Sonus Faber Olympica Nova V tower speakers

The new Olympica Nova range by Sonus Faber pays homage to the famous Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), who constructed the Teatro Olimpico during the Renaissance.

The Sonus Faber Olympica Nova V speaker is the third floor-standing model in the range, offering remarkable performance. Its design is heavily inspired by studies conducted on the brand's flagship model, the Aida.

SONUS FABER OLYMPICA NOVA V: CONSTRUCTION

The Olympica Nova V retains the "asymmetrical lyre" shape from the series 1, but with further refinement and complexity.

Sonus Faber offers it in two finishes: Walnut (light wood) and Wengé (dark wood). Both finishes are superb and beyond critique. The 10 pieces of wood, assembled with joints, evoke the hulls of Italian "Riviera" style boats. They receive a beautiful satin varnish. A hexagonal leather section surrounds the midrange/tweeter drivers.

The top and bottom edges are bordered with a striking brushed aluminum section.

SONUS FABER OLYMPICA NOVA V: DRIVERS

The drivers are designed and manufactured by Sonus Faber.

The treble is handled by a 28mm synthetic silk dome tweeter, the new H28 XTR3 (Dampex Apex Dome). It has a powerful neodymium magnet, providing perfect linearity and excellent dynamics. The diaphragm is paired with a phase plug to ensure less pronounced directivity and a more linear response.

The midrange driver, the MW15 XTR2, features a 150mm diaphragm made from a blend of cellulose fiber and natural resin from Hemp and Kapok. This combination ensures the most neutral and linear behavior possible.

The bass is reproduced by three 18cm drivers. The W18XTR2-12 drivers feature a diaphragm made from a sandwich of cellulose and syntactic foam. The crossover has a progressive slope, optimized to minimize phase shift between the three drivers. The crossover frequencies are set at 250 and 2,500 Hz. As always with Sonus Faber, the components are of the highest quality; air-core inductors, Mundorf capacitors, and silver-plated copper wiring.

The bass and midrange drivers have their own enclosures. These operate in a bass/reflex configuration, not using a traditional port but a Stealth UltraFlex system. An internal blade leads to a narrow vertical duct extending from the top to the base of the speaker.

Air passes through a perforated stainless steel grille. This grille is symmetrically placed on both floor-standing speakers, allowing the ports to be positioned either inside or outside the listening area. It also seems to play an acoustic "doublet" role in the mid/high frequencies.

SONUS FABER OLYMPICA NOVA V: TERMINALS

The terminal is specific to the brand and this series.

Its construction and finish are exemplary. It accepts banana plugs, spades, and allows for bi-wiring or bi-amplification.

SONUS FABER OLYMPICA NOVA V: INSTALLATION

The Hi-Fi speakers rest on a beautiful stainless steel base equipped with four adjustable spikes. Sonus Faber provides counter-spikes with the Nova V to protect your flooring.

To fully utilize the qualities of the Olympica Nova V, it is strongly recommended to pair them with a high-quality amplifier. In our test, we positioned the ports inward. The speakers were placed 90 cm from the wall and more than a meter from the side walls.

SONUS FABER OLYMPICA NOVA V: TEST AND LISTENING

After a break-in period of about thirty hours, we were surprised by the breadth and openness of these Sonus Faber Olympica Nova V!

The remarkable sound "image" of the other speakers in the Olympica Nova range is present, but the size of the speaker and its bass extension further enhance the sense of space.

The soundstage appears even more expansive and demonstrative. On certain recordings, the reproduction is totally holographic, remarkable for its width and depth while maintaining precise and stable placement of the performers.

The beautiful midrange of Sonus Faber productions is evident. It is present, ample, and well-structured with a superb timbre. It greatly contributes to the realism and pleasure of listening. This does not detract from the overall transparency and neutrality of the Olympica Nova V, even though it always favors listening comfort and musicality over hyper-definition.

The bass is also a strong point of this remarkable floor-standing speaker. It reaches very low with a lot of energy and breadth. Subjectively, it seems to exceed the stated specifications. This part of the spectrum, with a powerful amplifier, remains articulate, dynamic, and very "physical."

Sonus Faber's aim is clearly to offer a "big" speaker that causes no listening fatigue and can be enjoyed for hours, while delivering exceptional performance in terms of bandwidth (32-35000 Hz!) and realism.

The Olympica Nova V is also designed for large spaces. A room of more than 35 m² is ideal. Regardless of the music style, the reproduction is very clean and distortion-free, even at high sound levels.

The price may seem high, but few Hi-Fi speakers offer such a beautiful balance and harmonic richness as the Sonus Faber Olympica Nova V floor-standing speakers in this budget.

Given their performance, musicality, and build quality, it is easy to spend much more for less... as they are as beautiful to look at as they are to listen to!

Highly recommended +++

AWARDS:

Stereo Sound - Grand Prix 2020

Hi-Fi News - Highly Commended