Sonus Faber Il Cremonese Amp Pairing suggestions

@at0310t Thank you for updating the post with your setup suggestions. I actually finally made a decision on my amp pairing in February and purchased a Burmester 218 stereo amplifier. I absolutely love the clarity, mid-range and vocal focus/imaging, bass control.... This amp has 275wpc with a damping factor of 1600 and demonstrates control of the entire speaker running full range. I'm delighted with the purchase and would recommend this amplifier without any cons that I've heard so far. I loved it so much, I added a Burmester 039 5 channel amplifier for my SF Vox center, Lumina V surrounds, and back channels. 

I'm running Wireworld Silver Eclipse 10 speaker cables with Platinum Eclipse 10 jumpers, Platinum Eclipse XLR, and Platinum Ethernet cable. The biggest surprise is the difference that Platinum eithernet cable makes. As good as everything else is in the system, the ethernet cable cleans up the streaming content to give an extra dark background with more subtle instrumental detail. All my power is cleaned with a Purtan PSM156, but the thernet cable cleaned up the digital signal in a surprising way.

I’ve owned the Il Cremonese speakers and they are excellent. I’ve also owned the anthem STR integrated. I think your anthem will pair just fine with the new speakers, at least for now. You will have plenty of power and my recollection is a nice, natural sound that should do well with the speakers. The speakers are very pleasing and musical, but I don’t think you want an amp that delivers even more warmth or softens the bass. Your anthem should do fine as you consider a new amp. it’s all very subjective, but I would think about something that is transparent and fast
 

@kerrybh I did use the Anthem STR amplifier for about 10 months with the Il Cremonese. Overall it did a great job powering the speakers as long as I set my crossover to the subwoofers at 80hz. That took the demand off the amp to power those rear firing subwoofers. Without doing that, it sounded lean. 

The difference between the Anthem STR to the Burmester 218 was tremendous. For 8 times the retail cost it should be though! I thought the STR allowed the music to come into the room and the vocal imagery was great. The Burmester 218 brought all the fine treble details forward to match the presence in the room....as if all aspects of the musical track came out of the shadows. All details are illuminated fully (Burmester) compared to partially (Anthem). The power and control over the fine details in the bass was another big improvement between the two. I can also run the Il Cremonese full range with the Burmester 218. I actually prefer the crossover set to 40 or 60hz when listening to Jazz because I hear way more detail in the bass coming from the Il Cremonese vs. the JL E112 subwoofers.

Overall, the Anthem STR did a nice job, but the Il Cremonese deserves something more capable to get the most out of them. 

Very interesting- i missed your post about the Burmester.
I ended my search a week ago when my new amp was installed- the Burmester 218. so we have covered a lot of the same ground. Based on my experience so far, I absolutely agree with your assessment of the Burmester 218. It is an outstanding amplifier. Very fast and detailed, but not at all fatiguing. Controlled, articulate bass. High current amp that delivers the goods. 
very please so far

OP

+1 details forward.
 

I recently spent time with a Burmeister 218 and SF Lilium. But with dry detailed dcs front end. Sonic spectacular but it did not sound like music.