SOUNDBOXES IV: Making Vintage Now: The Sonus Faber Musica Integrated Amplifier

SOUNDBOXES IV

Making Vintage Now: The Sonus Faber Musica Integrated Amplifier (paired with Emmespeakers Da Vinci)

 

This is a rare case of Italian products from two different manufacturers getting along perfectly like cello and piano. I hadn’t known of any prominent reviews of the Sonus Faber Musica until I read this one: http://hometheaterreview.com/sonus-fabber-musical-loudspeaker-reviewed/?page=2. What intrigued me about this 2009 review was this pronouncement ‘Musica is all about subtlety and finesse, with sheer power almost an afterthought.’ I will review the Emmespeakers Da Vinci model in the next blog post – along with the venerable SANSUI AU-555a – but for now, the Musica deserves its own spot.

The Musica strikes the user immediately as eye candy with its luxurious piano black glossy faceplate and gold plated knobs set upon an equally gold plated panel strip. Think of a concert hall ambience from a European music capital and you’ll take in the full measure of its beauty. It speaks of subtlety and minimalism in a very stylish sort of way. The On-Off knob is on the far left. The one in the middle is the channel selector marked only from one to six. The one on the far right controls the volume. The volume gradations are only notches – more like dotted engravings – on the faceplate. Each knob looks the same as the other. Moreover there is no remote control!  There is a great deal of reliance on intuitive operation – just like a classic car in fully manual steering and gears. This is an integrated amplifier that thoroughly engages you before you derive the pleasure of its company. Sonus Faber calls it a ‘line amplifier’ as well as an integrated amplifier. From what I have gathered on the Internet, a ‘line amplifier’ is designed for sending out consistent volumes of power over long distances so as to ensure coherence and quality in the sound emitted from the loudspeakers.

The specifications for the Musica are sourced from the reference site STEREONOMONO which specializes in amplifiers that have attained the status of a classic in the history of Hi Fi: http://stereonomono.blogspot.sg/2010/03/sonus-faber-musica.html#uds-search-results:

Power Output: 100 watts x 2, 4 ohms / 50 watts x 2, 8 ohms

Amplifier Features: Left / Right Channel symmetrical PCB design

Surface Mounted Device (SMD) technology for shortest signal

path 28 dB total gain

Dual JFET differential input with double bootstrapping

Error corrected MOSFET output stage

Low impedance dynamic drive capability

DC short circuit and thermal protection circuit

Six line inputs

Buffered record output

Custom made plastic conductive volume control

No tone controls for signal purity

Mechanical input selector with switched ground line

WBT gold-plated speaker terminals

 

It is admittedly difficult and extremely subjective to label any integrated amplifier a classic even if it is not even 30 years old, but the Musica may just lay claim for its combination of great looks and great sound. Premiered in 2000/2001, as a ‘sequel’ to the Company’s first integrated amplifier, the ‘Quad’, the Musica impresses at the first encounter with precision, quiet in the sonic background, and a very open sound.

I happened to be in the mood for jazz vocals when I decided to put up this review – hence my test selection included Rosemary Clooney, James Moody (saxophonist who sings on the occasional track), Rita Reys and Shirley Horn. I picked jazz because I wanted to test the Musica beyond its natural Italian ‘cultural home’: opera and the classical. When I first acquired the amplifier, the first songs played through it were Jose Carreras and Andrea Bocelli – and of course, they sounded expansive, airy and full of presence. The higher registers of their tenor voices carried a natural decay reminiscent of a live recording venue. Incidentally, if you are a dedicated fan of classical vocal crossovers, check out the Celtic Tenors’ version of ‘A LOVE SO BEAUTIFUL’ and choral group Libera’s ‘LOCUS ISTE (SANCTUS)’ on the Musica and you’ll find your goosebump moments lasting way longer than expected. The Musica brought out the timbre of operatic voices with all their warmth and intimacy of emotion, plus a lot extra in the soaring upper registers and harmonies…the phrase ‘voices of angels’ describes how good this classy amplifier is – and what’s more, this kit was designed in Italy – the cultural home of many western operatic greats. 

 

Now how did the Musica interpret jazz vocals? With Rosemary Clooney, the aged sentimentality of her ballad tone carried an emotional quiver that could only be communicated sonically. Indeed, when Rosemary sang ‘the morning found me miles away, with still a million things to say…’ in her rendition of ‘Brazil’ she captured the impact of the Musica. Vocals achieve an astounding level of intimacy that conveys the art in singing printed lyrics. The human voice transforms mere words into very different scales of emotion. This is conveyed with tremendous subtlety by the Musica. Rita Reys, Holland’s ‘answer’ to Ella Fitzgerald and perhaps Rosemary Clooney as well, exhibited so much colour and playfulness in her interpretations of Burt Bacharach’s 1960s signature songs that I had not detected before. It helped that Rita Reys ‘Sings Burt Bacharach’ was a Japanese LP to CD remaster! Anyway, Rita teased out the ‘killing me softly’ tones of romantic irony in Hal David’s lyrics in ‘Paper Mache’ and ‘Windows of the World’. Bacharach-David songs are timeless, either dressed in pop or jazz simply because they can be tuned to tonal variations by the singer’s interpretation. Rita Rey’s rendition of ‘One Less Bell to Answer’ and ‘[They Long to be] Close to You’ brought out a wistful melancholic dimension to these songs I had never heard before in their original ‘hit versions’. James Moody’s ‘Young at Heart’ is less an attempt to copy Sinatra than an attempt to improvise a playful touch of soul upon an anthem to eternal youthfulness. Moody’s trumpet also came across as a ‘defining’ instrumental echo of Sinatra’s melodic lament on ‘Wee Small Hours’ and ‘Nancy’. There were significant dollops of emotion to Shirley Horn’s live concert recordings on ‘I Love you Paris’ on most tracks but the diffused positioning of the microphones and the concert hall acoustics probably spoiled the ambience of the tracks somewhat.

What about instrumentals of the easy listening genre? The Musica brought out the goosebumps only on very exacting recording techniques. The digitally recorded output of Paul Mauriat from around 1987-8 onwards sounded studio like, but not those recorded earlier, not even the Japanese remasters of Mauriat’s 60s output. Manuel and the Music of the Mountains fared much better overall –probably because Geoff Love produced his albums with a deliberate design for placing the microphones to register the sound of violas, basses, violins and guitars at very loud levels and ensured the studio mixing kept it that way. The Dutton Vocalion remaster of 1978’s MUSIC OF MANUEL brought out some tender chills from the original analogue sound:

The Music of Manuel
The original LP TWOX 1069 (1978) STEREO

Princess Leia’s Theme (Williams) from Star Wars
Il Cielo in Una Stanza (Toang; Mogol)
When I Need You (Hammond; Bayer Sager)
My Thanks to You (Gay; Newell)
The Ways of Love (Love)
Noche de Ronda (Lara; Wood; Raleigh; Wayne)
Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov arr Love)
Mi Sono Innamorato di Te (Tenco)
Poldark (Emrys-Roberts) theme from the TV series
You Light Up My Life (Brooks)
Fantasy (Horan)
Cuanto le Gusta (Ruiz; Gilbert)

I strongly recommend testing the capabilities of the Musica by playing Manuel’s (i.e. Geoff Love’s) rendition of ‘Princess Leia’s Theme’ from STAR WARS. Pay attention to the subtle operatic wordless female solo towards the last one minute of the track. Manuel’s Music of the Mountains never sounded more inspiring! Listen to everything else on the album and you’ll realize that there is no orchestra out there that sounds like Manuel in evoking the emotions of soaring to the heights of mountains on the ‘wings of orchestral strings’. One hears the complex layering of Manuel’s violin sections, then bass and guitar and then there are the surprises in which he ‘peels’ out the cascades within the violin sections. I tried the German 2010 Polydor remaster of Bert Kaempfert’s 1964 LP DREAMING IN WONDERLAND and the impressions were equally great! Kaempfert’s 1964 sound could have been recorded in 2014 – pristine, precise and a wide soundstage! But if one tries out the Phase 4 Decca remasters on the Musica, one is likely to get a slightly less than breath-taking performance. Perhaps, the Musica was designed with either the digital sound in mind, or perhaps the ‘better miked’ analogue recordings. This is all subjective and I’ve read online that many Hi Fi enthusiasts would swear by the blissful partnership between the Musica and Sonus Faber’s AMATI and GUARNERI speakers.

Therefore my verdict is split: a resounding YES for vocals, especially classical and jazz, and a mixed verdict for older remastered easy listening instrumentals. That said, this is an amplifier destined for classic status for its fidelity to song and sublime physical beauty!

ALAN

12 May 2015