Product of the Year Award by EISA

What Hi-Fi? Award

The Sonus Faber Omnia is the Only Sound System You’ll Need

If having a dedicated, high-fidelity system is important in your lifestyle, great equipment that sacrifices very little of the musical experience does not have to be outrageously expensive. This is the pocket the Lumina V loudspeaker fits neatly into. The love of music is, and will continue to be, about the experience, not about the gear.

Electa Amator III is refreshingly original, yet familiar enough to be recognized at the initial eye glance as a part of past and present Sonus faber family. This is never easy to achieve, but Electa Amator III aura is unmistakably Italian in all of the right ways.

My second review of these speakers, I can only describe my ownership for the past three years as sheer bliss. Yes, I have looked at upgrading (That constant thing we audiophiles are addicted to), but I am yet to find anything better than these speakers that are not costing 5 times as much. My setup consists of Marantz PM17 used a pre-amp, Mark Levinson 334, and Marantz CD17 KI, monstercabling allround. To compliment the speakers I use a REL Storm III sub, the only sub I have heard that actually copes with the pace of these speakers. This setup, in my opinion, blows away equipment I have recently heard, consisting of Wilson Benesch ACT1 (Old ones before tactic drivers) with a Plinius 2100/SA50 (My previous amp). ACT ones are significantly more expensive than my SF/REL combo, but sounds rather artificial considering the price tag, compared to my setup. This means that I wont be upgrading soon, since upgrading might prove to be a sideways move if it is not very very significant in terms of prize. The first speaker I heard that really put the foot down on my setup were a set of B&W Nautilus 802's. All of the above just testimony of what I think to be one of the best hifi classics out there.

I took a long time to settle on these - no other speaker has the delicate touch through the midrange that these have - others have a glassy edge to the sound when playing gentle piano, but the Concerto's make Glenn Gould's piano recordings sound exquisite. Playing Mischa Maiski's last recording of Bach's cello suites - the notes sound harmonically rich and clear, you can just about see the strings and body of the instrument vibrate. Tangerine Dream's album Tangram - turn it up loud to fill a room with their interesting soundscapes, every sound well balanced.