Sonus Faber launches 30th anniversary Extrema speakers

Sonus Faber Extrema

Sonus Faber Extrema

Italian manufacturer Sonus Faber is celebrating its 30th anniversary with the release of a new high-end speaker, the Extrema. The name harks back to one of the company’s classic products, but there’s nothing old-fashioned about this standmounter’s design.

The Sonus Faber Extrema looks striking and uses a layered cabinet construction that combines carbon fibre and wood. Metal is used in specific places too. The idea is to build a rigid and well-damped foundation for the drive units to work from.

Its tweeter is unusual, using a beryllium dome coated with a diamond skin. It’s the first time we’ve come across a drive-unit design that uses these materials together. The diamond helps to damp any resonances in the dome without adding too much mass.

The exotic-looking mid/bass unit is also an all-new affair with a great deal of emphasis put on its chassis and motor system.

Look around the back and you’ll find an adjustable passive radiator. This allows the speaker’s bass performance to be fine-tuned to match the partnering system and room.

Put it all together and you have a speaker that Sonus Faber claims is as detailed and transparent as possible. We hope to test that claim soon.

The company plans to make only two to three pairs a month and no more than 30 pairs in total. There’s no definite figure on price as yet, but expect the Extrema speakers with dedicated stands to come in somewhere north of 30,000 euros.

MORE: Best Buys: Hi-Fi speakers

by Ketan Bharadia

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Joe Cox
Content Director

Joe is the Content Director for What Hi-Fi? and Future’s Product Testing, having previously been the Global Editor-in-Chief of What Hi-Fi?. He has worked on What Hi-Fi? across the print magazine and website for almost 20 years, writing news, reviews and features on everything from turntables to TVs, headphones to hi-fi separates. He has covered product launch events across the world, from Apple to Technics, Sony and Samsung; reported from CES, the Bristol Show, and Munich High End for many years; and written for sites such as the BBC, Stuff, and the Guardian. In his spare time, he enjoys expanding his vinyl collection and cycling (not at the same time).