WHAT HAPPENED TO SONUS FABER?

Twoleftears, I own a pair of FS Ktemas. I purchased them while living in Italy. These speakers will be buried with me. I have had them for 5 years now. 

I used to own Cremona Ms s/p Franco leaving the company and they sucked.  SF after FS is garbage. I have history with both pre and post FS SF. I can honestly say with out a doubt SF is only a fraction what they once were. Now, SF is not a bad speaker now. They are just different and can’t be compared to the old. 

I have heard Accordos and Ligneas on many occasions with multiple different combinations of electronics. More than happy to comment more if desired. 

Sonus Faber can’t follow a good amplifier,like d’agostino, esoteric,cor..Because he isn’t fast enough. I’ve heard them 3 months ago: terrible. A fast song like Equinox 5 and Zoolookologie (Jean-Michel Jarre) was a disaster. It was a “ mishmash” of Instruments  that flowed together. Also “Set me free (Chris Rea) was bad. The best you can do is: Match it,before buying, because that’s very important. Ask,to have it in your room for a couple days (weeks) before buying it.

Twoleftears requested I give an impression of the FS Ktemas. Truly, the Franco Serblin website explains the history of the design of the speakers, so I will refrain in giving a background and post the link: http://www.francoserblin.it/home.php?lang=e
To summarize, Franco had the passion to develop art using music in the construction of speakers. Originally he believed in capturing the sound of beautiful instruments and trying to convey concierto sound to as close to original as mechanically as possible. He believed in having the ability to provide a large sound stage and depth so it immersed the listener in feeling like they were listening to a live performance. So, his original speaker design, the Snell, separated the mid/tweet from the bass. in doing so, it provided a large sound stage. Obviously a difficult task indeed.

Through out the 80s, 90s and until he sold SF in the 2000s he strove to make beautiful aesthetic instruments in the design of speakers. His speaker design was simplistic, but well tuned using the best designed speakers called Scan-Speak from a Danish company. The internal wiring developed by his son-in-law Y-ter and the cross-overs and wood construction built in Italy. FS perfected it.

Fast forward, SF sold to a large enterprise (Sumiko) as spoke of early in the thread. The engineers steered away from the simplistic design and focused on complexity. As you will see the new design is much different the old. Just take a look at the Almadi design in comparison to the original design of the Strads. Yes, SF continues to make the legacy speaker design such as the Stradivaris and Guarnis, but if you ask anyone who have listened to these speakers designed and built during the FS era to the present day era will say they don’t sound the same. Today, some would say they sound more mechanical, clean and perfect where the old sound warm and airy. At the tail-end of the FS era at Sonus Faber he stated that he felt pressured to design speakers for mass market and transition in making his speakers more complex. I believe I read his last speakers he designed, the Elipsas were not to his liking. I can imagine you can do a search and read more on this.

Ok, now let me focus on Franco’s work status post selling SF. He decided to return to his original design of the "Snell" and develop the Ktemas. He used his ability as an artist to design a beautiful cabinet, purchase Scan-Speak speakers, use his son-in-laws own speaker wire design and construct the crossovers internally in Italy. As a result, the Ktemas were born or many would say, the "Snell" revived. Two Scan-Speak mid drivers, tweeters and two rear firing woofers. Please take the time to read 6moons review in 2011 on the Ktemas. I have found this review to be one of the best in giving history and impression of the Franco Serblin. http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/francoserblin/1.html

Franco died in March of 2013. His son-in-law took over the company and continues today to build and distribute the three FS designed speakers, Ktemas, Accordos and the Ligneas. Both the Ktemas and Accordos were build prior to demise of FS, but Massimiliano built the Ligneas after his death, but stuck with the FS original design.

Personally, I had the fortunate opportunity to purchase production number 75 of the Ktema FS model. I purchased these speakers in San Bendento Italy from Audio Plus. These speakers were delivered to this store directly from FS’s son-in-law. I purchased these shortly before Franco’s death. Matter of fact, they were delivered to me in May of 2013. I remember this because I remember reaching out and asking the community if there was a need to be worried about purchasing these speakers and finding replacement parts if needed at a later date. I guess I was worried about the company folding. Today, I will say, these speakers were the best purchase. I have not had one issue. I love the old Franco Serblin sound of being warm, spacious and vocal focused. Anyone who have heard the Strads will contest to this sound. They love Class A amps and powerful tubes setups. I run Accuphase Class A and they are a match in heaven. I truly believe he reached his mark in formulating the "Snell" sound with these speakers.

Again, long live Franco.

P.S. Production #1 of the Ktemas continue to reside in Tokyo Japan. I ran into them while living there.

Is snell the Italian way of saying snail? I thought that it was a typo, but then you repeated it.
Thanks for all of the FS info. It sounds like you're very fortunate to own those speakers. 

Venere S was on my list of two when buying speakers. Sound was fine, but speakers did feel the way I worried they would when it comes to craftmanship. They were advertised as "Made in Italy", unlike the rest of the Venere line. I walked away, but I did give them a serious consideration. I did not compare them to "Made in China" models but these were disappointing enough.

From what it seems to me, previous success of the company with the same name was due to the reign of one man who was in charge and who knew what and how he wanted to be done. It had nothing to do with the production location. Quite the opposite, many would say.