sonus faber auditor vs 804

Have a listen to the Sonus Faber Grand Piano Homes.

IMO, the Homes are clearly superior to the B & W N 804's.

And, they will give you more bass extension than the auditors.

If you look through the archives, I think more people complain
about their B & W 804's than any other speaker.

B & W's can sound good in the show-room because, IMO, they
are a little "bumped" in the upper end, which can sound like
more detail, but can be fatiguing when you get them home.

In addition, I don't really care for the N 804's bass, either.

To me, you have to go up to the N803's to beat the Grand Piano
Homes and the N803's are way more expensive.

it sounds like you looking for speakers that dig deeper in the 'real bass' dept...and the ones you have auditioned are not going to go there...they are however fine speakers, and should both produce great sounds...i would suggest listening to several full-range models before you purchase anything.

1) I have owned a pair of 805's, sf concertos (original not home) and auditioned the auditor and grand piano. In my mind the sf's are better for stereo and the b&w kick a$$ in ht. It basically comes down to which do you spent more time listening to. Or you can get both like I did. During my quest to get the best system I can afford for both 2 channel and ht use I ultimately decided that the best way to acheive it was to have two seperate systems. I now have a jbl speaker system for ht and a pair of green mountain europas for stereo. I had to deal with the WAF too. So I had to wall mount my jbls so i did not have to have two pairs of speakers on the floor in the front. I know of another person who has a ht setup in a room with a two channel setup in the same room on the side wall. I couldn't do that myself because of the size of my room but if you have the space it is a great idea.

2) Though I have never owned one, I have been told by the distributer and my local dealers that REL subs integrate will with sf. Which velodyne were you thinking about getting?

3) I wouldn't recommend mixing and matching center and surround speakers with sf, trust me I have tried. The sf's are voiced so differently from any other speaker in world, which is what makes them so special, that it is impossible to get a speaker that is timbre match with them. How about a cremona speakers for stereo listening and b&w cdm nt or 600 series for ht?

4) The grand piano home is in another league compared to the cremona auditor. To me the orginal grand piano was much better then the new home series and was more comprable to the auditor. But at the same price would you want to sacrafice the magic of the cremona?

5) The cremona is just the auditor with more bass. But is it is still not quite full range. You might still need a sub. If you are going to get a sub anyway just save yourself 4k.

Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps. Good luck.

Regardless of what you do, DO NOT MIX your fronts and centers if you can. If your budget is limited, get 805's with the matching center.
Why worry about the deep bass the speakers produce. If this will be through a nice theater processor, you will probably be crossing them over at 80hz. Just get a nice sub. Personally, if you are crossing them over at 80hz, I think stand mounted 805's image better than 804's.

Thanks for all your inputs. My next step is to audition the 805 again and compare vs. the 804 and the auditor to see if it is good. I might also try the grand piano again since some say it is better than the 804. If i get the grand piano things will be easier because I can just match it with a sonus home center and concertion for surrounds. However, last time I listend to the grand piano and auditor side by side... the auditor's mids KILLED the grand piano ha ha ha and I knew the bass could be addressed by a sub.

Loki7177 - How big is your room? Mine is approximately 22 ft x 18 ft. What size JBL did you use for your HT and how are they wall mounted/placed? I am planning for a similar set-up too. Hmm... might just get an auditor and a sub.

Elevick - I will not mix my center and fronts. That is why it is harder to set-up since I want a timbre matched front at least. If do decide to get the auditor I will be using B&W 600's, PSB (pretty good huh) or JBL (front center and surrounds) for my HT. Question is what size speakers will I need. Hope smaller speakers will do the job so that I can save some on cost too.

Finally - I do not a lot of bass for my stereo since i listen mostly to classical, jazz and pop. Nothing hard. A 10" or 12" sub might do the job right? I am also considering a PSB sub.

Don't forget the Signature 805s. They are better than N805s in both base response and treble. Same price as SF auditor, also check out dynaudio 25 anniversaty

Question... when did the Grand Piano Home came out? From their shitty website I saw that the Concerto (Grand Piano Line) came out 1995 but its a 2 way speaker and the Grand Piano Home is a 3 way.

Still trying to convince myself the Grand Piano Home is as good as the Auditor ha ha ha

Probably in the year of 2000.

my room is 12x18 with 8 ft ceilings but one of the sides is completely opended to the rest of the house which is about 50 ft long. i am using set of jbl northridge series speakers for ht. they come with wall mount hardware. they are amazing for the money.

if you are really considering the grand pianos, look for the original the ones that came out about 1995. they are much better then the current home version that came out around 2000. the original was much more refined and neutral. take a look at this review of the concertino home. the review compared it to the original, http://www.videohifi.com/Concertino_eng.htm. sf wanted to optimize the speakers for ht during the boom. that is probably why they named it the home series. they changed the drivers and made the speakers more efficient but sacrifaced a lot of the sf magic.

good luck.