The most musical speaker I have come across. Instruments sounds so natural, vocals come alive in your LIVING ROOM!

There''s an inherent lack of bass with PIPE ORGANs but that is comparing to the Temptation.

Having owned a Dynaudio Confidence 5 for quite sometime now, I must say that I am very happy with the purchase of the Guarneri. I used to listen to Rock/Heavy Metal and I must say the Confidence offers the best of both worlds! But I have crossed over to Jazz/Vocals and Classical. Here I must say there is just no comparison between the Confidence and the Guarneri. The Guarneri is the most musical speaker I have ever come across. BTW, I currently own a Dynaudio Temptation and it still is not as musical enough as the Guarneri. So sold my Confidence 5 and im happy to keep the Temptation and the Guarneri as my reference system for years to come. Main difference I guess is the Guarneri is a timeless classic while the Temptation may last me another 5 years and a time to upgrade to their new product!

Similar Products Used:

Wilson Audio Grand Slam, JMLAB Utopia, SF Amati Homage, Dynaudio Temptation/Confidence, Krell LAT-1

It is a violin and guitar in one!

Lack of bass

This is if not the best, one of the most musical speakers in the market today. Closest rivals are the QUAD ESL989, LINN KOMRI and Sonus Faber Amati Homage. First time I got the delivery, I played my favourite CD tracks and it blew me away! Strings are strings and music just endowed me for the first time. Well done Sonus! I was in awe and my mouth was left open for at least half an hour then I said to myself THE LAST SPEAKER IN MY AUDIO CHAIN! I auditioned the Sonus Faber Cremona and I still think it musically beats it but the CREMONA sounds more DYNAMIC but not more musical! It is also not a hard speaker to match with the room and the equipment. 5 STARS!!!

Similar Products Used:

Krell LAT1, Wilson Audio Watt Puppy, Dynaudio Confidence 7, JM LAB Mezzo Utopia

Too many to list

None for the real music lover

I recently upgraded from SF Electa Amator II to Guarneri and honestly its the final frontier as far as speakers are concerned. All a music lover and I stress that is there :harmonic coherence ,timbre and inner flow ... I could write an essay for the Guarneri but I prefer to lidten to music instead of writting. Last but not least i want to thank Mr Chatgidimitriou ,the local dealer of Sonus Faber for his superb service and especially his after sales service and care!!!! Two big and honest congratulations to Sonus Faber one for their product and athe second for their choice of such an inpecable dealer. Congratulations and thanks to both of them... kepp up with the good work,,,both of you

Similar Products Used:

JMLab Mini Utopia B&W Silver Signature

Musicality, Very good resolving ability to show each instrument, Sophistigated craftsmanship, Superb finish.....

need high quality - tube amplifier and CD player (producing good bass range)

For the time being, my search for speaker producing sophistigated and musical sound is over. If you are serious about this remarkable speaker, I recommend to read "Stereophile review" done by Martin Colloms, July 1994. I''ve spent very hard time to find this review by internet, but finally I found: http://www.stereophile.com/printarchives.cgi?487 this is great review about Guarneri Homage, as far as I know and you can cut off many misleading rumors. I got great help from this review to search a good power amplifier for Guarneri homage. Thanks Mr. Martin Colloms in Stereophile. I ''ve found choosing power amplifier for guarneri will be another journey and one heck of money spending job to really sing Guarneri. Guarneri homage can go down to ~45 Hz and can produce quite tight bass, provided good matching power amplifier. My old amplifier, Museatex meitner str-55 sounded lovely with celestion 12si, does''nt match with Guarneri, as expected. it sounded like somewhat constrained. I tried "Conrad johnson premier 11a" and still not enough. According to Martin Colloms'' review in Stereophile, I purchased "Conrad johnson premier 12" for power amplifier, Cary CD303 in a week and I can hear good bass in Guarneri''s woofer (unit is made by Audio Technology in Denmark). I was amazed by this woofer''s resolving power for each instrument in music. In my private opinion, ~100W class tube amplifier (conrad, Jadis, B.A.T,..) will work fine for guarneri''s character, rather than monsterous solid state (except Pass aleph 1.2) power. Now my future journey will be a finding good used "Pass aleph 1.2" for matching Guarneri. "Guarneri Homage is one of great human-made speaker, period" My associated system: Power: Conrad-johnson premier 12 (Mono block) Pre: Cpnrad-johnson PV12L CD player: Cary CD303 Speaker cable: Red rose 336L Inter cable: Riverman Gothic (Cd to Pre to Power) Electricity (AVR & shield): Powertek PAV-5000

Similar Products Used:

B&W matrix3, Celestion 6si, Celestion 12si, Celestion 600

Natural, musical

If u are looking for deep deep bass, forget it.

I am a fan of SF since 1992. I first used the Minima Amator for about 2 years, then changed to the Electa Amator for 2 years and owned the 2 pair of Guaneris for 3+ years although I have listened to the guaneris extensively since 1994. The reason I only bought the Guaneris later is for a special reason namely the serial number 007 pair and s/n 010 pair. Will tell you the significance of this later. Back to the sound.
Back to the sound. How should I put it? The greatest strength I give the Guaneris is the naturalness of the sound. Some people may call it neutral though I hate to use the word becos this is one of the most confusing term around. When u listen to a well recorded vocal piece, u listen to the performer expressing himself/herself. The voice on a properly set up system is not thin not full bodied like a warm coloration. It is just natural, not too impressive like some of the super detail speakers u can get at much cheaper price. If u hear with your heart, you hear the music and the details are all there, all the time. the details just do not get in the way of the music. I cannot say much about some other speakers (no name mentioned as I do not want to cause a storm). Now to the violins. Just listen to the tonal colors of the violins whether it is Anne Sophie Mutter or Aarond Rosand or any of the other fine violinists around. Once again the details do not get in the way. Try the Clearaudio Classical CD Sampler and listened to the massed strings. It is so beautiful it could show others what massed strings is all about. The wave of sound and the individuals string players flowing within the wave, so clean and transparent and yet without the hardness, the sharpness of an overly analytical design. The Electa amator, on the other hand gave the wave but you just could not hear the details of the individual players. Get any of the Mapleshade CDs and listen to the trumpets. It is never shy. The brass sound has an aggressive nature and yet when you hear into them, you hear the movement of the air and even the vibtration of the equipment. How does the Guaneri do it, you may ask? The silk dome tweeter plays a huge part, the enclosure plays another huge part but I think the main reason it sounded like that is the effort put in by the designer. Most designers can get any sound they want. David Wilson puts in as much effort as any other serious designer, always looking to extract more and give more to his believers(customers). Similarly Franco Serblin tries his best to give what he felt was his interpretation of music. It is just that this guy stays in Italy, work with wood for the most part of his life(if I am not wrong, his family is in the furniture business)and is proud of his country's past in making musical instruments especially the violins. It is not coincident the glues used on the Guaneris are natural or the wood used to construct the speakers are dried for 2 years. There is a reason and the reason is he hopes the speakers will sing better each day just like the great violins of Cremona. I can vouched for that. I have heard the speakers over 6 years now. I owned the first 2 pairs of Guaneris in Asia. And you know what, they sound slightly different and their differences increases every day! You do not hear 2 stradivarius sounding the same. In fact, every stradivarius has its own name like the canon etc. I have not thought out names for my guaneris but they sound different every time I played on them (by the way I switch speakers every month). What wonderful speakers. I do not go into details like soundstage, imaging and all the rest because when it comes to the crunch, all that matters is the music and that, the Guaneris have plenty. By the way, just for information to all the proud owners of Guanaeris, my 2 pairs are constructed differently from the later pairs. Look at the side panels. Besides the top and bottom plates, my speakers have 7 pieces of wood. In between every piece of walnut, the speakers have 2 strips of black ebony. The later pairs (I do not know from which serial number onwards they changed the design) have only 6 pieces of walnut between the top and bottom plates and only 1 strip of ebony. There are less ebony strips on the top and bottom on the new speakers compared to mine. If you have an old brochure, you will see the photos has what I describes. If you have a newer brochure, the photos showed the speaker with lesser pieces of wood. What does this mean? I believe SF have taken this route to deliver and meet the demands of the speakers worldwide. Do you know at the peak Japan orders 200 pairs each time and the factory produces only 10 pairs a month? The sound however is the same. The difference is the age of the instruments, I called the Guaneris instruments. So how to get the best out of the speakers. Well this is interesting. What music do you listen to in the first place? Common hi fi knowledge comes in handy. I do not have special receipes so if u want to listen to Beethoven 9, please make sure u have a more powerful amp.I use a pair of upgraded Manleys 440s. What I missed from SE amps I get more from the controls and once again the naturalness. Speaker cables play the msot important part in my opinion and Hyperion, an expert in SF products recommend highly the AudioNote AN-SPz speaker cables (Hyperion, do u know how much it cost just to get the jumper hahahah). I tried the XLO 5.1 jumpers prior to the AN SPz and the difference is not subtle. The speakers just becomes more musical (another word I hate to use). So what do I get listening to the Manleys and Guaneris? I can hear Aida grand march (Karajan Decca), Beethoven 9 (Karajan DG 1963),
Bela Fleck (Flight of the cosmic hippo), Amused to death with some semblence of a big system. Mind you that is quite an achievement given the Guaneris size. A lot of speakers will blow the Guaneris away on the above CDs but the Guanearis will similarly blow these speakers away on others. Try any of the JMR CDs, get hold of Kreisler's early mono recordings or some of the nice audiophile approved vocals. All in all I listen to music 95% of the time and bang bang type of music 5%. the Guaneris make more musical sense though it is not cheap and alas not many people get to hear them because they are not constructed in a factory line. I cna go on but I suppose most readers will become bored. It is just one silly guy trying to justify his purchases.
Time to go but one last thing, listen to the guaneri in a bigger room, do not put it in a small space. And then u listen... and listen.
B

Similar Products Used:

SF Electa Amator

The benefits:
A very expressive sound, with the capability to move your soul with the music. Let me explain: try listening to Barry White (not the music but the technique of this whale!) With the Guarneri you understand the difficulty of singing like he does, why he is sweating and gurgling, how much air he needs to move, almost like he's in your living room. This product draws you into the music, and lets you feel the effort that the musicians put into their performance/recording. You get to understand why the music you're listening to has been made like it has been made.
Every instrument will sound like the real thing.
The dynamics and speed are incredible. If you listen to a bass it really is a bass, even if the performance of the artist is faulty.
Imaging is wide and deep, the speakers disappear completely into the music. Every instrument and singer will have the space it had when recorded. The leadsinger in the middle stand out in the middle, with instruments reaching far beyond the width and depth of my room
One of the most beautifully crafted products ever.

The disadvantages:
I know that I'm listening to a slightly colored sound, but every audiosystem I know does that.
You will never stop listening, there's always another song that you'd like to hear.
The Guarneris sound every day different but better.
They will always have problems with subsonic bass, it takes time and effort to get the best performance in this area, but if you succeed, pure heaven.
My audiophile friends stay longer than they anticipated. The ones with more expensive systems shake their heads too much.
Bad recordings don't really sound bad anymore. They won't be as good, but sound musically acceptable.

Due to the moderate price I haven't found a better speaker and will probably never do (or want to!). I'm very lucky to
be able to listen to them every day.

Deep soundstage, separates players and instruments just perfect. Very colourful, musical speaker, superb manufactured.

-

The Guarneri are truly great speakers. I spent more then 3 months, running around and listening to many speakers. In the end, my short list came down to

- B&W 801 and the
- Guarneri

Since i owe Accuphase-Electronic (Preamp: C290, Amp: P700, CD: 55V) the B&W801 seemed to be the right joyce, until i heard the Guarneri. It wasen't love on the first "sight". But the more I heard, the more i began to love this speaker (i could lend it for 4 days, to test it in my room with my own equipment).

The qualities unfold in a unspecatacular manner. It is very easy to listen to the guarneri - i think its what the people call "musical" speakers. You won't get deep bass and the Guarneries aren't free from colouration. But it dosen't matter - this speaker has its own spirit and if you are listening to smaller orchestral pieces or jazz they will grip your heart and won't let it go again. You will hear and hear and hear...
But beside that, what me impressed most, was the ability, to build a deep soundstage and to separate the players and instruments.

In the end, it wasen't me alone, who decided for the Guarneri. Since i was very fond of the B&W 801 and therefore in the beginning a little sceptic about the 2-way guarneri, my girlfriend felt immediatly in love with this speakers (not only the sound, also the look and the quality). We spent in these 4 days many hours, listening to the music and the livingroom seemed in this time to shine a little more then normaly ;)

Since 4 weeks i owe my own pair of guarneri and still breaking them in. Every time i listen to them they sound better. I don't belive in THE best speakers; its a personal matter and you have to listen for yourself. But if you love music and if you are not a "technical" listener - give the guarneri a try. For me personaly, the guarneri means the end of a long odysee and the beginning of a new journey ...

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Dynaudio

clean, clear excellent imaging

none that I can find

For those of your who are not familiar with this fine speaker, please consider disregarding Mr. Rich Snob's review for he is so envious that it is plugging up his ears so he can't hear properly. Mr. Rich falls into the category of someone who has no hope of obtaining a beautiful object “which most always cost's money" and because of that wants to destroy it and those who support such things). As a socialist, Rich most likely believes that everyone should be equal and have the same everything (which is most always low quality junk, just like Rich probably is. As for giving money to the poor, it typically takes rich people to give to the poor and they usually give a lot (but never get the credit for it) i.e. Bill Gates, Movie Stars and a multitude of hard working people in this country. I would like to know how much money Mr. Rich Snob “to afraid to give his real name” has donated to the poor in his lifetime, probably not a penny (most socialist don't, they only complain about it because they are typically control freaks and want to rain on peoples parades and to lazy to earn there own money).

Similar Products Used:

S. F. Concertos

beauty

pricey

perfect sound overall, perfect beauty. It can handle different type of musics nicely, friendly and easy to drive with tube. What else? no matter what people says, I'm so happy with Guarneri Homage.

Lovely midrange and treble, beautiful looks, good dynamics considering the size.

The laws of physics apply also to the Guarneri. NOT for headbangers.

The Guarneri Homage is one of the most musical and lovely-soundig speakers I've ever heard. Although noe free from colouration it is done in a way that just strengthen their musical expression. It is an emotional experience to listen to good acoustic or vocal-based music on the Guarneris.

Of course they are small speakers and you can forget rumbling bass and window-bursting SPL, but on what they do best, the Guarneris are among the finest speakers in the (my) world.

And of course they are a fine piece of furniture too, not exactly a drawback.

I give them 5 stars overall rating, and 4 stars for value - based on their recommended retail price. Bought used, they are a bargain.

Assosiated equipement:

Micromega Duo 3.1 transport
Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 mk.II DAC
Conrad Johnson PV10AL pre
Heart Double Beat 300B monoblock poweramps
Tara-Labs Air-1 and Silver Renaissance Audio Blue intercon.
Cardas Hexlink Golden 5c speaker cables

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber Extrema
JM-Lab Mini Utiopia
Sonus Faber Concerto