Sonus Faber Sonetto V’s Thoughts Requested

@soix 

While they do weight only 50 lb. each, Sonus is very clever about their construction. They use the smallest horizontal dimensions possible and break up the wide sides by curving them. While they are not the heavy weights their upper lines are they still perform very well except in the low bass. 

@dbeckwith 

Your amp will drive the Sonetto Vs fine.  However, Speakers like these demand the use of subwoofers. I know you said you do not care about bass, but bass itself is not the problem. It is what it does to the midrange. The crossover point between the woofers and midrange is 235 Hz. The slope is not specified. 256 Hz is middle C and the woofers are still quite audible at least up to 500 Hz which is one octave. Low bass requires small woofers to move long distances, a centimeter is not unusual at modest volumes. This causes Doppler distortion of everything else the woofer carries like the human voice. You are familiar with Doppler Effect. That is when a car passes you honking it's horn the horn changes tone right as it passes you, one tone moving towards you, another moving away. This is exactly what the woofer is doing, moving towards you, then moving away. Bigger woofers do not have to move as far. The form factor is not as modern, but the Klipsch Cornwall is a better speaker in this price range if you do not want to use subwoofers, even if you do not care about bass. 

If you tend to listen at low volumes the Sonetto Vs alone will do fine. If you like to turn it up subwoofers and a two way crossover will reduce distortion and make your amp seem twice as powerful. I do think the Sonettos are an improvement over the Kefs, but I cannot say by how much. 

Question. Do you ever frequent live concerts?

@dbeckwith 

Great. I was also at one concert that had more bass and volume than was necessary. 1983 or 4, Peter Gabriel at the Richmond Coliseum, a large outdoor amphitheater, the Summer home of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. Gabriel crammed a stadium sound system into one of the most efficient outdoor venues in existence. The bass drum kicked you in the stomach so that I could feel the abdominal wall shake. I had to stuff rolled up napkin in my ears. I did not get that abused at a Nine Inch Nails concert. 

There is a visceral component to live music. You do not just hear it, you feel it. This is one aspect that makes live music exceptional and it does not take as much volume as you would think to create that effect in a home system. It takes accurate bass flat down to 18 Hz at the listening position not one meter in front of the speaker, the rating the manufacturers give you. Big venues breath. You can tell you are in a big place with your eyes closed. This happens at very low frequencies. 

Most people expect a home HiFi system to sound like a home HiFi system and as long as they can listen to music played back cleanly they are happy. I expect my system to sound like the venue the music was recorded in, (With live recordings which I prefer) with all the visceral content intact. This means that I have been unhappy for decades and are always expecting the next improvement to get me closer to that goal. You are not a true audiophile unless you are unhappy with your system or lets say, not entirely happy. It is that visceral component that is hardest to get right. Maybe imaging is harder. I guess it depends on what day you talk to me.

You have one subwoofer. When you get a chance buy another of the exact same model and put both between your speakers. You can get a two way crossover from MiniDSP or dBx for not much money. IMHO the low pass filter found in most subwoofers is a half baked way of adding a subwoofer. Cutting the bass out of your main speaker is so beneficial it is hard to over state it. You will notice right away that your woofers seem to remain stationary and the sound is less .....stressed. You will also notice some of that visceral sensation even at modest volumes.