Finally...subwoofer that's aesthetically pleasing!

For 750K I know where I can buy an entire studio including the contents and the building!

I really don't know why more audiophiles haven't gushed over the SF Stradivari.  Really amazing speakers that ignored the room they were in, much like the Snell type As.

"Really amazing speakers that ignored the room they were in,"

I agree. I have heard them in a living room, with no audiophool enhancements and in demo rooms.

Breathtaking and nice to stare at in both arrangements. 

The Stradivari are on my long term "buy if found @ crazy, low price." 

How do you tune the strings?

DeKay

@dekay  Don’t you know, you can tune a piano but you can’t tune a fish!

No doubt the Suprema is a beautiful system, but in order for me to afford a set, I’d have to sell all of my family’s houses and then my friends houses to be able to afford the proper electronics and cabling.

Easier would be winning PowerBall!

the subs look nice, I would like to see a marketed external crossover from them  we could use a few more options.  

Sadly in the press release you could see the scan speak sticker on that midrange. Good brand but at ludicrous prices I expect them to be made of fairy dust.  

Don’t you know, you can tune a piano but you can’t tune a fish!

A blast from the past I'd be okay with forgetting.

Matt:

Is "I used to look like Cary Grant" more your tune?

DeKay

I remember when I used to get nervous about discussing with my wife the desire to spend $1,000 for a new piece of stereo equipment. I’ve been married over 40 years, by the way. $1,000 was a lot of money for 23-year-old newlyweds.

When I sold my business and retired in 2017 my office building didn’t sell for $750,000. Good Lord....

Is "I used to look like Cary Grant" more your tune?

Before all those pies?

I hate to say it, @dekay  , but the tune a piano/tune a fish thing induced a REO Speedwagon flashback, and I freaked out.  Thankfully the internet exists and I was brought back to my senses and after some cursory research I discovered that tune a fish does not necessarily apply to REO's tuna fish.  I am going to take some Thorazine now and go to bed.

Aesthetics are clearly in the eye of the beholder because those are not pleasing to my eyes.

If you are buying anything close to the cost of these speakers, you probably have a dedicated audio room, so why would it matter what a subwoofer looked like? I’d probably have a stack of Rel’s if I had a larger audio room and the Rels would probably sound better than this single SF subwoofer at 1/2 the cost.

Some of the better speakers have black only enclosures or I have only seen them in black: Magic, Raidho, Borressen, and others.

REO Speedwagon is awesome! Saw them at Folsom field in 1981! 

Sadly in the press release you could see the scan speak sticker on that midrange. Good brand but at ludicrous prices I expect them to be made of fairy dust.  

Ah, Stradivari's daddy tried to pull a fast one, dropping scanspeaks in a box, eh? Well, with the purchased scanspeak drivers in there, price has now fallen to $7500 boys. 

Quiz: What do you call a Sonus Faber with a scanspeak driver?

A Scanus Speakivari.

Do I retire or buy a set of these?  Decisions, decisions.... 😁

I don’t think the woofers look st all good.  The Stradd, on the other hand, do look good with the elastic string grill.  The problem with these grills is that they don’t last and replacement is not that cheap.  It is a good thing that the Strads look good nekkid.

I’ve helped with the set up of four pairs of Strads, mostly using the Sumiko method recommended by the SF distributor.  They are easier to set up than most speakers and sound good even in smaller rooms.  I really like their natural tonal balance.  They are, like most conventional speakers, not particularly dynamic sounding at low volume, so I prefer some other high efficiency speakers that are more dynamic, but they are very good speakers nonetheless.

I would contradict p05929 above post, the type of people who would buy these are most likely the ones who do not have a dedicated audio room. Therefore looks are everything to them and their spouse.

I thought about it, but then walked away since the colors clashed with my rug. 

Aesthetically pleasing? Highly questionable.

@erik_squires : I have Snell Type A’s. Original price was like $1390. I bought them from the original owner after his passing. He bought them from the Connecticut audio store I worked for. I paid $500 + $400 USPS to ship the A’s in four boxes to Florida. There are bargains to be found on the used market!

Sadly in the press release you could see the scan speak sticker on that midrange. Good brand but at ludicrous prices I expect them to be made of fairy dust.  

The good news is that my ancient speakers use all scanspeak drivers and I am putting them up for sale for only $740,000.

Price is fair and firm.  Cheapskate lowball offers will be politely ignored.

As an avid DIYer, I’m still really not a fan of arm-chair audiophiles taking a speaker apart based on whether or not they can find some of the drivers in a catalog or not.

They think "Oh, this is made by (Faital, ScanSpeak, Seas) so it must be garbage and over priced" , but the reality is the minimum driver price to sales price is 10:1, and it goes UP to 20:1 or higher once a maker makes their own in house drivers. 

Having said that, I can’t imagine buying a set of speakers for $750,000 unless they come with a stripper pole and multiple bars.

The fit and finish on the Sonus product is really nice. However as is the case with many Italian "designer" goods (Ferrari, Gucci, et al) the prices are jacked up way past the actual value. $750K for subs?  Are there that many people rich enough or foolish enough to plop down $750,000 for these? 

For me I'd rather take that money and build a fabulous listening room and budget $400-500K for some bespoke gear. But that's just one man's opinion. I also like French vanilla ice cream and you may like Dutch chocolate.

Cheers to anybody wo has earned enough clean cash to afford this stuff!  

Incidentally, I could not find the scanspeak sticker mentioned above on any of the Suprema pictures.  Not sure if it was a joke or not.

I am very curious how the well-heeled and not very bright consumer will see these.  Are they physically large enough to command the money being asked for?  I mean, are they going to impress my neighbors if they are so small?

The only aesthetically pleasing sub is no sub at all or hidden in a wall, another room and ported completely out of sight. For most, a necessary eye sore. 

If someone has the dough for this type of extravagance, just commission 

Franco Serblin, the man behind SF and have him design a pair of your own Suprema's? 

For one thing, design a magnetic setup so as not to ruin the look with those cheap fasteners SF still uses.

$1,000,000+ McIntosh & Sonus faber Suprema Loudspeaker System at CES 2024 (youtube.com)

I also noticed SF has reintroduced the Stradivari. Not impressed with the new look?

I guess I admire Serblin SF than current SF. 

@bigwave1 Your's blend in nicely. 

Big wave? What's your home break?

@m-db, they only blend a bit cuz fortunate enough to have a dedicated room. Home break (if I read this correctly) Ditch, MTK

Jetter,

not sure where I saw the driver with the sticker (another forum or YouTube), but I saved a screen shot of it. I am not sure how to post a picture from my phone on this forum. It does not really matter, lots of brands use scan speak, seas, SB Acoustics and get good results. Where I take issue is when the brand changes the phase plug or back plate and calls it their own design…

I thought it was more funny than anything in a $750k speaker. You get more tech in Vivid audio (just to name one brand) for 1/10th the price. Not that tech by itself makes things good, I still like good old paper drivers. 

@james633 

Thanks for the follow up.  I really have no concern where a speaker manufacturer sources their drivers in case that was accidentally implied.  To me, sourcing the speakers from a driver manufacturer makes a lot of sense, but I can understand the other side.

"Sadly in the press release you could see the scan speak sticker on that midrange"

I would hope it is NOT an off the shelf model and at least a tweaked version?

@yesiam_a_pirate wrote:

$750K for subs?  Are there that many people rich enough or foolish enough to plop down $750,000 for these? 

It is my understanding that's the price for the entire mains + subs (and electronic crossover) system, not that that makes it a glowing bargain by any stretch of the imagination. Sonus Faber should be commended though for going the active filter route here, which at the same time makes you wonder why this is not becoming a more widespread solution with anything other than statements systems. 

REO Speedwagon is awesome! Saw them at Folsom field in 1981!

Arrrrrrggghhhhh!!!!!!!

I'm just gonna keep on rolllin' with the gear I got 'till it's time for me to fly. 

I'm just gonna keep on rolllin' with the gear I got 'till it's time for me to fly. 

I need another dose of Thorazine.

Correction to above post of mine:

It seems the Suprema system is only semi-active - that is, the subs only and not the main speakers, although the electronic crossover offers a high-pass function of the main towers.  

I see that item as a paired bass tower (not sold separately or intended for diverse range of speakers) rather than a subwoofer. At least in the audio hobbyist/consumer sense of the term. Gotta wonder how many units Sonus aspired to sell with that design x price point. What a world.

Just and FIY, the subs are passive. They had the 2000 watt Mac amps driving the sub section… 

@roadcykler +1

@bigwave1  No cam and windy, right? My wife’s uncle Murray was a 
high school wood shop teacher a few miles South. 

We cut the cam, Cliff Murray?

Murray Fink RIP. You keep warm. 

I actually dislike the look of those.  I use a pair of Hsu VTF-15H MK2 subs ($2500 and a faux rosewood finish that is quite nice) and have no complaints.  They are only used in the home theatre section of my system as my main speakers are 3 dB down at 19 Hz.

The lil KEF KC62 microsubs (white or grey) look nice with modern home decor.

One could purchase a couple of Ryhtmik drivers and diy a open baffle sub with a very a nice artistic design. hardwood and stain.

In general, if many subs were not just black boxes and made to look like hardwood cabinets/ blend with furniture, WAF would go up.

The Sonus Fabooboo looks like a sinister medieval torture device.

Hmm, those are nice looking but wonder how they perform.

I'm expecting these within the next week or so pretty excited for them.

Harbottle C415

C415 Prototype Build