The famous Five

The largest member of the Lumina range is an imposing-looking speaker. Having met the rest of the family, Ed Selley takes it on

- Ed Selley

DETAILS

PRODUCT Sonus faber Lumina V

ORIGIN Italy

TYPE 3-way floorstanding loudspeaker

WEIGHT 22.5kg

DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 280 x 1,049 x 373mm

FEATURES

29mm silk dome tweeter

150mm pulped paper midrange driver

2x 165mm pulped paper bass drivers

Quoted sensitivity: 89dB/1W/1m (4ohm)

DISTRIBUTOR Fine Sounds UK

WEBSITE sonusfaber.com/en

When first launched, the Lumina range represented a bit of a gamble for Sonus faber but it seems it seems to have paid off. The original small range of speakers was something of a departure for the company with their flat-sided cabinets and different finish, but the arrival of additional models suggests there’s a commercial appetite for them. We looked at the Lumina II in HFC 478 and now it is the turn of the flagship Lumina V.

At first glance, it looks identical to the Lumina III, which we reviewed back in HFC 469. Both are three-way floorstanders, where bass duties are shared between a pair of drivers. The key difference is one of scale. The Lumina V uses a pair of 165mm mid/ bass drivers rather than the 150mm units that the smaller speaker opts for. These are mounted in a cabinet proportionally identical to the Lumina III, but a fair bit larger. The Lumina V is over a metre tall before the spikes are fitted and beyond the numbers, this feels like a much more imposing proposition than the III.