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Nov 06, 2024

Sonus Faber New $750k Flagship ‘Suprema’ Speaker System

Sonus faber Suprema Sonus faber has launched the Suprema ($750,000), a new flagship mega-speaker. The Suprema system comprises a pair of towers and a pair of tall towers and a pair of dual-15-inch

Sonus faber Suprema

Sonus faber has launched the Suprema ($750,000), a new flagship mega-speaker. The Suprema system comprises a pair of towers and a pair of tall towers and a pair of dual-15-inch passive subwoofers.

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Sonusfaber has always made expensive speakers. The Italian company markets itself asa luxury brand, placing a greater emphasis on style, sophistication, andaesthetic elegance than many of its competitors. That’s not to suggest thathigh performance isn’t a priority for the company — Sonus faber has made manyfabulous-sounding speakers over the years, including the active streaming Duettobookshelf speakers ($4,000/pair), which I recently reviewed. At the higher endof the market, Sonus faber’s offerings have pushed into six-figure territory onmore than one occasion. But the brand has never occupied the same rarefied airas the world’s most expensive speakers. Models like the Magico M9 ($750,000/pair) and Wilson Audio WAMMMaster Chronosonic ($875,000 including subs) sell for truly bonkers sums, andwill only be owned by a handful of the planet’s wealthiest audiophiles. It’seasy to scoff at these designs as the playthings of billionaires, with norelevance to normal people living in the real world. But their existence allowsthe companies that create them to fund extensive research and developmentprojects, which ultimately progress the state of the loudspeaker art, andsometimes yield design advancements and new components that trickle down intoless expensive offerings. Now, in celebration of the company’s 40thanniversary, Sonus faber has announced its own uber-speaker, the Suprema($750,000/pair, including subs).

Stillrooted in luxury and meticulous craftsmanship, the Suprema is also an assaulton the state of the art, featuring groundbreaking engineering and promising“unparalleled audio excellence,” according to Sonus faber. It is easily themost ambitious project ever undertaken by the company. The Suprema systemcomprises two main columnar loudspeakers, two separate passive subwoofers, anda pure-analog, fully-discrete external active crossover to blend the mainspeakers with the subs. The main speakers are a 4.5-way design in a sealedcabinet featuring Sonus faber’s signature lute-like shape — a callback to thefirst Guarneri bookshelf speaker from 1994. The carefully-considered curvesensure “seamless integration and the ability to disappear from the virtualsoundstage,” according to the company. The wide-baffled subwoofer cabinets arealso sealed, and their unusual proportions remind me of the beautifulsecond-generation Sonus faber Stradivari loudspeakers ($50,000/pair),introduced in 2023. The large baffle allows the subs to host large transducerswithout taking up a huge amount of floor space.

Materialsquality and exquisite detailing are hallmark elements of any high-end Sonusfaber speaker, but the Suprema takes these attributes to another levelentirely. The application of each material was determined by its “individualcharacteristics and ability to complement one another to enhance their bestproperties,” according to the company. The speakers employ carbon fiber, chosen for its exceptional strength;wood, for its harmonic qualities; and solid,CNC-machined aluminum, for its static qualities. A multilayer wood material was used for the side panelsof the main columns. Sonus faber says that these panels create “the illusion of‘wings’ via a unique 3D bending shape.” In true Sonus fabertradition, the front baffleof the main speakers is dressed in leather — but not just any leather. Sonusfaber partnered with renowned luxury furniture brand Poltrona Frau to sourcegenuine Italian leather manufactured by “the most talented craftsmen in thecountry,” according to the company.

Eachof the main speakers features eight front-firing and two rear-firing drivers.On the front, the tweeters and midrange driver are combined in an assemblyknown as “The Voice of Sonus faber.” Although other speakers from the brand usethis same moniker, the Suprema features three new elements in its “Voice,”starting with a 20mm treated silk-dome super tweeter with a dedicated waveguideand neodymium magnet.Beneath that is an all-new 38mm treatedsilk-dome mid-tweeter, also with a dedicatedwaveguide. Perhaps most interesting is the new 6.5-inch Camelia midrange driverwith a white cellulose pulp diaphragm and dual-drivermotor system with a neodymium ring magnet. (More on that later.) Below “TheVoice of Sonus faber,” an 8-inch “link mid-woofer” employs a neodymium slugmagnet, a 2.6-inch voice coil, and a sandwich paper cone. Each main column alsouses four 8-inch woofers — two at the top of the driver complement, and two atthe bottom. These also feature dual-drivermotor systems with neodymium ring magnets and 2-inch voice coils to move thesandwich paper cones. The crossover points are 360Hz, 430Hz, 1700Hz, and 6700Hz.Sonus faber says that the materials used in the drivers are “in line with Sonusfaber tradition,” but the electroacoustic elements are all new designs from theground up. On the rear of each main speaker, you’ll find a 28mm silk-dome tweeter crossed over at 2,300Hz to a 4-inchpaper cone midrange driver, which operates downto 500Hz.

Theall-new Camelia midrangedriver was reportedly developed by a dedicated team of electroacousticengineers in order to “ensure maximum resolution, while maintaining thelegendary natural sound of Sonus faber.” The membrane itself has an unusual,non-circular shape, thus avoiding the formation of resonances associated withcircular shapes, according to Sonus faber. And its edges are not masked by asurround, as they would be in a normal cone-driver suspension system. Theresult is that the driver’s entire surface can move unimpeded. The driver’s newdual-drive magnetic system reportedly ensures control and even dynamics, whilethe “organic” shape of the basketmanages air flow. We saw this organic basket shape on the Stradivariwoofers. Sonus faber is so convinced of thesuperiority of this design that the company plans to feature it in all of itsnext-generation speakers.

The midrange driver and tweeters are loaded in adedicated internal volume designed to enhance the performance of the drivers,according to Sonus faber. The chamber and its inner walls also feature anorganic shape designed via advanced acoustic simulator technology. The chamberis made entirely of recycled cork, chosen for its ability to enhance resolutionand the naturalness of the midrange performance, according to Sonus faber. Thisdesign also marks the first time that a natural and sustainable material hasbeen used to create an acoustic volume in a high-end loudspeaker, according tothe company.

TheSuprema subwoofers were designed both for “optimal reproduction of infrasonicfrequencies,” and to optimize the overall low-end response of the system,regardless of the position of the main columns within the listening room. Eachsub features a pair of 15-inch drivers with forged carbon fiber membranes and aneodymium magnet motor system. Sonus faber claims that the subs can provide“undistorted pressures” down to 16Hz. Like the main columns, the subwoofercabinets sit on special decoupling feet created in collaboration withIsoAcoustics. These feet control the coupling between the speaker and the floorin order to achieve “the purest level of silence within musical texture,”according to Sonus faber. The feet are said to help the Suprema system “reachunparalleled levels of dynamics and power, while preserving energy content andavoiding the propagation of unwanted vibrations within the listeningenvironment.” (Recently, IsoAcoustics has also contributed its decoupling feetto several other high-profile loudspeaker projects, including the Perlisten S7t Limited Edition, the PSB Synchrony T800, and several models from the Swedishhigh-end loudspeaker company Marten.)

As I mentioned above, we’ve become familiar with seeing IsoAcoustics isolation products positioned underneath speakers, both as aftermarket tweaks and as part of the loudspeaker’s actual design. The Sonus faber Suprema system is a bit different in that the built-in IsoAcoustics GAIA-Capsule isolators are integrated between the speaker cabinet and the base plate. Sonus faber is a name synonymous with beautiful industrial design, and the team wanted a decoupling solution that would deliver no-compromise performance without interfering with the Suprema system’s carefully-executed aesthetic design. As a true full-range system, the four-column Suprema digs down to 16Hz and reaches up to 40kHz in the highs. From fairly early on in the design process, the engineers at Sonus faber knew that such a wide-ranging and finely-tuned system couldn’t just rest directly on the floor. In order to prevent the introduction of unwanted resonances that would interfere with the purity of Suprema’s sound, Sonus faber turned to IsoAcoustics.

Once on board and up to speed, the team at IsoAcoustics devised a multi-level suspension system between the cabinets and the baseplates of both the main towers and the subwoofers. The specially-tuned IsoAcoustics GAIA-Capsule isolators work double duty keeping vibrations from the cabinet from reaching the floor below, while also mitigating the reflection of these vibrations back into the cabinet itself. Because the vibrations are not transferred to the floor, they do not resonate in the room, resulting in a room that sounds cleaner and undisturbed by interference. At the same time, the isolators prevent vibrations from being conducted back into the speaker cabinet, where they could “smear the sound image and impede everything from the frequency response to transients… ultimately blurring the sound,” according to IsoAcoustics. Simply put, even a speaker as expertly-engineered as the Suprema achieves a more transparent and detailed sound thanks to the integration of the new GAIA-Capsule isolators, according to both companies.

We used to have a decoupling system outside of the main body, but that solution with exposed springs or elastomers was always a compromise for us. With Suprema we wanted to keep the design cleaner and more integrated. We had the opportunity to develop a system with IsoAcoustics that is part of the main structure. IsoAcoustics achieve this great performance in the mid-high frequencies where everything becomes clearer without losing dynamics on bass. IsoAcoustics is more precise, more refined, and everything in the soundstage is more clearly localized. We are really happy with the results.

-Livio Cucuzza, Chief Design Officer of Sonus faber

Themain speaker columns contain their own crossover filters, which are partiallyvisible on the sides of the towers via cutouts in the carbon fiber structure.These use “the best mix of electroacoustic configurations experienced by theR&D team in the last decade,” according to Sonus faber, and were reportedlydesigned by way of simulation, objectivetesting, and subjective listening in an exhaustive, iterative process. Thecompany sought to achieve “the perfect tonal balance and most rigorous controlof the acoustic phases, responsible for impeccable timing and perfectsoundstage performance in all three dimensions.” To blend the main speakerswith the subs, a separate, external active crossover is included. This dual-mono, fullybalanced electronic crossover holds “maximum respect for the electricalsignal,” keeping all phase-cutting and control circuits 100% analog. Thecircuits use only high-quality discrete components,and the power supply is ensconced within a solid aluminum case inside the lacquered wood enclosure.The crossover unit weighs 37.5 pounds, and measures 4.3 inches tall, 17.8inches wide, and 17 inchesdeep.

Iexpect that many readers already knew how they felt about the Sonus faberSuprema as soon as they saw the price. And if you balked at the idea ofspending three quarters of a million dollars on a loudspeaker system, Icertainly wouldn’t blame you. It is an objectively ludicrous sum — and that’sbefore you start shopping for source components and amplification. The majorityof Sonus faber’s less expensive speakers are still beyond my financial grasp,so you might expect a cynical reaction from me. And I’ll admit that part of mefeels that spending this kind of money on audio is socially irresponsible, evenif you’re loaded. But another part of me knows that if I won the Powerball, I’dgo totally nuts. At the end of the day, my reaction to cost-no-object designssuch as these is one of fascination and wonder. I’ve been fortunate to hearmany of the world’s most incredible speakers (check out the aforementionedWilsons and Magicos, the Living Voice Vox Olympian, and the flagship models fromTidal Audio, MBL, Gryphon, Rockport, and YG). Ihope that the Sonus faber Suprema will eventually join the list, and that thetechnologies developed for this project will inform future designs from thecompany. In particular, the new midrange driver looks to have the potential tofind its way into smaller, less exorbitantly expensive offerings. If, for somereason, you decide that $750K is simply too much to pay for a speaker system, Ihave good news. You can order the Suprema system with only one subwoofer, forthe very reasonable price of $680,000. Both versions of the system areavailable to order now, and will be built upon request only. Because they’rebuilt to order, you can customize the design by choosing from several finishoptions for the wood, leather, and metal. How do you feel about mega-expensivespeakers? Are you intrigued, or do you dismiss products like the Sonus faber Supremaas pure audio insanity? Share your thoughts in the related forum thread below.

Sonus faber has launched the Suprema ($750,000), a new flagship mega-speaker. The Suprema system comprises a pair of towers and a pair of tall towers and a pair of dual-15-inch passive subwoofers.

Buy Now

Thank you for supporting Audioholics by purchasing from our Affiliates.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.

Jacob is a music-lover and audiophile who enjoys convincing his friends to buy audio gear that they can't afford. He's also a freelance writer and editor based in Los Angeles.