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Review: Sonus Faber Cremona Speaker

Category: Speakers

I owned the Cremona for about 6 month. I usually listen to the classical music. I also own the old gurnerri. I spent about 20 hours of listening side by side. I auditioned classica music first. Mozart double concerto by violin and Viola. I major in viola so I love to hear strings. Very refined sound came out from Gurnerris. more air in the sound. Violin sounded very real and warm. Cremona had little bit more clean sound with deeper base. But for Mozart you don't need massive bass response. I enjoyed more gurnerris in Mozart. Next music I audition was Beethoven piano Sonata. Gurnerri sounded bit better in ADD recordings. Cremona sounded bit better in DDD recordings. Gurnerri wakes up when turntable or analog recording plays. I guess air makes it very smoother. I liked the piano sounds better in Cremona. More clean and piano string had more resinance to it. ringing sound. Next I listened to chamber music by Dvorak. Again Gurnerris were sounding but more smoother and warmer. Cremona was bit sharper and more accurate I say. Next day I listen to some movie sound track. Pirats of carabian. Gurnerri was lacking bass big time. And the speaker try to make it more to classical sounding then movie soundtrack. Cremona had very tight bass respond. I heard very deep timpani playing. What do I think is the better speaker ?
If you listen to mostly classical and Jazz then you will have good time with Gurnerris. Also specially chamber music or solo sonatas, piano sonata, even chamber orchestra. Cremona sounds very clean high and mids. tight bass. sounds good at almost every music. Classical in cremona is not bad. Definetly does not sound air like gurnerris. It has punch when music sounds loud. I am thinking to get my 3 speaker for LAT 2s or Resolution 1. I need something very completly different. any sugestions ?
SO far I owned 803D,802D,Grand piano, Resolution 1, 803N,804N, martinlogan Aeon, Aeon I, vantages, and Auditors. Oh Also Mahlers by Vienna accoustics. So far I liked Auditor, 803D,802D, I did not liked any of Martinlogan speakers. Aeon was good for the money. Mahlers were great but to big for my room. Grand piano sounds very different from any other speakers. carbon fiber with silk dorm tweeters sounds VERY WARM. Resolution 3 speakers sounds good when it plays so loud. I just wrote a long reviews for Creomona and gurnerris because I could not find any. If anyone wish to audition them I am in Boston Area so you can email me at [email protected]
Thank you.

Associated gear
400CX, UX-1, MP-3

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brphilharmoniker
ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,204 posts
 
qwerty,
If you read my posting you would see that the Cremonas I listened to were played on a Dealers System.
He was using Linn equipment. The models were quite pricey because he bragged about each piece (CD Player, Preamp, Amp ) being around $10,000.

Anyway, the speakers sounded very good while playing Audiophile recordings at low levels. When I tried to play louder rock then they distorted.

The Dealer had the speakers out into the room and way away from the sidewalls (almost in the middle ). It could be that this contributed to the lack of dyanmics that I heard while listening to the familiar Rock recordings.
With that lacking , I turned up the volume, then they distorted ,it was probably at a level they were not meant to be played at.
briang
25 posts
 
Maybe I could add a bit to this discussion. The Cremonas have a slight bump in the low end frequency response. The bump can be seen in some of the measurements. This isn't much of an issue by itself, but if the electronics, cables, or room acoustics accentuate this frequency as well, then there could be problems. Also, the cremonas are reasonably efficient, but have a nasty phase angle in the lower registers as well, so they can be tricky for amps. Lastly, they have a very wide dispersion pattern. I found that I could not turn up the volume when the speakers were set-up along the short wall of my room without them sounding terrible, but the Cremonas sound great along the long wall
ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,204 posts
 
Briang, Interesting...
Now that I think about it, I did comment to the Dealer that the listening room appeared to be square in shape.
That is probably why the Dealer had them out in the room to smooth out the frequency bump.

mikedaniels's avatar
mikedaniels
21 posts
 

Lived with Martin Logan CLSllz forever! Want to try Sonus Faber . My favorite on the M/L is the imaging, sound stage, depth, layering , behind the speaker presentation .

anyone tell me it the SF are as good or better at that then the ML?

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