Paradigm S8 vs. Sonus Faber Cremona M

I am wondering a few things with some of the comments:

First with all comparisons were these the latest v3 versions?

Two were the systems identical?

Also in the comparison is that these are two different soundings speakers:

Sonus Faber is known for a very silky midrange, with a smooth top end, good dynamics and a slightly rich bottom

Paradigm is known for superb detail in the top, a very clean midrange, and tight, fast bass.

You would need warmer electronics to make the Paradigim's sing, and cleaner electronics for the Sonus Fabers to sound their best.

And by all accounts the Top of the line signature Paradigim speakers are very high end and have been compared to the likes of Revel and Wilson by many reviewers.

hifivn, what do you have against Paradigm?

You quote a review from 2009 on a completely different model!

The Signature uses a state of the art Beryllium tweeter, JM Labs, Usher, TAD, Magico and several other top speaker manufacturers use Beryllium based on the metals combination of extremely low mass and superb stiffness which makes a fantastic tweeter.

I wouldn't match Sonus with Mac, there are much better electronics other than Mac and if you go with the SF you want more neutral electronics.

The Revel Ultima Salon is a $22,000.00 speaker and the Paradigm S8 is $8,000.00 is hardly a similar price point.

Again it depends on the setup what might be magic with the Salon's might be too hot for the S8s.

Just because both speakers use Beryillium tweeters doesn't mean that they should sound the same, Usher Audio and B&W both use Diamond Tweeters does that mean that they sound similar? Or KEF and PSB both use Titanium does that also mean they sound the same?

Too many reviewers love the S8 and S6's for them to be anything other than great speakers, however if they have a hot tweeter than the choice of cabling, electronics and source, components must be used to balance them out.

This is an art and sometimes to make a particular product come alive it does require just the right pairing.

In my area there aren't any good dealers showing the speakers the only dealer that had them was a large chain now gone that tried to imagine they were high end, they often had them setup with Anthem gear using shitty Monster Cabling and Power conditioning in a giant room with a speaker selector and 25 other pairs of speakers! I doubt most real audiophiles would be blown away by that setup.

If I was your salesman and I could sell as $22k pair of Revels, over an $8k pair of Pardigms would I necessarily want to work with the S8's to make them shine?

Now I am not saying the Revels' aren't better speakers but that is a lot of coin difference between them.