Sonus Faber Guarneri vs Guarneri Memento

Davef should be showing up in this thread any moment now ...

Dave,

lets look at it a little logically...shall we :-) After designing the Guarneri Homage, Franco went on to design the Cremona lineup, the old Amati Homage, the new Amati Anniversario, the new Strad. and finally the new Guarneri Memento.

Are you saying that Franco did not learn anything new in the time period that he was designing all these great speakers ? I don't think you will get too many people claiming that the older Amatis are better than the newer Anniversarios.

Why then would you think that the Mementos would be inferior to the Homages ?

Jamnesta, the Memento was designed by Franco. All SF designs beyond the Memento -- ellipsa, new Cremonas -- are designed by the new team.

Misinformation galore. Read Fremer's review. The new Memento's have custom drivers sourced from Audio Technology and Scanspeak.

Top of the line Amati and Strad. share these same drivers for the midrange and tweeter. Are you saying those speakers are compromised cost cutting measures ?

Have you ever heard of Ferrari putting their stamp on a car that is inferior than the one they created 10 years ago ? SF being a luxry speaker builder has a reputaion to uphold (not to mention Franco).

Sorry Dave, it fails the smell test. You are suggesting that somehow Fremer, Ken Kessler and the other reviewers are pulling a fast one on us. Ken Kessler has lived with his Guarneri Homages for around 10 years, and if he says the new speakers are better, are you saying he is lying out of his behind ?

Dave,

I am going to take your advice and listen to the older G. And get back to you.

I am going to leave you with a parting thought. Technology moves on ... what was good 15 years ago can be bettered with modern technology. Excellent designers such as Franco improve their craft over a period of 15 years.

Enjoy your G's.

Thanks Milimetr. Very informative. Maybe even Daveyf will be convinced :-)

Davef,

there are people who on this thread who have listened to both and some prefer the G, and others the H. So I would say it is not a question of one using or not using their ears, but simply a preference for one or the other. Some people prefer the midrange purity of the H while others prefer the versatility and more full range sound of the M.

But you keep insisting that the H is superior ... can you please repeat after me - different strokes for different folks :-)

Lets please move on. It is settled. Guarner H is better than Guarneri M. Daveyf's audiophile friends have confirmed it :-)

To those unfortunate ones who own the Guarneri M, I only have this bit of personal advice from my own experience. Make sure you listen to the speaker with a very stout SS amplifier. Otherwise, you might not be getting the full measure of this speaker.

Milimeter, Ken Kessler in his review states (from memory) that the tweeter is shared between Amati Anniversario and Memento, and is a modified version of the tweeter used in Stradivari.

"A 25mm ring radiator tweeter with dual toroidal wave developed directly from that in the Stradivari, it's identical to one in the Amati Anniversario."

Ken Kessler's review at: http://hometheaterreview[dot]com/sonus-faber-guarneri-memento-speakers-reviewed/

Semi,

you mention owning 30 speakers in the past 20 years. Any highlights or standouts based on your personal experience ?

Semi,

thank you. Very interesting.

You are not alone in singing the praises of Tidal. There must be something to the speakers, but the cost is prohibitive, as you note.