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Stooch
Contributor I
May 8, 2020
Question

Sonos AMP + Sonus Faber Sonetto 1 = Too Bright

  • May 8, 2020
  • 11 replies
  • 1507 views

So I setup my Sonus Faber Sonetto 1 with my newly acquired AMP. 

It sounds clear, but I have to agree with the many posts in this forum that complain about brightness and listening fatigue. The Loudness button seems to be at odds with the ‘HI-FI’ pretenses of the amp, is it really a good idea to be turning on loudness by default?? 

But even more glaring are the boosted highs! As soon as I googled “sonos amp bright” i found a number of threads and articles that mention this. Although there is some debate about this, it seems that the amp being bright is a common observation, including for me.

After a bit of tweaking, I found that most reasonable response is achieved with loudness off and treble down to -2/-3 - in line with many other commenters. But I am now concerned about how my tweaks have affected the response curve! Because Sonos doesn't actually show me this vital information. What is the rolloff on the treble adjustment curve???

Sonos is about to release their S2 updates, are there any plans to enhance the EQ section? I need to be able to control things more precisely. I need to roll off specific frequency ranges and see how my tweaks affect the response curve! not just a treble/bass slider! I need to know how many DBs im reducing with each step. I need to be able to tune my speakers to compensate for room! Since the smartphone adjustment is only limited to the iphone and sonos branded speakers...

Anyway, i’m seriously considering returning the Sonos AMP and going with Bluesound, I hear it has an inferior app - but much more neutral sound with its A/B amplification. I would gladly sacrifice app design for a more neutral response! Or at least a way to tune things with greater precision.

 

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      StoochAuthor
      Contributor I
      July 30, 2020

      Update.  

      It was the cheap Amazon basics cables. Replaced them with bluejeans belden 12awg and wow.... I am a believer in quality cables now. These are 4ohm speakers and I read that the copper coated aluminum is a bad choice for the application. I thought it was BS honestly, since I'm a know-it-all and wire is just wire, right?Just blame the "cheap" class D amp. 

       

      But at 80bucks it's not that much of a stretch. So I got a set of 6ft with the locking bananas just to see what all the hype is about. 

       

      The difference was obvious immediately ... with the Amazon basics, at 50% volume I could not stand the sibilance and high frequencies of very specific tracks. The only thing that tamed them was setting the treble to -2. I have a dedicated seat for listening, so you know I take this shit somewhat seriously. I didn't alter anything other than replacing cables and setting my eq to 0. Now all the tracks that gave me a problem before are totally tolerable. Even my GF heard the difference (from the kitchen lol - I kid) 

       

      So before blaming your Sonos amp for being too bright, make sure you use decent cables. I was a skeptic before. Now I'm a believer. 

       

      I still refuse to spend more than 100$ on wires though. As far as I'm concerned. I think that the Sonos amp is a fantastic piece of kit and it is more than adequate to drive my intermediate budget speakers with my intermediate quality ears ( and a high end girlfriend ).

       

      BTW. Sonus Faber is awesome. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

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