Tempe Room 2

Three systems, all anchored by Sonus faber, spanning the range from the Olympica line up to the Stradivari and the Il Cremonese. If the question is how far up the Sonus faber range it is worth going, this is the room that answers it — not with a brochure, but with three loudspeakers a few feet apart, each on amplification chosen to suit it.

The room itself

Room 2 is Tempe’s Sonus faber room in the fullest sense. Every loudspeaker in it comes from Vicenza, and the amplification has been chosen to show what each one is for rather than to make the comparison flattering to any single model. The result is a room that lets a listener hear, in one sitting, what changes as the cabinets get larger, the driver complements get more ambitious, and the price moves up — and, just as usefully, what does not change.

System 1 — Il Cremonese on McIntosh MC2301

The Il Cremonese is the loudspeaker Sonus faber built to honour the Stradivarius held in Cremona’s town hall, and it anchors this room. Driving it are McIntosh MC2301 vacuum tube monoblocks — 300 watts a side from a design using the Unity Coupled Circuit output transformer that has been McIntosh’s defining piece of engineering since 1949 — fed by a McIntosh C47 preamplifier.

Sources cover both formats properly. The McIntosh MT10 turntable is the company’s flagship analogue front end, and the DS200 streaming DAC handles digital. Cabling is Transparent Ultra throughout, network-calibrated to these specific components rather than sold as a one-size product.

System 2 — Olympica on McIntosh MA12000

The Olympica line sits between Sonus faber’s Sonetto range and the Homage tradition — the point where the lute-shaped cabinet and the hand-finished walnut start doing real acoustic work rather than only looking the part. The room currently runs the Olympica III G3 in this position.

Amplification is the McIntosh MA12000, the company’s flagship integrated: a vacuum tube preamplifier stage feeding 350 watts of solid-state output per channel, with a DA2 digital module and a phono stage built in. It is close to a complete system in one chassis. Vinyl comes from a Pro-Ject The Dark Side of the Moon turntable, streaming from a Linn Akurate DS, with Transparent Plus cabling and a McIntosh MPC500 power controller.

System 3 — Stradivari on McIntosh MC611, with Linn alongside

The Stradivari is one of the largest loudspeakers Sonus faber has built, and this system gives it the amplification and the flexibility it deserves. McIntosh MC611 monoblocks provide the muscle — 600 watts a channel, Quad Balanced, with the Autoformer delivering full rated power into two, four or eight ohms so the loudspeaker’s impedance curve stops being the amplifier’s problem.

Alongside them, a Linn Akurate 4200 power amplifier and a McIntosh MSA5500 streaming integrated let the same loudspeakers be heard on very different amplification. Sources span a McIntosh MCD550 SACD/CD player, a C53 preamplifier and a Linn Selekt DSM, with a Sonus faber Gravis V subwoofer extending the low end and Transparent Super cabling throughout.

Three loudspeakers, one lineage

What makes this room instructive is that the three systems share a design philosophy and differ mainly in scale. The wood, the lute-shaped cabinet, the attention to the way a cabinet resonates rather than pretending it does not — all of that is present in the Olympica and simply becomes more ambitious in the Stradivari and the Il Cremonese. Hearing them in sequence makes it clear which of those ambitions a given room and a given listener can actually use.

The amplification tells a parallel story. Tube monoblocks on the Il Cremonese, a hybrid integrated on the Olympica, high-power solid-state monoblocks on the Stradivari with a Linn alternative on hand — three different answers to what an amplifier should be, each matched to its loudspeaker rather than imposed on it.

The systems in this room

• Sonus faber Il Cremonese loudspeakers
• McIntosh MC2301 vacuum tube monoblocks and C47 preamplifier
• McIntosh MT10 turntable and DS200 streaming DAC
• Transparent Ultra cabling
• Sonus faber Olympica III G3 loudspeakers
• McIntosh MA12000 hybrid integrated amplifier
• Pro-Ject The Dark Side of the Moon turntable and Linn Akurate DS
• Sonus faber Stradivari loudspeakers and Gravis V subwoofer
• McIntosh MC611 monoblocks, C53 preamplifier and MCD550 SACD/CD player
• Linn Akurate 4200 power amplifier, Linn Selekt DSM and McIntosh MSA5500

Hearing it

This is the room for anyone who already knows they want a Sonus faber and needs to establish which one, and for anyone weighing tubes against solid state on a loudspeaker demanding enough to make the difference obvious. It pairs naturally with Room 4, where the Homage tradition continues with the Amati and the Serafino.

Tempe Room 2 is in the Tempe showroom. Walk in during business hours and ask to hear it, or book ahead if you would like more than one of these systems set up and the time to move between them properly.