Floorstanding loudspeakers — Sonus Faber LILIUM

The Sonus faber Lilium is a passive floorstanding loudspeaker built as two separate enclosures joined in one body. Its front cabinet takes a lyre shape in fine-grained walnut, while the rear cabinet is wrapped in soft leather, and a tempered glass top plate shaped like a lily lets the owner watch the passive radiator move. Chief Design Officer Livio Cucuzza describes the design as a synthesis of opposing elements that keep their independent nature within a single form.

Key specs that matter

Sonus faber classes it as a 3.5 way full para-aperiodic vented design. A 28 mm H28 XTR-04 tweeter, whose soft dome carries DAD Arrow Point and an extended range design on a high power neodymium motor, covers the treble, and a 180 mm M18 XTR-04 midrange with its own neodymium magnet system handles the middle band. Three 180 mm W18XTR-16 woofers and a 260 mm SW26XT-08 infra-woofer take the low end, and the crossover divides the signal at 55, 150, 200 and 3000 Hz using high-end parts. Sonus faber rates the Lilium at 20 Hz to 35000 Hz, 92 dB SPL for 2.83 V at 1 m and 4 ohm nominal. The maker asks for 100 W to 800 W of undistorted amplifier power. Each unit stands 1600 mm tall, 491 mm wide and 705 mm deep and weighs 103 kg.

Engineering and use context

The dual waved curvature of the lyre-shaped front cabinet adds structural strength for managing energy in the forward radiating section. The rear cabinet serves only the infra-low frequencies and contains reinforcing structures placed to suppress resonances and unwanted interference. The infra-woofer works under P.Z.I. (Pressure Zone Interface) acoustic conditions, creating a ground effect for the lowest octaves, and its output can be trimmed with the Deep Low Control. The speaker is fitted with the ZVT decoupling system.

Pairing

The rear panel carries six binding posts per speaker, grouped as Mid-Hi, Low and Sub inputs. Packed for shipping, each Lilium ships in a 1890 x 600 x 800 mm carton at 156 kg. Three finishes are listed - walnut high gloss wood with black inlays, red high gloss wood with black inlays, and wenge high gloss wood with maple inlays, all combined with black leather at the rear. An owner's manual and technical drawings are available from the maker.

Alternatives

Sonus faber also makes the Aida, a 3 and 2/3 way floorstanding loudspeaker rated down to 18 Hz.