Sonus Faber Chameleon B

Extraordinary build quality, beautiful clarity and presence – A fantastic pair of bookshelf speakers, with a lovely contemporary design and are amazingly built. The most solid yet refined small speaker I have ever seen. I looked at other competitors in this price range and specifications, and the sound quality was all very similar however I went with the Sonus Fabers on the back of their build quality, the… Read more

hand assembly in Italy and its modern contemporary design. They weigh over 6kg each, with brushed aluminum and leather finishes.

This is the sort of build quality you'd typically expect in a $15-20,000+ tower speaker. Of course, you're not going to get that all encompassing 'tower' sound, but the clarity, presence and neutrality of these speakers is fantastic. They are very honest to the music, and being a part-time producer I was after a fairly consistent and flat response - which is what these speakers give. I went with these over a powered monitor set up as I had a decent receiver which can drive these. Some speakers will add too much colour in the mid (even powered monitors - which really shouldn't, but they do), but these don't. Very accurate, and if you track down the frequency response test off the internet, you'll see they are incredibly balanced right through the frequency range.

The high-end is clean, and the mid is beautifully balanced. The upper bass is tight and accurate, as opposed to many speakers of this size which can be boomy and 'sloppy'. However, what stopped me from giving them 5 stars is that I am a little disappointed in the low-end (<200Hz). Yes it is a bookshelf speaker so I know that the big bass sound from bigger speakers could never eventuate, however it is very restrained at low to moderate volume. It might have to do with the downward port and the surrounding legs, because if I do raise the front with my hands by about an inch, the bass response improves. And perhaps placement on the correct Sonus Faber stands may improve it also, but I need the speakers on my shelf. So a cheap investment in some rubber feet to prop up the front of the speakers might do the trick save me needing to add a subwoofer. A small disappointment from an otherwise beautiful pair of speakers.

POSTSCRIPT - "Add half a star"...... I've come back here a week later.....after giving the speakers 25-30 hours of 'wear in', plus raising the front of each speaker by about half an inch (1.25cm) with some felt feet, the bass response has improved considerably, to the point that I'm no longer considering a 'sub'. Maybe a design consideration for SF to consider down the track - to give the downward port just a little bit more 'room to breathe'.