There are quite a number of manufacturers that produce gorgeous speaker cabinets. That said, I personally believe that there are at least two manufacturers, France’s Triangle Hi-Fi and Italy’s Sonus faber, that stand out from the crowd.
Triangle’s cabinets are typically made from luxurious woods that are assembled according to grain structure and then varnished a seemingly unfathomable number of times. While the fronts of these cabinets stunningly show off the woods’ beauty, they gradually get darker toward the rear until they ultimately present as a high-gloss black. Talk about beauty and refinement.
Sonus faber’s gorgeous speaker cabinets benefit from its historically close relationship with Italy’s De Santi woodworking factory. In fact, in 2021, Sonus purchased De Santi, thus assuring the former of a steady supply of expertly crafted cabinets for its business. Whether when pawing Sonus’ Omnia wireless speaker ($1,999) for my review in Sound & Vision, or its flagship Suprema speaker with external subwoofer and crossover ($750,000/pair) for my TechRadar feature, I found the cabinetry work on both products to be exquisite.
The Omnia, pictured above in my home, features a stunning Finnish birch top panel. Inside is a four-way, closed box speaker system that contains seven drivers – two silk dome tweeters, two paper pulp cone midrange drivers, one outward firing inverted cellulose pulp membrane driver on each of the speaker’s sides, and a downward firing aluminum cone woofer that’s mounted to the Omnia’s base. Power is delivered by several built-in Class-D amplifiers that are rated to put out a total of 490 watts.
The upshot of my Omnia review is that it created both a huge sonic soundscape that extended well beyond the edges of its cabinet, and delivered solidly-placed images. It also never lacked for detail or bass extension. Just be sure to give this speaker plenty of room to breathe by placing it at least several feet from any wall or other physical boundary. If you don’t, you will never know what it can really do.
The Omnia measures 33.6 by 16.5 by 11.3 inches. Its top has a touch-sensitive illuminated control panel and it comes with a remote.
In addition to wireless operation and compatibility with popular streaming services, the underside of the Sonus faber Omnia offers HDMI and analog connectivity and can accept a moving magnet phono cartridge.
