$750k Sonus Faber Speakers: Who's buying?

[cpp]

I'm not sure what that

What does that even mean

 

[everettT]

What does that even mean

There was supposed to be a "was" at the end.. need more coffee

 

[TankTop5]

Don't forget the tax you'd pay and if lump sum, cut that in half after tax.

Oh no, not a cool billion after taxes

 

[MrBoat]

I would not even want to live in the house that could secure those.

As recorded music improves/evolves, it occurs to me just how increasingly forgiving it tends to be on even the most generic of speakers. With regard to it's effect on my own comparatively humble stereo system, moves it into the category of priceless. Even my most budget speakers I can't manage to part with for what joy they bring in their own way.

If I had that kind of coin, I'd instead spend it on a building for an audio museum, filled with a bunch of less pretentious gear that somehow manages to sound better than it has a right to, and as some sort of homage to the mostly unknown designers that managed to pull it off with so much less. As it turns out, I already have a good start on the foundation of such a notion.

 

[davidscott]

There are a couple of them in Jax.

 

[jinjuku]

Even if I won 'The big one' I still couldn't be the chump that would purchase these. It just makes you a chump with more money than other chumps.

Hell, I wouldn't even buy brand new car. I'd be driving it around thinking 30% is streaming out the window over the next 2-3 years.

I would be going on vacation. A lot. With some decent $500 headphones for 1st class seats.

 

[davidscott]

Even if I won 'The big one' I still couldn't be the chump that would purchase these. It just makes you a chump with more money than other chumps.

Hell, I wouldn't even buy brand new car. I'd be driving it around thinking 30% is streaming out the window over the next 2-3 years.

I would be going on vacation. A lot. With some decent $500 headphones for 1st class seats.

A new (inexpensive) car with a factory warranty is worth it for some people just for the peace of mind. I have a 2023 Subaru Crosstrek that I paid cash for, and it works for me. But if I won the lottery I probably wouldn't buy another car. Maybe a classic muscle car.

 

[HuenEye]

I have plenty of other ideas about what to spend 750K on and speakers ain't one of the ideas. I listened to Wilson's $750K pair @ LMC in Scottsdale and while they sounded pretty good I didn't think they were that GOOD!! Same with TOL Burmeisters that costs almost the same but at least the Burmeisters have some great engineering design.

What I have a problem with is the boring designs of the speakers when there are better ways to build speakers and their drivers. I build speakers and have done lots of experimentation with ribbons, planars and AMTs which are all better than any cone drivers I have heard including those fancy diamond tweeters.

 

[Joe B]

$750,000? I'd never spend it on a set of speakers, even if I could afford to. I'd rather build a $500,000 home with a dedicated listening room (9x15x24) and then put about $50,000 into a 2 channel system: Cyrus CDt-XR with PSU-XR feeding into a Chord Dave feeding into a pair of ATC SCM100ASLT speakers. A new home, probably the most ass kicking stereo anyone you know has ever heard, and you still have $200,000 in you pocket. Vacation???

 

[itschris]

Personally, i love seeing this sort of thing. I love someone or a group building something without limitation. Frankly I I just absolutely love this kind of passion. My neighbor has a fairly substantial listening room... I added it up in my head to be around 200K or thereabouts. People are blown away by my setup, but I consider my system real BBQ compared to Sonny's. So I fully expect people to enjoy my system (geared more to HT than 2 channel) when compared to what they're used... just like when I make BBQ and people exclaim "my God... this is so much better than Sonny's!" So I look my neighbors system much the same way... but more like Myron Mixon BBQ as opposed to Chris Stanek BBQ. Clearly at some point you're chasing incremental gains and those gains increase exponentially in cost. However, like Formula 1, it's not the 100th of a second you gain here or there... it's the multiple of those 100ths that become a 10th or so per lap which becomes the difference between winning a losing a race.

There is zero comparison between my system and my neighbors. His is leaps better in every aspect... sound stage, clarity, definition... any category. For anyone saying they'd question the design or result of the speakers is somewhat foolish and simply couldn't get past the cost to just say "okay... these are amazing" and leave it at that.

One thing I do consider... is what else goes with all this. What amps and would those amps need their own separate drops to the house and specific breaker box and what sort of wire are you running and to what kind of outlets? I think at this level you can afford to remedy any weak link. And what I mean by that is I have another friend who spend $200 on a admittedly very beautiful ethernet cable telling me he wanted the best signal going to his HiFi Rose streamer. While I get that, I asked what about the standard ethernet cable that's running through the attic that the cable company put it in? Don't you think by your definition and concern you should replace all of it? It becomes a lesson in minutia.

Anyway... i love these.

 

[TLS Guy]

Personally, i love seeing this sort of thing. I love someone or a group building something without limitation. Frankly I I just absolutely love this kind of passion. My neighbor has a fairly substantial listening room... I added it up in my head to be around 200K or thereabouts. People are blown away by my setup, but I consider my system real BBQ compared to Sonny's. So I fully expect people to enjoy my system (geared more to HT than 2 channel) when compared to what they're used... just like when I make BBQ and people exclaim "my God... this is so much better than Sonny's!" So I look my neighbors system much the same way... but more like Myron Mixon BBQ as opposed to Chris Stanek BBQ. Clearly at some point you're chasing incremental gains and those gains increase exponentially in cost. However, like Formula 1, it's not the 100th of a second you gain here or there... it's the multiple of those 100ths that become a 10th or so per lap which becomes the difference between winning a losing a race.

There is zero comparison between my system and my neighbors. His is leaps better in every aspect... sound stage, clarity, definition... any category. For anyone saying they'd question the design or result of the speakers is somewhat foolish and simply couldn't get past the cost to just say "okay... these are amazing" and leave it at that.

One thing I do consider... is what else goes with all this. What amps and would those amps need their own separate drops to the house and specific breaker box and what sort of wire are you running and to what kind of outlets? I think at this level you can afford to remedy any weak link. And what I mean by that is I have another friend who spend $200 on a admittedly very beautiful ethernet cable telling me he wanted the best signal going to his HiFi Rose streamer. While I get that, I asked what about the standard ethernet cable that's running through the attic that the cable company put it in? Don't you think by your definition and concern you should replace all of it? It becomes a lesson in minutia.

Anyway... i love these.

I did build speakers without limitation and it did not cost me three quarters of a million Bucks! I would put my speakers against those Sonus Fabers any day and expect to best them.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Making those Focal Grande Utopia EM Evo look like a bargain right now.

The Grande Utopia look 100% better to me than these.

 

[itschris]

I did build speakers without limitation and it did not cost me three quarters of a million Bucks! I would put my speakers against those Sonus Fabers any day and expect to best them.

If that's case, then you should probably make them and sell them for half the cost and be a millionaire in no time.

I mean seriously... you can put a big block in a Yugo and it could go really fast and beat a Ferrari. However, there's more to $400K car than just the speed. You're paying for design and beauty. Sonus Faber makes some of the finest speakers and certainly some of the most beautiful ones. I guess I can appreciate it for what it is and who's it's intended for.

 

[Tankini]

Since we talking about really high-end speakers, these would be my choice. Not that those Sonus speakers wouldn't sound better. Whole Different kind of audio world of speakers, multi millionaires club I guess.

 

[Eppie]

Since we talking about really high-end speakers, these would be my choice. Not that those Sonus speakers wouldn't sound better. Whole Different kind of audio world of speakers, multi millionaires club I guess.


View attachment 67991

Time to revive this thread.
https://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/unusual-speakers-for-the-rich-and-famous.121909/

I wish we could edit older posts. Some of the image links are broken and there's no way to fix it.

 

[Tankini]

Time to revive this thread.
https://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/unusual-speakers-for-the-rich-and-famous.121909/

I wish we could edit older posts. Some of the image links are broken and there's no way to fix it.

That's a great thread you started!! .

 

[TLS Guy]

If that's case, then you should probably make them and sell them for half the cost and be a millionaire in no time.

I mean seriously... you can put a big block in a Yugo and it could go really fast and beat a Ferrari. However, there's more to $400K car than just the speed. You're paying for design and beauty. Sonus Faber makes some of the finest speakers and certainly some of the most beautiful ones. I guess I can appreciate it for what it is and who's it's intended for.

That is a point but I think my rig actually looks very good. However, I agree producing it would be very costly. The mains are really heavy at 350 lb a piece.

Development and build costs in 2005 were $13,500 near enough. With inflation that would be $22,000.00 now. That does not include the cost of the active crossovers, which I had and modified nor the amps. If you estimate crossover and amp costs, then you would have to add another $8000.00 roughly or so if you DIYed the job now I think you would be in for about $40.0000 at least. But that is a long way from three quarters of a million.

The speakers are also transmission line and a fully integrated full range design. They are also voiceable by infinitely adjustable BSC (Baffle Step Compensation) so that the transition frequency can be optimized to the speaker position in the room and boundaries.

I also had as my starting inspiration the legendary monitors from the BBC studios Maida Vale. These speakers were widely recognized at the time as the most accurate monitor speakers in the world. My speakers are an extended development and lean heavily on the work of George Augspurger, published in 2000. This allowed for the design of the TL lines to be optimized.

Not as pretty as the Sonus Faber, but they follow form and function.

 

[itschris]

I have zero doubt what you made is not utter fantastic. They are certainly handsome in their own respect. All I'm saying is that I absolutely appreciate the Sonus Faber Suprema for what they are... a company's uncompromised attempt at nirvana. The cost... well I'll let those with a lot more money than me make those value decisions. From what I've read... like the Magico M9s... they leave people speechless.

 

[TLS Guy]

I have zero doubt what you made is not utter fantastic. They are certainly handsome in their own respect. All I'm saying is that I absolutely appreciate the Sonus Faber Suprema for what they are... a company's uncompromised attempt at nirvana. The cost... well I'll let those with a lot more money than me make those value decisions. From what I've read... like the Magico M9s... they leave people speechless.

I bet it leaves their banker speechless as well!

You really can't justify that price for any passive speaker. They have reached the limit if their development, and the price of that speaker is nearly all profit. There is a line between nirvana and a con. Those speakers are well to the con side of the line by miles and leagues.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Since we talking about really high-end speakers, these would be my choice. Not that those Sonus speakers wouldn't sound better. Whole Different kind of audio world of speakers, multi millionaires club I guess.


View attachment 67991

What the heck is that?