 460736 2], and one is instantly struck by the physicality of the loudspeaker. It is not one of the largest I’ve encountered, yet it appears to be able to shift vast amounts of air with utter ease. The song’s thumping electronic bass line – beautifully syncopated with snare drums and hi-hats from the drum machine – proved a joy to listen to. This speaker is able to excavate from deep down low and pound out huge amounts of low frequency information. Yet it remains rock-solid, as if the drive units were set into the cliff face of some windswept coastal cove!

Life is made all the more fun by the Serafino’s excellent, lens-like midband, highly focused and detailed yet delicate. It doesn’t assault the listener with midrange detail, rather it dissolves and lets the recording speak for itself. This classic ’80s Trevor Horn production sounded really pacy, and with a lovely lustre and sparkle to the proceedings. Swap to more modern electro from Gorillaz’ ‘Clint Eastwood’ [from G Sides; Parlophone TOCP-65932] and the same attributes shine through. This recording is dramatically different, instantly showing how dated the previous one is, yet the Serafino works the same magic. It lets the listener right into the mix, where he or she can delight in what’s going on with heady abandon. The infectious way that it handles rhythms, down to its great transient speed, makes it all the more seductive – as does the great thump from the bass drivers when, and only when, it is called for. So the Serafino is something of a gentle giant for despite being ‘big boned’, it’s supple and agile too. The midband isn’t just excellent in two dimensions; this loudspeaker images extremely well in three! Grant Green’s ‘Ease Back’ [from Carryin’ On; Blue Note CDP 7243 8 31247 2 5] is a beautiful slice of late ’60s jazz, with strong funk overtones. All Blue Note releases from that period seem to have superb stereo soundstages, and this is no exception.

LIKE BEING THERE Through the Serafino it was writ large in the air of the listening room, seemingly escaping through its boundary walls. The great midband focus really helped here, locating instruments accurately in space. The music sounded wonderfully vibrant, funky and full sized – the recorded acoustic was really well carried. Even at lowish volumes, the Serafino conjured up a really believable sense of being there at the time of the recording, immersing you in the atmosphere of a great musical event. Aside from the quality of its drive units and the relative ‘silence’ of its cabinet, I think the tweeter’s open, extended and spacious sound really helped out in this instance.

Sonus faber Serafino Tradition

This loudspeaker’s true quality is most apparent with classical music. The opening movement of Mahler’s Symphony No 9 [LSO/Valery Gergiev; LSO Live LSO0730] showed the Serafino’s sublimely textured string sound playing with vibrant woodwind and brass. Most striking of all, though, was the marvellously three-dimensional recorded acoustic and pinpoint imaging. All this time, the music was lilting and melodic, yet could really jump up and bite you with its dynamic power. Only when you put it up against the very finest speakers can criticism be levelled at the Serafino, and even here designs that do better in one respect may be inferior in others.

So, with 4hero’s ‘Give In’ [from Play With The Changes; Raw Canvas Records RCRCD02] I did find the tweeter sounding just a little ‘tinselly’ – just failing to achieve that ultraquiet, fade back-into-nothingness sort of sound that you get, for example, from a top ribbon design. And yet the better the recording, the more this loudspeaker rises to the occasion. And partnered with the finest ancillaries it is capable of spectacular results.

THAT NTH DEGREE It’s the last few percent of the recording that it captures so well. Lesser speakers may give a good account of this, yet the Serafino Tradition goes right in and gets the last nth degree of detail out. At the same time, it keeps the music lilting and melodic – so I loved the superb string timbres and tone (always a Sonus faber speciality) in the Mahler, the delightful handling of the flute trills and the great sense of all component parts of the orchestra playing together in the Barbican Hall in 2011. There’s so much right with this speaker that is almost churlish to complain, and if you want a really capable big box that covers all the bases, there’s little to compare

ELAC Adante AS-61 In-Depth Review

ELAC Adante AS-61 In-Depth Review

Arri Alexa    November 11, 2018    Comment   

There was a time, back in the 1980s, when much of what was novel in loudspeaker design emerged from KEF’s R&D department in Maidstone, Kent. Odd as this may seem as a way of introducing a new ELAC speaker from Germany, it’s doubly relevant because the £2600 Adante AS-61 – indeed, the entire three-model Adante range (not including the ASW-121 powered subwoofer) – incorporates two features associated with that golden era at KEF: one that has remained familiar, and a second that has rather declined into obscurity.

GOLDEN ERA Before this sounds like an audiophile pub quiz, I’m talking about the cone/dome coincident driver array (Uni-Q in KEFspeak) and the bandpass enclosure, better known as coupled-cavity bass loading. Neither is classic ELAC fare but the arrival of Andrew Jones as chief engineer has acted as a conduit for them. He worked under Laurie Fincham at KEF in the 1980s, made his name at TAD (not least with the CST coaxial driver with beryllium dome and cone), and is now showing us that designing speakers for the deep of pocket is not his only talent.

ELAC has made coaxial drivers before, in the form of the X-JET and X-JET II, but these featured a planar or almost-planar annular midrange diaphragm surrounding one of ELAC’s pleated-diaphragm Air Motion Transformer JET tweeters. We saw the first cone/dome coincident driver from ELAC in Jones’ recent Uni-Fi series – the Adante variant is similar in that it too combines an aluminium alloy cone with a soft-dome tweeter where the dust cap would otherwise be, although here the midrange voice coil diameter is increased to 2in. The cone is flared, the flare being chosen to combine with that of the fixed ring around the tweeter, the shape of the cone surround and the continuation of the waveguide into the bonded aluminium front baffle to achieve a smooth expansion (Jones describes it as ‘a blended multi-radius profile’) which delivers wellcontrolled responses both on- and off-axis. The first cone breakup mode occurs at about 6.5kHz, 1.7 octaves above the 2kHz crossover to the tweeter.

ELAC Adante AS-61

This lower-than-typical crossover point is partly achieved by equipping the soft dome tweeter with a large surround. A soft dome, here formed of silk fabric with a coating that optimises its vibrational behaviour, was chosen as more appropriate to this application than a metal dome. This choice in turn affected the selection of cone profile as, Jones says, ‘the way a hard dome matches into a waveguide is very different from a soft dome’. At first glance you could easily mistake the AS-61 for a conventional three-way design, although the absence of a port (front, back or exhausting through a plinth) might puzzle you – surely not a closed-box speaker in this day and age? Indeed not, for as already indicated, all the Adante models employ coupled-cavity loading at low frequencies – but with a difference.

COUPLED-CAVITY Cast your mind back to KEF’s Four-Two, Three-Two, etc, models and you may recall that there was no visible bass driver, all the bass output being delivered via a large reflex port, with the bass driver(s) out of sight within the cabinet. Essentially the AS-61 is the same but for two important revisions. First, an ABR (auxiliary bass radiator) replaces the radiating port, so the bass ‘driver’ that you see is not a driver at all but a passive cone. The real bass driver is located within the cabinetbehind the ABR, with – the second revision – a reflex port connecting the enclosed volume between the driver and ABR with that behind the driver.

In effect, this arrangement resembles a conventional reflex loaded speaker with a front-firing port, to the front of which is attached the chamber containing the ABR. Acoustically, this adds a second-order low-pass filter that increases the upper slope of the bandpass response, at 200Hz, from second (12dB per octave) to fourth-order (24dB per octave) – all achieved without electrical filtering. That is one good reason for elaborating on KEF’s original layout but there are others, described in the boxout above.

From its dimensions, it’s clear that the AS-61 is a standmount design, unlike the larger AF-61 floorstander. As the stand can have a significant impact on sound quality, ELAC offers its own partnering LS30 set for £520. A single-pillar design with steel top and bottom plates, its hollow aluminium column can be filled with whatever damping material you prefer (marble flour being superior to traditional sand). Finally, all ELAC’s Adante models are available in walnut, gloss white or gloss black finishes.  

You’d need a fairly substantial set of bookshelves to house the Adante AS-61, so our tests in Editor PM’s listening room were conducted with the aid of the ELAC LS 30 stands. Given room to breathe, these compact speakers can really deliver the goods – namely a typically decisive and well-balanced sound.

The whispered vocal on ‘This Woman’s Work’ by Kate Bush [The Sensual World; EMI CDP 7950782] sounded warm and natural, and then gradually gained in power as it built towards a hard-hitting note of despair. The piano playing here has a precise, dramatic tone that drives the song towards the plaintive chorus, ‘all the things I should’ve said...’, and then the knock-out punch lands, when the Adante AS-61s gracefully caught the sudden swoop of Bush’s voice, plunging right down to meet the sudden strike of the double-bass – deep, rich and dramatic. They proved very effective at revealing the intent behind the music, and the mournful sense of struggle that drives the song, presenting a depth and drama seldom found with such modestly-proportioned speakers.

ELAC Adante AS-61

That ability was no less evident with ‘The Soldier’s Poem’ by Muse [Black Holes And Revelations; Warner Bros/Helium 25646 3509-5]. One of Matthew Bellamy’s occasional experiments with intricate vocal harmonies, the song proved to be in good hands with the AS-61s as they balanced the intertwining layers of vocals perfectly. The lower voices had a rich warmth that contrasted with the higher, more urgent tones that join in as the song progresses.

The AS-61s even managed to unravel some details that can get lost with less precise speakers, including Bellamy’s gentle solo vocal whispering just below the three-part harmonies. It is, as Freddie Mercury once sang, ‘fastidious and precise’, yet the sound itself is never cold or mechanical, and the AS-61s delivered the song with the warmth and intimacy of a live performance. It was a relaxed, open sound too, and one perfectly able to fill a big room, despite the compact design.

Continuing with Muse, ‘The 2nd  Law’ [The 2nd Law; Warner Bros/  Helium 825646568789] sees  the band entering full symphonic  rock mode, but the AS-61s coped  well with the contrasting styles  contained in this near 9m epic. The  opening swirl of strings was sharp  and urgent, drawing the listener  in as portentous, multi-layered  harmonies entered the fray, adding  to the sense of scale and drama. The  AS-61s were not fazed, either, as the  piece took its turn into rock, where  the deep, electronic keyboards  landed with real weight and power,  the sound remaining well balanced  and never overwhelming the lighter,  faster percussion that skims across  the surface and leads the song into  its second ‘movement’. 

ELAC Adante AS-61

The mood here is more  thoughtful, with the AS-61s  once again producing that clear,  precise piano sound, with the  simple, repeated keyboard phrase  underpinned by pulsing bass. The  piece ends with nothing less than  the heat-death of the universe  where the AS-61s held on to the last  lingering note, and wrung out every  dying detail as it dwindled away over  the final long fade-out. 

LIFE IN THE CITY  In contrast, Freddy Kempf’s  recording of Gershwin’s Rhapsody  In Blue, with the Bergen PO/Andrew  Litton [BIS SACD 1940], is full of life  and vigour. The AS-61s delivered the  famous opening clarinet glissando  with a sweet, rich tone and a relaxed  rhythm that unwound like a lazy  yawn, capturing the start of the new  day in bustling New York City. They  revealed all the intricate detail in  Kempf’s piano runs, and then picked  up the pace as the strident brass  woke everything up, accompanied  by a crystal-clear clash of cymbals. 

The speakers perfectly  navigated the rapid changes of  pace, contrasting the horns’ brash  energy with Kempf’s more delicate  keyboard work. And again, the AS-  61s captured the ideas behind the  music, delivering the final crescendo  with a swirl of driving piano and one  final blare of horns that illustrated all  the chaotic energy of city rush-hour.  It was an imposing and impressive  performance given the AS-61’s  compact design, not to mention  ELAC’s competitive pricing.  

Magico A3 Loudspeaker Overview

Magico A3 Loudspeaker Overview

Arri Alexa    November 11, 2018    Comment   

‘Magico’ and ‘affordable’ are not two words that typically find themselves in the same sentence but this iconic US loudspeaker brand is making a concerted effort to bring its technology to a wider music-loving audience. So the new A-series could never be described as ‘budget’ but its A3 floorstander – predicted to sell between £12-13,000 when available in the first quarter of 2018 – is still more accessible than the existing S-series with its extruded alloy cabinets.

Magico A3 Loudspeaker

Magico’s first all-aluminium loudspeaker was the Q5, launched in 2010, and it’s this longstanding series that has proved the inspiration for the three-way, four-driver A3. In similar fashion, its cabinet is constructed from sheets of 6061 T6 aircraft-grade aluminium, thinner here of course, but comprehensively braced by an internal alloy framework and finished in a brushed black anodising. Magico rates the A3’s sensitivity at 88dB, the four drivers within the 50kg cabinet married by a fourth-order ‘elliptical’ crossover. The tweeter is a 1in beryllium dome, derived from the exclusive M-Project, and equipped with a sealed back chamber. 

The midrange is a 6in carbon-fibre/’Nanographene’-coned unit with an overhung neodymium magnet assembly and 75mm titanium voice coil. The same motor arrangement is used by the two 7in woofers with their ‘Gen 8 Magico Nano-Tec’ cones. Like all Magico speakers, the A3 is a sealed-box design.