McIntosh And Sonus Faber, an evening of excellence

Last week Hifi Chicken attended an event put on by our friends at Sound and Vision Inc. here in Ohio. The main guests of the evening were McIntosh and Sonus Faber. There were several rooms set up with differing levels of equipment from both of the brands, We got to listen to a little it of all of it.

A little background

If you are unaware McIntosh and Sonus Faber are both owned by McIntosh Group, previously Fine Sounds Group. While they are owned by the same group they seem to develop products independently and have control of their own station. We talked at length with Ken from McIntosh, who is a wealth of knowledge of the company. Ken having been with McIntosh since the 70’s answered questions we didn’t even know we had about McIntosh. Evan another representative also showed us around some of the newer offerings from McIntosh. While being a newer member of the McIntosh team, he too is very knowledgeable.
The rep for Sonus Faber at the event was Will, the North American Sales Manager. Will has an in depth understanding of the market we are in as well as the products Sonus Faber is placing in the market. Will was excellent to talk too, and we look forward to more conversations in the future.

The evening of McIntosh and Sonus Faber

The whole event was very well put together. The hosts of the evening, Sound and Vision, did an excellent jobs of setting up plenty of rooms for guests to experience all levels of products. The two largest rooms sported Sonus Fabers larger tower speakers as they better suited for that enviroment while some of the smaller rooms had the bookshelf options. Sound and Vision also has a theater room where Sonus Faber had their Sonetto Collection set up. It was complete with two towers, the larger center option from the line as well as wall mounts. The multi channel sound was exceptional.

Our Favorite Piece

With out a doubt our favorite offering had to be the all in one turntable from McIntosh, pared with a set of Olympica 1 speakers. The MTI100 is an awesome product for someone who wants simplicity, excellence and expandability, all in one small package. With 50 watts into 8 ohms and 80 watts into 4 ohms it will power nearly any speaker you want to pair with it. The MTI100 uses two 12AX7 tubes for the preamplifier, which if you have seen our MA252 amp review that will sound familiar. The platter is a belt drive unit, and the tone arm is a machined aluminum piece with a lateral bearing. You also get an optical input, stereo input and bluetooth connectivity. You get almost everything you need for a 2 channel set up in one unit. If you are limited on space, or just want the clean look of an all in one, this is the one to get.