Sonus Faber introduced the reincarnation of the Homage line of acoustics

The phase inverters have an anti-resonant UltraFlex architecture. The mechanical properties of the cabinets, as before, are improved by aluminum parts.

The updated Homage speakers feature Intono's proprietary technology, in which the resonant frequency of the midrange driver slightly exceeds the frequency of the peak pressure of its sealed enclosure. This blurs out the characteristic impedance peak in such cases, making the speakers much more amplifier friendly. 

The woofers of the Serafino model have updated coils and suspensions, and the new 220mm Amati woofer features better cooling and is ready to work out 23% more power. 

In addition, the crossovers of all Homages have been updated. The schematics feature hand-selected Jantzen coils, Clarity Caps, Mundorf capacitors and resistors. All 4 models received 3 finishes: red, wenge and graphite.

There is not much information about the built-in preamplifier / headphone amplifier - more precisely, there is almost none. It is indicated that there are as many as three headphone jacks: a balanced 4-pin XLR, a balanced 4.4 mm jack and a regular unbalanced 6.5 mm. Power, output parameters, class of work - not specified. So, let's just listen and evaluate. The story is similar with the preamplifier - the manufacturer does not give a detailed description, only the adjustment step is from -90 dB to 0 dB in 0.5 steps.

General view of the Aurender A30 from the inside. In height, the case is divided into two levels, and the lower level is mostly occupied by power supplies and a computer part

And a very pleasant look. Large full-sized device weighing 17 kg, well-tailored and manufactured body, large 8.8-inch IPS-display with a resolution of 1920x480 pixels and a beautiful informative picture. A minimum of buttons, and those that are, look neat and concise - there is no overload.

Unless the asymmetry, coupled with the disc drive slot, introduces a certain dissonance. And the rest - everything is high quality and detailed. Unexpectedly, a heavy metal remote control was included in the kit - it is quite possible to use it, although all functions are duplicated in the tablet application (except for the button for ejecting the disc from the tray).

 

Program

But in this case it is worth talking about the application separately, because it is a very significant part of the system. More precisely, in the case of the Aurender A30, you need to talk about three applications at once. Firstly, this is Aurender Media Manager - a program for a computer on Windows or OS X, used for remote editing of the music library, working with files and backups. It can be used or not - everything will depend on which scheme of interaction with the device a particular owner chooses.

The second application on the list is A30 Manager, and it was written specifically to work with the A30 model. This application is used to fully configure the device - including setting up the settings for copying discs.

Also, with the help of this application, you can manage your music library - not play, but rename, delete and copy. And what is especially nice - it gives a report on rip errors, if any, and also helps to search for duplicates in the music library.

Another significant point is that there are settings aimed at music libraries with a lot of classical music. When analyzing the data of discs identified by the database, you can enable sorting and merging by composers, and not by performers.

Part of the functionality of the A30 Manager is duplicated, and it is possible to work with it from the “reproducing” Aurender Conductor application. If you carefully compare the applications, then some things are not very logical. For example, such a rarely requested function as renaming the device (you can give it a name - including with an eye to the fact that there can be several Aurenders in the house) is available in both applications. As well as the functions of backup, copying and part of the settings.