Sonus Faber Aida cost a cool £79,000 a pair

By Andy Clough
published

Handcrafted Italian speakers are named after Verdi's opera and employ seven drive units

Sonus Faber Aida

Hankering after a high-tech pair of Italian floorstanding speakers? Specialist distributor Absolute Sounds has the answer in the form of the new Sonus Faber Aida – all yours for £79,000 a pair.

Named after Verdi's opera, the speakers are hand crafted in Vicenza, Italy. Each speaker is just under 6ft tall, and its shape mirrors that of a lyre, we're told.

The wooden 'cheeks' wrap around the cabinet and are available in violin red, walnut or a limited edition white finish, all coated with muliple layers of lacquer and hand polished.

Sonus Faber's Zero Vibration Transmission (ZVT) system decouples the speaker from the floor, so minimising unwanted resonances.

There are seven drive units: a 29mm tweeter, 18cm midrange driver and a pair of 22cm bass drivers fire forwards from the front. An additional 32cm bass driver is mounted in the base of the cabinet and vents between tha angled bottom panel and the aluminium base plate.

Furthermore, a 29mm tweeter and 12cm midrange driver fire backwards from the rear of the cabinet. The rear-firing drivers are adjustable to suit the listening space.

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Andy Clough
Andy Clough

Andy is Global Brand Director of What Hi-Fi? and has been a technology journalist for 30 years. During that time he has covered everything from VHS and Betamax, MiniDisc and DCC to CDi, Laserdisc and 3D TV, and any number of other formats that have come and gone. He loves nothing better than a good old format war. Andy edited several hi-fi and home cinema magazines before relaunching whathifi.com in 2008 and helping turn it into the global success it is today. When not listening to music or watching TV, he spends far too much of his time reading about cars he can't afford to buy.