Sonus faber lumin v or sonetto iii

I am a big fan of the Sonus Faber sound. I have owned three pair. Also, each move up the ladder represents sonic improvement. I think the difference will be obvious. They should share the same sound characteristics… but better bass. After listening for technical differences… try to just enjoy the music… one should pull you into the music more… create an emotional connection. Buy those. This is where SF excels. No emotional connection? Move on to something else. 

Make sure both sets you listen to are fully broken in. 

Thanks for your response they are well broken in. I was told that I could use my own integrated amplifier.What would say are there sound characters of Sonus faber.

Sonus Faber to me are uniquely natural sounding. I first heard them about 17 years ago along with a whole bunch of others… including Martin Logan, Focal and B&W. The only word I could think of was organic… natural… not ethereal like the Martin Logan… also very coherent.

I was not in the market at the time. Then 10 years ago I got season tickets to the symphony, which I have had since (7th row center). I started realized my system (high end with planar speakers) didn’t sound right… too much treble… this ethereal stuff, artificially enhancing the venue… to little midrange (not fully fleshed out)… and an artificial fast slam in the bass, but without nuance. I thought back to the Sonus Faber I had heard years ago… they had the same coherency and natural sound that real music did.

So I bought a used pair as an experiment. It didn’t take more than a few hours to know I was right. within a few days I had ordered a new pair. The Sonus were coherent top to bottom, natural sounding at the top… fully fleshed out, with great articulate bass. It has improved all music genera… a problem I had been having was I would upgrade and improve electronic music and other genera would sound worse… this stopped when I got the Sonus Faber. So they are outstanding on all genera.

As I moved up the Sonus ladder, I also swapped components that took me closer and closer to the sound of real music. So over ten years my system has evolved completely, to the most natural and musical system I have heard. Tubed gear also helped bring the system closer to real music. You can see it under my ID.

Good you can take your integrated.

My integrated amplifier is musical fidelity m6si. I listen to mostly vinyl my taste of music is classic rock and blues.

How do you like the MF M6SI? @bigmac1963 

The musical fidelity m6si is great amplifier that are driving my dynaudio special forty’s.

I was able to hear a direct comparison of Lumina V vs Sonetto VIII at a dealer.  Importantly, both speakers were played on the same exact system; all we did was swap out the speakers. The sound of Lumina V was so close to the Sonetto VIII that I would be hard pressed to pay twice the money for the Sonetto. One thing I noticed about the Lumina V is how much bass impact they get out of them with kick drums and the like. They were being powered by a Michi X5 integrated amp.

What was the size of the room. My room size is 20 x17.

I'd say something like 12 x 16 feet.

How would describe there sound signature.

I had the Sonetto 5 for a while. Beautiful midrange, a bit rolled off on the highs. I can’t speak for the 3’s but they extended low enough that you could turn off the subwoofer and be satisfied. As someone else mentioned the sonetto outperformed the lumina pretty clearly, and as you move up the line you get more refinement, better parts etc. Sonetto may be the sweet spot. Build quality is excellent, they definitely have high WAF. You can listen to these speakers all day. Downside for me is they are a 90db 4ohm speaker so partner with the right amplifier(s), and eventually I just got interested in a kore engaging & dynamic speaker. That’s my $0.02

This is going to be my end game speaker. Should I look at Sonetto 5 instead of the 3.My amplifier has enough power to drive these speakers.

I own Lumina V's

I think they are very nice smooth sounding speakers, good bass, super attractive, well priced

not the best for poorly recorded tracks and dynamic compression at higher volumes especially with rock and electronic

all my audiophile friends who have come over rate them higher than I do

not endgame but best in class

FWIW at their asking price there is value, I also feel that once you start getting north of 3k for a new speaker budget you're likely seeking a quality of sound that you can't get for 3k new but can for 3k used

I will be looking to compare lumina 5 to sonetto 3.This will be last purchase of speakers.