tight, tight bass - compelling midrange - sweet highs

none

Some people seem concerned about the bass output of these speakers, at first I was too untill I finally got the electronice right (Rogue 99 pre and Odyssey Stratos amp) The bass comming out of these speakers is incredible. It is tight, totally controlled and DEEP! It shows none of the mid bass boom I've experianced with most all speakers to some degree even really high end speakers. People I've had in for a demo cannot believe there was NO sub. I'm pretty sure I've purchased my last pair of steakers.

Similar Products Used:

energy C-6 PSB bronze

Stunning good looks, Extremely well made, beautiful highs,
I guess I'm a soft dome fanatic.

Not cheap!! But, good things an't cheap and cheap things well you know.

Ok,
Fer the record, just traded in a set of Mozarts, ya know that 1 year deal.
A short summary, sorta a A-B comparison.
1. The Mozarts are nice speakers, read my review. They play good ole rock an roll if that be your thing, I believe better than the GP's. One of them marginal things but side by side you can hear it. That is until the bass gets nasty, then the Mozarts blow it ie, my last review on the Mozarts.
2. Another A/B the little lady saw the GP's, and it was love at first site. Don't bring them home and expect her to say, you better bring them back.
3. The GP's deliver stunning highs, and as a matter of reference pretty decent bass. A sub for music may not be a nesessity for those confined by space.
4. They need lot's O power, but, so didn't the Mozarts.
5. I shall reserve a more indepth review after a full winter of music, movies, and my already hooked up X-Mas present DirectTV. But for the record, after having these speakers running almost 24/7 for the last 2 weeks, I have little to complain about.
5. A set of walls, 1 each picolo, and the GP's and you have a veryyyyyyyyyyyy nice surround system.

Similar Products Used:

Mission 765i's, Vienna Mozarts

I've possessed ProAc Response 3.0 for two years. It's very good for classics and instrumental music. When you decide to listen music as African voices, the sound is bright. I've got GP three weeks ago and I'm still in love with them.The sound is natural and you can pinpoint the performers.

Highly recommended!

I purchased the Sonus Faber Concerto Grand Pianos about 5 months ago and I am still amazed at their wonderful sound. Detailed, musical and a wonderful sound stage. I am running them as the left and right speakers on a home theater system but their #1 function is music. Driving them is a Proceed AMP3 and Proceed AVP. I also have a Sonus Faber Solo for the center. I do think the GP are just a bit weak on the bass but my system uses a REL Q100E for the bottom end. I will soon be moving up to a REL Stadium II.
I looked at B&W, Thiel, Martin Logan but did not find a speaker near that price with that quality of sound.

After having done a rather extensive survey of the speaker market here in Sweden (which unfortunately isn't very large) I decided on a pair of Sonus Faber Grand Piano. Here's why:
The Grand Piano's (GP) have the smoothest and most detailed low midrange -> high treble that I have ever heard. In addition to this, the soundstage (both horisontal and vertical) are extremely detailed. From listening to a narrow band of music, stretched out between the speakers, I now have access to a three-dimensional "cube" of music, being produced by something located somewhere in the cube. Breathtaking.

The bass is good, not spectacular but good. I reviewed the SF Concerto's and Concertions and the GP's go ca: 1-1/2 octave deeper. Still, no bass monsters.

The GP's require good amplification to shine. I myself am in serious need to upgrade my preamp, so if anyone has any suggestions, please mail me at:
hwallentin@mercury-eur.com

Competition:
------------
Totem Tabu: Not as deep bass, not as nice vertical soundstage. Closest competitor.
Dali Grand Diva: Grainier, smaller soundstage.
B&W Nautilus 805: Nice soundstage. More bass, but not good bass.
ML Aerius I: Airy, fluffy, roomy. Not much precision, though. Poor bass performance.

midrange that sings, pretty decent imaging

bass quality not equal to similarly priced speakers with serious overhang/bloat in some situations.
treble peak makes the presentation rather forward
Just an overpriced Concerto?

On an absolute scale, I would not say that the GP is bad. However, in a head to head against the Joseph Audio Rm22si and the Audio Physic Tempo, B&W N805, all similarly priced speakers, I'm afraid it just lost out.

I have to say that it does a lot of things well, but then , so do all the other speakers in the price range.

but of the 4 speakers, I found the GP rather uncomfortably too forward for me with a treble that was not exactly grain-free (its good, but the others seemed to have better lack of grain).

The bass of the GP also presented problems. There seemed to be a midbass 'hump' or 'lift' that led to some overhang/bloat occasionally.

On an absolute performance scale, i really don't think its that much better than a Concerto. All that extra money you pay is probably going into the nice finish and cabinetry as opposed to higher quality drivers. In the end, 4 stars because, despite its problems, its still highly listenable.

Similar Products Used:

Joseph Audio Rm22si
Audio Physic Tempo
Nautilus 805

Imaging, clarity of presentation, sweetness of top end

Weak bass response

These speakers are as beautiful to look at as they are to listen to! I have owned a pair for about a month, and have been consistantly impressed with their performance. I work for an audio retailer here in houston, and have spent a lot of time around this equipment. Overall, the Grand Pianos have a sweeter (some would say euphonic) treble, and their bass is (even to me, who absolutely loves them) in desperate need of a bass reinforcer, such as a REL. If you can get over the lack of bass (or, as in my case, you live in a thin walled apartment, in which case no bass is a decided advantage), these are awesome speakers. Their build quality is superb, of course, in keeping with the remainder of the Sonus Faber line. Before I purchased these speakers, I listened to speakers in their rough range (for me, as we carry sonus faber and I get discounts, the comparison was biased in favor of the GPs, at least slightly). I compared these to the:
B&W 805s (they are overly bright for my taste, but I like a very sweet, almost laid back sound)
PSB Stratus Golds (slightly bright, most likely due to the front end rather than the speakers themselves, and regardless FAR too large for my room)
Magnepan 1.6s (for the price, had I not gotten the discount on the GPs, I would have gotten the maggies, their sound is not quite as sweet or as well focused as the GPs, at least to my ear, but for a little less than 1/2 the retail price, the difference is, even to me, not worth the extra money, unless you have enough that it doesn't matter. Only problem is, you had better have a nice big room to feed the maggies, otherwise they sound very, VERY bad, again, that has been my experience)
Vandersteen 2 Signatures (overly hard treble, granted the speakers hadn't been broken in, and I have a bias against metal dome tweeters, they have always sounded harsh to me)
Martin Logan (full line) (ooh, where to start, I am not a big ML fan, they are far too touchy for me as far as placement and room characteristics. In the perfect room, they can be the best speakers I have ever heard, and in a bad room, they are a really, really bad speaker for the money, though the never sound truly bad, they just don't sound good)
Nova (hmm, two words, even off of a Pass Aleph 2 and a Mark Levinson front end: not impressed)
Well, that is quite a laundry list of comparisons, I know. To let the reader know as to my personal biases, I am a big fan of immense detail, while at the same time not haveing a harsh, metalic high end (just a bit of a contradiction, I know, but the Watt/Puppies fit the bill to perfection, as do the GrandPianos). I have overall been very, very impressed with the imaging and soundstaging I get out of these speakers, especially considering the fact that the room they are in is both tiny (11x13x9) and the acoustic equivalent of the house of mirrors at the local amusement park. They have handled the room gracefully, and thankfully sound incredible at low volumes, a fact that I discovered shortly after my neighbor almost knocked my front door in trying to get my attention. I have been nothing but pleased with these speakers, and would highly recomend them to anyone. If nothing else, they are about the closest thing that you can get in this price range to free standing sculptures that also happen to produce sound - they are not out of place in the living room of a 2 million dollar loft, a situation in which I have seen them placed, being as I work as an installer.

As a final comment, if you like speakers that have a very sweet sound, slightly laid back compared to more forward speakers, a very detailed soundstage and pinpoint imageing, and a VERY compact size for floorstanders, and you are willing to put the tender loving care into their maintenance (mistreating these speakers should be considered a crime, they are THAT beautiful), then these are very good speakers to get. I welcome any inquirys about my experience, and would love to talk to other people that have used them or are thinking of getting them. (Dune1066@aol.com)

My Associated Equipment:
Sony SCD-777ES SACD Player
Krell KAV-250p Preamp
B&K Ref4420 (weak link)
BEL Wires from CD to Preamp
AudioTruth Lapis Balanced from Preamp to Amp
AudioTruth Sterling from Amp to speakers (single wire)
Custon Monster 1.2 jumpers on biwiring terminals of GPs
Full vibration isolation on all components (high mass and sorbothane spacers)

Matt, audio addict

(does anyone know of a good audio 12 step? :) )

Oh, the ratings only include speakers under 5K, I don't believe in comparing a $3500 speaker to speakers costing more than your average BMW, its down right unfair.

Similar Products Used:

Martin Logan (full line)

Fatigue free listening, great midrange and highs, soundstage

Soundstage, transparancy, bass

What? Soundstage under strengths AND weaknesses? Well, out of all of the speakers I listed above it probably had the second best soundstaging, so it was very good, but was not equal to the amazing soundstaging of the Audio Physic Tempo IIIs, so this was probably the eventual downfall for the Concerto GPs for me. As you can see from what I listened to in my search for a new set of speakers, I have done my homework. The only two brands I wanted to listen to but couldn't (because there are no dealers in Oregon) were Dunlavy Audio and Dynaudio. Out of all of the speakers listed above, there were only four sets of speakers that satisfied me, and the Concerto GPs were one of them. They are definitely my second choice out of what I listened to. They have a fantastic midrange, and great treble. I love screaming treble, but I found most of the speakers above that are suppose to have good treble (e.g. B&W Nautilus series) were too harsh and I found it very difficult to find an acceptable volume to settle into due to the ringing treble. Not so with the Concerto GPs. They were one of the most natural sounding, neutral speakers I auditioned. I think they have more bass than the other reviewers give them credit for. I mean, you can't expect a speaker in this price range and of this size to rock the house (and if they do, like they PSB Stratus Golds, they'll probably sound like shit). I thought they had acceptable bass, but I would want to eventually add a sub to them. If you ARE for sure going to add a sub, then maybe you'll want the Concertos instead.

When it came down to it, I just enjoyed the Audio Physic Tempo IIIs more, on every single level. However, if I didn't know about the Audio Physic's, I'm sure I would be very happy with the Sonus Fabers. I was getting depressed after listening to all of the above and not finding anything that really got me excited. These were the first that got me excited. They are wonderful sounding speakers and I would definitely recommend them to people. Out of everything above they are one of only three pairs that are going to get 5 stars from me (and the Concertos are the other). If you enjoy their sound, you should also audition the Audio Physic Tempo IIIs, and Thiel 2.3s. For me, it came down to these three speakers, and the GPs were second place. A very beautiful speaker, both acoustically and visually (leather is very cool).

Associated equipment:
Krell Master Reference Amplifier
Krell KAV-250p Preamplifier
Denon DCD-1650AR cd player
High End Audioquest cable

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber Concertos, Avalon Avatar, PSB Stratus Goldi, B&W CDM7SE, Silver Signature, B&W Nautilus 801, 803, 804, 805, Thiel MCS1, Thiel 2.3, complete Martin Logan line, Magnepan 1.6, Magnepan MG3.6R, Vienna Acoustics Mozart, Beethoven, Joseph Audio RM22si, RM25si, Totem Acoustic Forest, Vandersteen 2Ce Signature, 3A Signature, NHT 2.5i, some $3,500 Linns, Audio Physic Tempo III... uhh... I know there were some more...

Sounds like large speakers. Bass. Natural midrange and HF. Great soundstage. Very nice finish.

Needs hi-end gears to sound best.

On overall terms, the GPs sound better and more dynamic than the smaller SF speakers!

Similar Products Used:

EAII, Signum, Concertino

Everything sounds so natural and real that its a wonder to listen to this art work.

Looooong time to break-in. I guess very rigid drivers. Power hungry, power hungry, power hungry.

First I would like to point out to the previous reviewer, Ulrich, with all respect from audiophile to audiophile that these speakers demand lots of power at least 200 watts of high current power. At with 86 db sensitivity it's not easy to move them with the Electrocompanient ECI-1. Although a very good amplifier definately the GP need much more. Try this and you wil see how everything changes. The negative aspect is the long time break-in period.

Everything in my system sounds wonderful. Remember these speaker will deliver a natural sound as it was recorded.

System

Krell KAV250a
Lexicon DC1
MIT cables

Similar Products Used:

Thiel, B&W, Aerial Acoustics, Martin Logan