WHAT HAPPENED TO SONUS FABER?

The real magic exited the company with Serblin's departure (he made a few more models on his own), but it lingered on for while, ever diminishing.  I auditioned the Veneres and thought them engineered to impress in a 2-minute hearing, but sub-par for the long haul.  Time will tell if the Sonnettos are the start of a come-back.

There's an auteur theory of movie-making; look at how many brands of speakers depend for their excellence on a single designer.

After he left Sonus Faber, Serblin designed and had manufactured at least two models that are not SF.

There are various events that are not all simultaneous, I don't know the exact chronology: FS leaves SF, SF is bought out by larger company, FS passes, and perhaps larger company bought by even larger one.

Anyway, Serblin's last designs obviously owe a lot to his vintage Fabers.  Sadly, there must be very few in circulation.

http://axissaudio.com/components/speakers/franco-serblin/

The larger the company the more likely it is that people in management and sales will come up with price points in a new line of speakers that they want the new product to hit.  Then the designers/engineers make that happen.

In a small company, where the designer is also the CEO or has equal footing, things will be very different.

Sonus Faber today is a classic example of the first sort of company.  The sales and PR people put out as much verbiage as possible in order to camouflage those basis facts.