Sonus faber’s Lumina bookshelf speakers, side by side. Here is the Lumina I alongside the two models above it and their specifications, showing what your money buys at each step.

The Lumina I is the smallest and least expensive speaker Sonus faber makes, and the most affordable way to own something designed and built in Vicenza. It is a genuinely compact two-way standmount, small enough for a bookshelf, a desk or a modest room, and it carries the leather, wood and lyre-shaped detailing that make a Sonus faber recognisable from across a room. It is not a speaker for a large space or for high volumes, and it does not pretend otherwise. What it offers is the Sonus faber voice, warm, refined and easy to live with, at the point of entry to the range.

Brief product overview

A two-way vented standmount with a 29mm Damped Apex Dome silk tweeter, the same design used throughout the Lumina range, and a 120mm pulped-paper mid-woofer. The Damped Apex Dome places a small central brace across the dome to control its behaviour and prevent early roll-off at the top of the range, which helps the speaker sound open and unforced. Sensitivity is 84dB with a 4-ohm nominal impedance, so it asks for an amplifier with genuine current rather than the smallest ones. Bass is quoted to around 65Hz, though it tends to do better than that in a real room. The cabinet is finished in leather with wood detailing, magnetic grilles are supplied, and unusually for a speaker of this size it can be bi-wired. It is made in Italy.

How it sounds

The Lumina I sounds like a Sonus faber, which is the whole point: warm, refined and forgiving, with a midrange that flatters voices and a treble that stays smooth rather than sharp. It images well for its size and produces more bass than its dimensions suggest, without the port drawing attention to itself. The limits are the honest ones for a small standmount: it will not fill a large room and it will not play very loud with authority. Its 84dB sensitivity and 4-ohm load are the thing to plan around; underpowered it sounds polite, and with an amplifier that can supply current it opens up considerably.

What we’d partner it with

The Lumina I’s 4-ohm load and modest sensitivity mean the amplifier matters more than the price of the speaker suggests. The Bluesound Powernode is a natural single-box answer: 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms from its DirectDigital gallium nitride output stage, with more available into 4 ohms, plus BluOS streaming covering Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, AirPlay 2 and Roon, a 32-bit DAC, and an HDMI eARC input for a television. It makes the pair a complete system on its own. The Hegel H95 is the alternative if you would rather a conventional integrated: only 60 watts, but a damping factor above 2000 that gives it unusual control over difficult loads, and streaming built in as well.

To add vinyl, note that neither amplifier has a phono stage, so either a deck with one built in or a separate phono stage is needed. The Rega Planar 1 Plus is the tidiest solution: its phono stage sits directly beneath the tonearm with the arm wire soldered straight to it, removing the cable that normally runs between the two, and it outputs at line level straight into any line input. A Pro-Ject T1 EVO Phono does the same job.

For stands, use solid, appropriately heighted stands to place the tweeters near ear level. On cabling, use a well-made speaker cable of appropriate gauge for the run; AudioQuest and Chord are the cable brands we stock.

Who shouldn’t buy it

If your room is medium-sized or larger, or you like to listen loud, the Lumina II offers a larger mid-woofer, more sensitivity and more bass for not a great deal more. If you want the same footprint with a more refined crossover and finish, the Lumina II Amator is the step up within the bookshelf range. And if your amplifier is genuinely low-powered, the 84dB sensitivity and 4-ohm load will hold the Lumina I back, so plan the amplification around the speaker rather than the other way round.

The Lumina I is designed for stands or a shelf; place it with the tweeter near ear level, clear of the rear wall where you can, and angled slightly towards the listening seat. It is ported, so the nearer it sits to a wall the fuller and less controlled the bass becomes, which is worth experimenting with in a small room. Set the Powernode up through the BluOS app, using a wired network connection if you can run one, and connect a television to its HDMI eARC input if you want one in the system. The Planar 1 Plus outputs at line level, so it connects to a line input rather than a phono input. The bi-wire terminals allow two cable runs if you wish; otherwise leave the jumpers fitted.