Sonus Faber Cremona

Just curious, Telemoli: Did you find that the Amatis had any advantage over the Cremonas regardless of price (other than maybe the ability to go louder)? Of course, I could just go listen to these at a place 15 minutes from my house, but not being in the market for $8K speakers and being the sort who dislikes dealer showrooms, I thought I'd just ask you instead. :-)

I always get a little suspicious when Sam raves about something* to the degree he did with the Cremona, and he never claimed to have auditioned the Amatis (though none of this is going to matter in my world utlimately - SF products are generally too rich for my bank account). I thought it very interesting when Fremer was so seduced by the Amatis that he bought 'em, then turned around and replaced them with the new AP Avanti III's a relatively short while later; the unspoken implication was that the SF speakers weren't neutral enough, to him, for reviewing purposes.

*(I say this not only from experience with gear he has raved about - some of which I've agreed with him about and some not - but also because he tends to romanticize gear to an excessive degree due to factors other than sound, because he clearly prefers to not hear anything he considers nasty at all costs - even when that could simply be a part of the signal, because he displays blatant brand loyalties, and because his preferred musical material is largely stuff recorded before the age of high fidelity, not to mention quite different from my own music. Still love reading him, though.)