WHAT HAPPENED TO SONUS FABER?

Well I really liked the old SF models I heard; Cremona M and an older Ellipsa but I have to say, I really love the look and sound of the two newer models I’ve heard; Olympica iii and the amazing Amati. I think SF are in good hands. For those bitching about the Venere line, why judge a company by its entry level offerings? They don’t represent the company’s full abilities at all, and really, how could they? I think the best real world speaker they make may just be the new Serafino. Haven’t listened to these but they are gorgeous and if they sound somewhere between Olympica iii and Amati, they should be a winner!

On their website if I counted correctly they have nine categories of speakers. The Reference, The Homage, The Olympica, The Sonetto, The Venera, The Chamleon, The Principia, and not  to leave them out, drum roll here,  The Special Edition. I did;t count the total number of speakers, sure it must be up there. 

If you were designing speakers in a line that large would you start at the bottom and make an inexpensive little speaker and then continue to make them better and better till you arrived at the Reference or would you start at the top making it with passion, utilizing all the resources at your disposal and the work your way down, making each one a little cheaper and sounding a little worse? Sort of the road to hell. 

Look this is a really big companie and many of those speakers are designed by bean counters and not be retired violin makers. 

Good Day, for those who care....

When Serblin was with SF they were a family owned company. They were sourcing parts from Denmark, Switzerland and Germany. They were using highly skilled Italian craftsmen to design & produce their products. 

At a certain point they  partnered with an Italian VC Quadrivio Capital SGR. Back in those days one of Quadrivio's biggest holdings was a frozen food line. This coincided with when SF parted ways with Serblin. He went on to produce speakers under his own company. 

Quadrivio used SF to back door their way to gain control of Fine Sounds. Through Fine Sounds Quadtivio bought controlling interests in several companies through a consolidated debt structure with in the luxury high end audio market. 

This new structure included consolidating costs on every level as well as key leadership positions.  Some of those companies were/are Sumiko, Audio Research, Rel, McIntosh, Wadia and of course Sonus Faber. 

Quadrivio sold Fine Sounds Group to LBO Yarpa. LBO then backed McIntosh in a management by out of Fine Sounds which  is now called McIntosh Group. Fine Sound still remains on the board.

All one needs to do is to look at these brands before and after all this happened. Everything became homogenized. Rel got out and is its own company again. But Wadia is gone. Will Sonus Faber suffer the same fate only time will tell. 
 

Audrey Farber? Or....

Susan Underhill, or Betty Jo Bialowski?

@ggc Thank you very much for filling in perfect detail the complex backstory that I was briefly alluding to in previous posts.

BTW, does anyone own a Ktêma or an Accordo?