Sonus Faber is a bit like a swan: refined and graceful on the outside.

These Italian products are subtly different from generation to generation. Yet, underneath, there's a lot of paddling going on, because the changes to the sound are huge. And so it is with the new Cremona Auditor M (for Modified) standmount speaker.

New improved system

If you put the new Cremona Auditor M up against its predecessor, you can see where the differences are almost immediately. The angles behind the grille are sharper, the bass driver is different and the base of the dedicated speaker stand (which is good but £575) is now V-shaped.

The back of the speaker is very different, too. But principally, the two share a lot in common.

In fact, all of the Sonus Faber speakers share a lot of the same DNA. Scratch the surface (not recommended - the finish is way too pretty to do that) and you'll find ideas developed in models like the Elipsa, which are in turn derived from the Stradivari Memento; you'll also find concepts hewn from the Guarneri Memento.

Naturally, this is only to be expected - the Sonus Faber design school doesn't re-invent the wheel every time a new speaker is announced, but the closeness of the designs means the products have a distinct suono della famiglia (family sound). And it's a sound that's changing.

Elegant styling

As it was with the Cremona Auditor, the Auditor M is a two-way standmount box loudspeaker, with a rear-firing port. The 'box' itself is a tapered lute-shaped sandwich and gorgeously finished.

The sandwich construction features hand-selected, top-grade layers of maple, designed to keep resonance and standing waves at bay - and to look fantastic, too.

The rear port and terminator block is finished in piano-gloss black, the front is in black leatherette and what's in between is either finished in natural maple or light graphite-coloured lacquered wood.

Combine the finish with the elegant styling exercise and you have a speaker that's as far removed from regular standmounts as the Connolly leather interior of a new Jaguar is from the torn-up insides of an eight-year-old Nissan minicab. Little wonder then, that the speakers come supplied in their own cloth protective bag.

Drive units

The 25mm modified Scanspeak ring radiator tweeter, with its distinctive pointy waveguide, is retained from the last version of the speaker, but the bass driver is all new.