Sonus Faber – The Amati Homage Tradition
In Exotic Red Lacquered Wood (New boxed pair)
Retails for $29,900
Yours Now $19,900 - With an estimated 40 pairs produced per year!
"... the Amati Tradition is competitive on sonic grounds with anything out there in the $30,000 class, and in my view, it's a grand slam home run, and it may be the last speaker you'll buy."
During an audition, the Amati Tradition speakers attracted a lot of compliments, and not just for their imposing looks. A large group listened in awe to the fourth movement of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, which I played at a relatively low volume (for me). They loved it, and for a speaker playing at such a low volume, where the presence usually drops off, this is a major achievement. Of course, I played them at high volumes too, just not with a large crowd in the house. In fact, the nature of the sound simply did not change as the volume level was adjusted – just its amplitude.
Technical Aspects
The cone material used in the bass and midrange drivers are a mixture of organic materials refined over years.
The midrange driver cone is made of a delicate and painstaking handmade mixture of natural fibers, a much more expensive process compared to the conventional pressed paper cone.
The advantage this offers is that the density of the cone can be varied across its surface area (instead of the conventional manufacturing process of reduced performance from a constant density cone), greatly reducing resonant peaks at select frequencies that improve the sound, without impacting cone rigidity.
The bass drivers use a sandwich construction but the two surfaces are made from the same hand manipulated paper to provide a consistent sonic midrange signature. The central layer polypropylene cone creates the required stiffness for the heavy lifting these drivers will perform.
The midrange and the upper of the two bass drivers each with a dedicated rear chamber while the lower of the two bass cones, which operates down to the lowest frequencies, with the core of the cabinet for its rear chamber.Designing a bass system is a matter of making the best compromises between control and depth, and many elements are involved including the internal cabinet structure, porting, rigidity, as well as driver design and location. The result is a speaker with greater bass control and one that is easier to drive.
The silk dome tweeter tackles the universal problem of turbulence at the apex using a proprietary one-of-a-kind damping material, which is the best Sonus Faber has ever developed within the industry!
They always aim for long lasting listenability instead of getting a lesser performance; the last ounce of transient response which may etch the sound and introduce listening fatigue.
Within the Homage Tradition line, the Amati Tradition has the highest implementation of ZVT vibration control. ZVT is a form of mechanical isolation comprising alternating and overlapping layers of metal and elastomer inside each footer.
This is claimed to dramatically reduce the transmission of vibrations, particularly in the 30-80Hz range, into whatever surface the speaker sits on. The problem with this, of course, is that any vibrations not absorbed by ZVT end up being trapped inside the cabinet.
This is where TMD comes into play, converting this trapped vibrational energy into heat by oscillating in opposition to these residual vibrations.
