Sonus Faber speakers - what's your experience?

I didn’t find them difficult to place at all, but be aware that their sound signature can vary pretty significantly between their lines so keep that in mind. 

I also liked the sound of the Sonus Fabers at the Audio Advice event.  I believe on Friday they were the Lilium, so 1 step down from the Aida but still $75k.  To me that was the best sounding room at the show. 

How finnicky are they in placement compared to, say Wilsons?

They’re wonderful speakers that do many things right and look gorgeous as well. If you’re looking for neutral or detail monsters, they might not be for you as they tend to be a little on the romantic side of things. I owned Olympica II and really liked them. Wouldn’t mind owning another SF in the future. I didn’t find them to be fussy with placement but they do give you more if you provide more breathing room. 
 

I only sold them because I wanted to try something different and not necessarily due to any shortcomings. Having said that, I preferred the Olympica line over Lumina. Not a huge difference but Olympica had a bit more of the SF magic. Of course they continue to get better as your move up in the lineup. 

Thanks, @tosnc--I wasn't completely sure on what I thought were the Aida's.

And, thank you, @arafiq & ​​@soix, for your input; all good to know!

When tweeter carried SF I only remember trying to sell a kidney to get a pair. I still think of my VA beethovens as poor mans sonus faber 

I had the Sennetto III in my house and compared them directly to Focal Aria 926.    The Sennetto bested the 926s with voice and strings.  The 926 were a little better at filling the room with music and a little better with rock music or should I say I liked them better.  But I just could not get over the cheesy plastic like base of the Sennetto.  

I have had 3 sets - Venere 3.0, Sonetto V and Olympica Nova V. 
 

I like SF. And there’s a lot of great speakers out there

I have had SF Olympica ,  Amati Tradition and now the Il Cremonese.   The fact that I stay with SF rather than switching to Wilson or Focal (both of which I have auditioned at length), indicates my satisfaction, indeed appreciation, of the SF sound.

I listen to classical and jazz so cannot speak as to SF applicability and sound in relation to rock or heavy metal.  But, for classical and jazz, they are extremely "musical" with excellent timbre, tonality, clarity, articulation throughout the frequency range.  SF claims strings are their specialty, but I can attest to the fact that while the strings are indeed outstanding, brass and percussion are equally realistic. I have compared to Wilson's and to my ears the SF are more natural, more attuned to a live performance, than the Wilson's (which I find to be highly articulate to the point of being clinical).

Note, however, that the SF speakers perform in relationship to the quality of the source, preamp, amp and speaker cables.  The better your "system" the more you will hear from the speakers... they truly are revealing and rewarding in the sense that you can appreciate any expenditures "upstream" from the speakers.  Of course, this also means that you will find yourself upgrading components and cables.

I auditioned Sonus Faber Amati’s with my Gryphon Diablo 300 at a dealer’s showroom. I compared them against B&W 801 D4 (loads of bass and upper ranges too thin), Magico A5 (very thin bass and sounded like a speaker and not musical), Audiovector Arette R6 (great speaker with very energetic and punchy bass), and Wilson Sasha DAW (beautiful speaker and to me the best of the bunch, but ultimately lacking in a fuller and well-rounded and balanced rich sound when playing hard rock). In comparison I found Sonus Faber to be decent, a better midrange than the B&W, but I found them to be a bit uninspiring to me. Could be due to the pairing with my amp, or it could have been the massively over-dampened audition room I tried them in. I thought the bass was very deep and there was lots of it, but it was less energetic than what I was hearing with other speakers, which set the stage for a less engaging experience.

I find auditioning speakers to be very stressful and often futile, due to uncontrollable variables, in particular being at the mercy of dealer listening rooms. It may very well be that I would have loved the Amati’s at home but I don’t know of any dealer near me that would allow at-home tests for floor standing speakers.

@craig , for what it’s worth, the salesman told me that near 100% of their clients who listen to jazz and classical choose Sonus Faber above the other brands they sell.

they are super expensive, you can get way more for less money. 

But $$$ is all relative

I have always like SF,  my Dad has Concertos , Concertinos , and Solo and it's a great sounding g system with music or movies.   Granted they are 20 plus years old but they still impress.   

I was at Fidelis in NH a few months ago , they had some serious SF models on display and the ones that were playing when I walked in sounded incredible.  Sure they were $20k but if you have the right electronics (and money) they are worth it .

oddiofyl - coincidentally, I am considering a trade for a pair of Concertinos for a secondary system.  They'd be used in an apartment primarily for vocal music, some low key jazz, blues and rock and paired with a Martin Logan sub.  I've not heard them, but reviews say midrange is good and SF has a great reputation.  Any experience you can share?  Thanks.

Just heard a pair of SF Olympica Nova V`s this weekend. We listened to a pair of Magico M5`s in the same room same gear.

All of us agreed thar the Nova V`s were more musical sounding.

The Magico`s were sterile sounding in comparison.

I`ll be shopping for Sonus Fabers....