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Looking at measurements provided by the manufacturer, the Guarneri show a very flat 1/12th-octave response throughout the midrange with some treble attenuation above 14kHz.


Electrical impedance remains above 5Ω from the bass through the treble with a very slight drop between 4 and 5kHz. The electrical phase behavior does not seem to be much of a concern.

The impulse response indicates inverted polarity for both drive units with a superbly clean decay.


Sound: I think it always interesting to remember what was achieved by any speaker’s previous iteration. Though my memories won’t be sufficiently accurate for any definitive conclusions, I can provide readers interested in the brand with a few useful indicators. By comparison to the Memento I had the sensation of a bit more neutrality, smoother treble, more extended bass and lower distortion with perhaps a less strict requirement for the amplifying supporting cast. Even with my puny Trends TA-10.2 integrated amp the Guarneri delivered fine and clean results though the soundstage was not as extended. That said, the overall sonic identity of the new Guarneri keeps the familiar Sonus faber faith. Memento owners will be in clearly familiar territory with the Evolution.


With the monaural Orpheus Three M, the Guarneri benefited from the necessary current to express its full capabilities. This gifted me with a very good time with these Italian beauties. Like the predecessor the Guarneri loves power and current. This remains an important criterion to getting any fair assessment of their potential. Low-power amplifiers will lead to relative circumspection of achievable performance given the price and thus to a misunderstanding of what’s really possible. Appropriateness of amplification is a real concern.


The second concern is the adequacy of music one listens to. True, we all look for that special kind of bird which would play any musical genre to perfection. While it is quite easy to deliver poor or average performance in absolute terms, it is far more difficult if not impossible to attain excellence with the same speaker for each genre. Of course high-end speakers deliver fine results and overall coherence but what about long-term enjoyment? The Guarneri Evolution is not exempt from this. It can reproduce any kind of music very accurately but can one really justify such an investment for Madonna, Supertramp or Mötley Crüe? I think not. The Guarneri’s main gift is not the reproduction of a bass line's physical impact as a JBL would provide or my previous LS360 McIntosh towers. Where these Italians achieve stunning performance is with classical music and other genres focused on acoustic instruments. I cannot know what exactly Livio Cuccuza and Paolo Tezzon had in mind when they designed the new Guarneri. I can only make a statement based on my own perceptions. In my opinion then these speakers were born for classical music to such an extent as to be s one of the best I can recommend to any classical music listener without consideration of price or reservations.


Each day with my loaner pair had me get more involved with large-scale classical music. These speakers provided outstanding sound in a traditional domestic environment which is most often plagued by peaks of treble resonance and poor response in the low registers. The minor treble attenuation of the Guarneri did not portray any particular lack of detail, perhaps only a slightly less open and energetic sound that I usually get from my Triangle Magellan monitors. Here the consistency of the associated amplifier is really important also to enhance dynamic contrasts. The Guarneri nevertheless was as detailed and perhaps even more so in the lower midrange as my Magellan Duettos. No small feat that!

What then makes these extraordinary? I would answer without hesitation that they can play loud by avoiding listener fatigue even after four or five hours of recorded live music. They also deliver a very accurate detailed and dynamic sound at very low volumes. The two drivers exhibit terrific phase coherence that reproduces a very deep and structured soundstage whilst offering very low directivity and distortion. In that sense these are unusually comfortable loudspeakers. Last but not least their quality of tone is one of the best I have ever experienced in this price range.

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