Our Favourite Classic Speakers #3 - Sonus Faber Electa

This series documents particular loudspeakers gems from our last 30 years in the Hifi industry. Not in any particular order, just as they come to mind.

If you have never listened to, or owned a pair of Sonus Faber speakers, then you have certainly missed out. It would be easy to dismiss them as purely an exercise in style over function, but the range sounds even better than it looks.

Sonus Faber Electa - circa 1990

Sonus Faber's trade mark sculpted real wood cabinets with their leather covered front baffle are quite beautiful pieces of furniture. The Electas, which are our featured model, are almost surprisingly conservative for SF and for a stand mount speaker they are actually a bit of an odd size, almost dumpy and oversized looking.

So why choose the Electas out of such a revered range? Well the main issue with SF as a brand is that they are built to such extreme tolerances that they only really give their all with really high end equipment. They are not difficult to drive as such, but do need an impeccable source. Properly matched, Sonus Faber produce some of the best speakers in the world ..... With the Electas though, whether though chance or a quirk of design, they don't seem to be quite so demanding. I've heard Electas sound amazing with Arcam, Audiolab and bottom range Meridian equipment ... but then if you put them with something really High End they just stepp up a gear. I remember building a system at a customers house in quite a compromised listening room ... Linn Sondek/Ekos/Koetsu Rsig with a SP15 Audio Research and Krell KSA80 into Electas and for many years after I always remembered it as the best system I had ever heard ... and in this business you get to play with some really exotic kit, so that is quite a statement. It was the first time I had heard Hifi create such a live sound from even quite dubious recordings. Some systems do Hifi well, so do music well ... there is a difference.  SF are one of a select few that do both.