Sonus Faber Elipsa Red — a story of passion and fine craftsmanship

We have recently been fortunate enough to acquire a pair of these exquisite loudspeakers, which at the time of writing are available for audition in one of our demo rooms. More specifically, pair number 674, as indicated by the elegantly placed brass plaque embedded in the genuine leather on the rear of each speaker.

Exclusively hand-crafted, from assembly to finishing, at Sonus Faber's headquarters in Vicenza, Italy — build quality and aesthetics leave nothing to be desired. This, however, is by no means a form-over-function scenario.

The speaker gets its name from the elliptical shape of the cabinet, curved specifically to retain the uniform frequency response which in other speaker designs is achieved by a narrow front panel in a much more conventional rectangular box. The curved wooden outer edges are made from multiple pieces of maple blocks, each one carefully selected based on density and grain orientation, as these factors influence the resonant properties of the speaker as a whole. The leather trim in which the speaker components are seated also serves as a means to avoid diffraction at medium to high frequencies.

As far as performance is concerned, I found them to be more than pleasing in multiple configurations — very smooth and easy on the ear with zero fatigue. The combination of a 10" woofer, 6" midrange driver and 1" tweeter allows for a very respectable 35 – 30 000 Hz frequency range. A reasonable sensitivity rating of 91 dB enables the use of any amplifier in the 50 – 300 W range, but you'd preferably want to be closer to the top end of that spectrum.

As mentioned, the pair we have is currently on demo just up the stairs from my office and ready to audition. Number 674 would date them around the 2010 mark, and whilst we do not have the original packaging, they are in fantastic condition in all respects.

One for the connoisseur — a rare and beautiful loudspeaker.