Review of Sonos Amp/Sonos Sub with Sonus Faber Guarneri Mementos
 

The Sonus Faber Guarneri Mementos (GM) is a legacy speaker now, the name inspired by the violin maker Giuseppe Guarneri due to techniques of the great violin maker and exude craftmanship. These are one of the most beautiful bookshelf speakers in my opinion and the most versatile. The speakers come in a beautiful wooden crate and the grill are silk like strings which also run vertically in the speaker stands solidly anchored by the weight of slabs of Italian stone at the bottom. The GM is a 2 way speaker, lute shape design, constrained-mode damping, enclosure formed using 21 pieces of hand selected solid maple wood.
Frequency response: 39 hz - 30.000 hz, tuning port included.
- Sensitivity: 88 db spl (2,83 v/1 m).
- Nominal impedance: 4 ohm.
- Power handling: 30w - 200w, without clipping.
- Finish: red violin piano gloss.
- Dimensions (with stand): 1230 x 300 x 480 mm (hxwxd).
- Weight (*with stand): 87,4* kg per pair - net weight / 113,5 kg per pair shipping weight. Here is a link to the old brochure: https://www.technologyfactory.eu/dat...Collection.pdf


While these speakers have very decent bass for the size I previously had the GM in my Mcintosh home theater system paired two JL Audio F112 subwoofers and let me tell you they sounded great ! I compared them to my Sonos Faber Elipsa’s I had and the Stradivaris. My Elipsa’s are gone now. I am using the GM as a stereo speaker now with a Sonos amp with their powered sub. . The crossover over frequency sounds best around 78-80 hz allowing the amp/speakers to play midrange/highs without any strain. The Sonos amp is class d rated at 125 w into 8 ohms and around 200 w into 4 ohms at less then .1 % HD. For around $1200 for the Sonos amp and sub this sounds way better than it should for that amount of money. The Sonos amp is only able to do redbook quality , no HD or MQA . It does work as a roon endpoint which is nice as well as have a Sonos app which allows you to play multiple zones individually or all simultaneously. While I would not say the Sonos amp/sub is “high end audio” it is quite listenable and a audio bargain. This is not going to be as precise sounding as a higher end amp/sub combination but it is very musical . My two favorite genre are blues and rock. Listening to Keb mo -Soon as I get Paid the bass is rich and powerful without being boomy. Rock music sounds good at medium volumes as well. So the bottom line is this will not be the last amp./sub combo I play with the GM as I have plans to use the Sonos amp/sub with some outdoor speakers in the future. Playing speakers that originally listed for 16 k with $1200 electronics has proven the speakers are the most important part of the system :music:

Is this a joke? AA is a high end Audio Forum, please.

:D

It may also show that class D amps are getting better all the time.

It’s not a joke. David can afford what he needs and is transitioning homes from the north east to the south East. He has previously stated this is a transition setup and is just reporting that it is working well for him.

Not a joke.

Sonos can put serious talent and economies of scale behind their products. If you are pursuing the top 1% of performance, Sonos is not your choice, but hard to argue the value proposition.

This was an entertaining read and must have been a fun exercise to do with high-end speakers + mass market electronics, thanks OP! Reminds me of when I first picked up my Olympicas and ran them through my old Emotiva stack, haha...

I've had the same kind of fun driving my Elipsas with the 180$ TubeCube 7 (EL84 2x3.5W) :D

I should mention I also have the new Sonos Amp driving a pair of B&W 685's in a separate room. Working great and functions like all Sonos equipment as a Roon endpoint.

Nice post David!

In between amps a couple of years ago, our Vivids were driven quite efficiently by our Yamaha R-N803 D amp, which cost us 500€ (second hand, retail 900€).
It has a streamer, DAC and headphone amp on board, and was defending itself really well.

Not the sound we currently have of course, but very decent.