Are Sonus Faber Cremonas "Tube Friendly"?

Banjofan, you might check with the guys over at the Magnepan Users Group on AA, otherwise known as the planar speaker asylum. There are a lot of Zero users over there. A number of guys there like to run low, and or, difficult impedance loads, with tube amps. Planars and tubes are where my heart is in many ways. I just happen to like the speakers I have now and they just happen to be monkey coffins(that's MUG lingo). If you just happen to love the Cremonas, and I can see why you wouldn't. They're a work of art, and so is the V12. These might be something to find out more about. Here is the link to MUG. Do a search for "autoformer", I don't understand why but "Zero" will bring up nothing, yet the results for autoformer is peppered with the word "zero", go figure. You can regester there and ask a general question about what current users think of them.

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/MUG/bbs.html

I haven't heard any negative reports about the sound that I recall. Everything has it's own contribution to the sound. I can't see that they can be more colored than many of the speaker cables people seem to like. People with some damn exotic stuff seem to love these things. If they add any coloration it may be out weighed by what they give you in return.

Has anybody tried the Zero? Does it add coloration?

If you are still concerned after the above posts. The amp may work great as in Smp's experience. Twl has a point too. you may not get optimum performance into a load like that. Take a page from the Magnepan and elecrostat guys and look into this link.

http://www.zeroimpedance.com/products.html

My uderstanding is, that many tube amps will work and sound best out of a particular tap. The ARC amp I have, due to the design, seems to work best from the 8 ohm tap,just as an example. The Zero can make the amp see the impedance you need. It's worth looking at.

The only "Cremona friendly" tube gear I know is VTL and Manley's. They use low output impedance transformers (0.7 Ohm secondary winding)
Be noted, that the bass can still suffer.

I used a Cary V12R with Cremonas for about nine months until last week when I traded them for the Stradivaris. The Cremonas are great speakers and the Cary is a superb match. Used a CAT Ultimate pre amp and sometimes the AES 3 pre.Cheers.

The Cary will be fine. No worries. I bet it will sound great. Good luck.

Chris

It would be best to have an amp with 2 ohm taps on the transformer. Or at least a Push-Pull amp with enough feedback for a decently low output impedance. According to the published charts, the Cremonas have 2.3 ohm dips at the bass frequencies and also large phase swings at the same area. This is the frequency range where the most power delivery is required, and is most demanding on the amp. Having to dump large amounts of power into the speakers to satisfy this demand, while reducing the damping factor significantly(due to the low impedance dip at this frequency)is not an ideal situation. I'd recommend an amp with an output impedance of lower than 0.5 ohms for this application. This will provide you with a damping factor of at least 4 at these difficult points, and help to ensure stability of the amp and control of the drivers.

IMHO.

Absolutely! The CREMONA's go fantastically with tubes! Try McIntosh or Graff f.e.
Good luck!

I don't know what the minimum power would be but the Cremonas loves tubes. Many Cremona owners have sung the praises of tubes on this website as well as Audio Asylum. I pair them with a pair of Hovland Sapphire amps and they sing. These are incredible speakers.