Loudspeakers

What can be said about Sonus faber that isn't already oft-repeated? The brand appeared out of nowhere in 1983, at a time when Italian hi-fi was limited to a couple of obscure amp makers. It was like the coming of Elvis, or The Beatles, or the Citroen DS, or Sassicaia: a revolution was afoot. Here were speakers that didn't cause the domestic decision makers (forgive this pre-#MeToo caveman-ism) to scream, 'You're not bringing those into my house!'. It was a period of walnut, teak or black boxes, so unrelentingly ugly that even verbose audio scribes could not disguise the fact that these intrusive objects mitigated against 'hi-fi in the home' more than anything other than cost. But Franco Serblin single-handedly devised cabinets with curved edges, made of fine woods rather than veneered chipboard, and pulled one other trick out of his hat: they sounded as good as they looked. The rest is history, and now we have speakers that don't make us want to go all Oedipus on our eyes.