Floorstanding stereo speakers 3,03,900 Sonus Faber Lumina V Classy Italian floorstanders that have plenty of charm

Fasten your seatbelts, the F502SP are a thrill ride

The ‘SP’ in the name stands for Special Production, which is Fyne Audio’s way of saying that these speakers are upgraded from the basic product. We’re not talking minor tweaks either, as the price difference between the standard F502 floorstanders and our review pair of the Fyne Audio F502SP shows.

Essentially, Fyne Audio’s engineers have upgraded pretty much everything on the standard model while keeping to the same basic design and dimensions. Think of it as extreme ‘hot-rodding’. All SP models are hand-built in the UK, which accounts for some of the price differential too.

The standard F502 drivers are replaced by new designs that are derived from those used in the company’s high-end F700 range. Consider that the equivalent floorstander in the F700 range, the F702, comes in at around double the price of the F502SP and you will understand why sharing similar drive units is such a big thing for the cheaper product.

The heart of these speakers is the IsoFlare drive array, consisting of a 25mm horn-loaded magnesium tweeter sitting in the throat of a 20cm multi-fibre (paper) coned mid/bass unit. The idea is to create a point source, where all frequencies of sound seem to come from the same place. Contrast this with the conventional way of arranging driver units on a speaker where they are lined up on a front baffle. Think of the distance between the drive units and the uneven dispersion that causes, and the through. Equally, despite a relatively high 92dB/W/m claimed sensitivity and a nominal impedance of 8 ohms, try to partner these speakers with an amplifier with some poke if you want to make the most of their dynamic capabilities. Something such as Naim’s SuperNait 3 would be a good starting point.