Review: Sonus Faber Cremona Speaker

To my ear, the Cremona's are rich and a little warm. I have heard no problem with them at all with rock, including over processed Pink Floyd. Play them loudly and, if your other equipment it up to them, there is no distortion. Hat to contradict so, but it must have been something else in the system. The also have one of the most engaging sounds I have heard. They keep people transfixed and playing one cd or record after another. The only characteristic that is a negative for anyone I know of is that they are a bit warm and if you don't like that or view that as too colored, then you may not like their sound. (I have been listening to them with BAT tube gear for about 2 months now)

Gjgoldy,
I was all set to buy the Cremona's after hearing the Salesman demo. but even the Salesman knew when I put on regular Rock Music the speakers sounded bad.
I think they only have a 6" woofer, so, I guess what did I expect ?
By the way, the CD was SACD of CCR Green River. Not an Audiophile disc , but still one of my favorites.
When the drums hit the first song the speakers distorted.
Maybe your choice in music is much calmer , but I was disapointed. Because if they cant play my favorite music , what is the point?

Sory Ozzy just returned from a demo. System was cremonas prima luna stereo kt88 (five?) garrad 301, tranfiguration phoenix, music first copper and resolution opus 21. Played everything from Miles, Mozart to Motorhead( I am mostly into death/heavy metal and Jazz ( yeah go figure!))These speakers handle any kind of music. I can only think ozzy's sytem was crap or he was listening to SET amps (respect!) In fact if the cremonas were 90 db and 8ohm - 6 ohm I would buy them. I do like the magic only available with 300b but if you are not as "niche" as me then these cremonas are a five star buy in a 2.5 star world!

Brphilharmoniker, you mentioned that Mahlers were too big for your room. What is your listening room size? I have heard the Mahlers last fall in Denver at the Audiofest driven by the new Rowland 312. . . the sound was to die for. I listen almost exclusively to classical music. On that occasion I played Edgar Meyer playing Bach's 5th cello suite on double bass, Dvorak's 2nd movement of the 9th Symphony with the Israel Phyl conducted by Bernstein, and Lara St. John on Bach's 3rd violin sonata. There was nothing I heard at the show that equal the setup in the Vienna Mahler room.
If your room were too small for the Mahlers, you may want to try the Vienna Strauss.

Hi,

I auditioned the Cremona with Meridian G07 CDP G02 Preamp and G57 amp (Cardas Neutral Reference Interconnect and MIT Speaker Cables) in 8 X 5 meters room with some acoustic treatment but relatively low ceiling .
Speakers were placed on the long axis, were about 1m away from the back wall, 1.5 m away from the side walls and were slightly toed-in so the focal point will be slightly behind my listening position.
Material I auditioned them with:
1. Diana Krall's "Love Scenes"
2. Vivaldi's four seasons (Salvatore Accardo's performance played on original Stradivari violin recorded on XRCD II)
3. Trio Esperança - Nosso Mundo
4. Stan Getz - Bossa Nova
5. Supertramp - Breakfast in America
6. Jesse Cook - Vertigo
and some more acoustical and classical material.

Impressions:
Might bass, too dominant IMHO, overshadowing what could have been extremely sweet, smooth and musical mid (the Sonus Faber Forte IMHO). I almost wanted to cut the lower bass driver (which would have made them a flour stand version of Cremona Auditor...).
Honestly, as much as I wanted to like the Cremona I liked my setup (below) better:
I found mine to be a more balanced and natural sounding setup overall, although mids were not as sweet, lush and smooth as the Cremona ones.
This overwhelming bass was not as dominant when playing large orchestral classical music where the extra slam gave it a sense of volume and authority.

I assume that there are a couple of reasons for my impressions:
a. Could be that the listening room was not ideal for these speakers. I find acoustics to be one of the biggest factors, in sound reproduction, regardless of the gear.
b. Could be that the synergy with the Meridian gear was not great. I have seen it in the past when hooking Meridian 105 Monoblocks and Dynaudio Contour 1.4S (terrible synergy with over pronounced bass to the extent of wanting to run away in the middle of the audition - like one of these embarrassing American Idol moments...).
c. Maybe the Cremona does have a heavy bass and is not as tonally balanced as some other SF speakers.

All in all it was a disappointment for me.

I did not hear the Guarneri Memento to compare.

My current gear is:
Sonus Faber Grand Piano Home
Meridian 596 DVD/CDP
Meridian G02
Meridian G57
Madrigal Labs Cz Gel balanced interconnects (between the G02 and the G57) and Madrigal MDC-1 between the 596 (RCA only) and the G02.
Cardas Crosslink Speaker cables.

My listening room is almost similar to the one in which I auditioned the Cremona but mine has a higher ceiling and two 1.5-2m openings in the back walls of its corners so it is not a shoe box but a bit irregular. There is no special acoustic treatment. Just the standard wall to wall rug.

Would love to hear your thoughts this.

Cheers,

Doron