Sonus Faber Guarneri G5 Wenge

Beschrijving / Description

If any audio company was to ever make use of the phrase not just a pretty face for serious marketing purposes, it would realistically be Sonus faber. The acoustic engineering that I've seen in various products from the company over the years would, in almost any other case, have been the main story. With Sonus faber though, that brilliance often subsumed itself by aesthetic discussions. It is taken as a given that anything that the company makes should be beautiful and sonically talented and the more you think about that, the more you realise what a significant burden that is. By the time, you reach the point in the range where the Guarneri G5 sits, you can argue that the budget exists to nail both elements but our expectations of just how visually lovely it should be are incredibly high too.

Happily, as we shall cover, this fifth generation of Sonus faber's long-running stand-mount is very attractive. Still, the engineering that has gone into it is extremely impressive at the same time. The G5 reflects that this latest version is the fifth generation Guarneri and the basic layout remains unchanged. It is still a two-way rear ported stand-mount speaker, but the mechanics of how these elements have been implemented is significantly different.

DAD rock
The tweeter is a 28mm soft dome device that makes use of the trademark Sonus faber DAD (Damped Apex Dome) structure over the north south axis of the dome. Designed to delay any anti phase behaviour from the dome itself, it has a worthwhile secondary function of providing a degree of protection to the dome itself from fingers and other stray objects that isn't really provided by the supplied grilles. This crosses over a 2.2kHz to a 150mm mid bass driver that is made of cellulose pulp which gives many of the same qualities as treated paper but with greater stiffness than would be the case from the more traditional material.

Where the G5 differs most significantly from its predecessors is what is happening behind this cone. A purpose-built neodymium motor system combined with a new tuning frequency allows for deeper extension without distortion. Sonus faber says that resonances are quelled down to 15Hz (that is to say, with Sonus faber quoting a low-end roll-off of 40Hz, lower than anything that the Guarneri G5 itself can generate). As well as beefing up the motor, Sonus faber has worked to reduce the mass of the entire driver assembly to improve responsiveness.

The crossover between the two drivers follows standard Sonus faber design practice. Designed via a combination of listening tests and computer simulation, it features a shopping list of high-quality components that are hand soldered on custom PCBs. As is tradition, the Guarneri G5 supports bi-wiring thanks to having two sets of terminals. The measurements quoted by Sonus faber are not radically different to the proceeding models. The sensitivity of 86dB/w and 4-ohm impedance point to the Guarneri G5 needing a reasonable amount of power to do its best work.

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Sonus Faber Guarneri G5 Wenge

Beschrijving / Description

Specificaties / Specifications