They are nice on chamber music, violin sonatas, maybe on small ensemble jazz in a relatively small room. On Carmina Burana: painfully lean for 4000 usd. Be careful with amp. They really need huge solid state amp to be driven (I heard with krell, that was fine, but a Primare A30 integrated - 100 watts - simply struggled hopelessly), or, good tube (that I never heard, but lost of people say). An art piece, wonderful decor, and good for certain music and taste. |
I had exactly the same experience as Ernio, but I heard them powered by a MacIntosh tube amp and CD player. I did not care for them at all. My brother was the one shopping for speakers and we both found the Vienna Acoustics monitors and Epos monitors to be less articulate but much easier on the ear. Who knows? |
I heard SF Auditors in a hifi store powered by Macintosh electronics and thought they were awesome, at least on the jazz and pop music I prefer. Was very impressed by bass definition out of such a tiny box and upper end sounded sweet yet authentic. Does anyone know how they might sound if placed on a bookshelf rather than the SF stands? That, alas, is my situation...
Also, from a home theater standpoint, the big SF center is too large for my space and I might need to settle for the Home series Center channel (retails for about $1100) should I purchase the Auditors. Does anyone know how that might match with the Auditors? |
I heard em. They do the "sonus faber thing" with Diana Krall and whatever other crap that gets used to audition speakers. It lures people in, but it gets tiresome after a while.
They absolutely BUTCHER rock. Meaning, they suck with rock.
If you ONLY listen to jazz and smaller scale classical, they're worth an audition. Otherwise, I'd stay away. |
i had a chance to hear the sonus cermona auditors at a local hi-fi store. i had seen postings mentioning that these speakers are better for rock or home theater than the earlier sonus faber models, which people generally like to say excel for classical music, and that they're different from the traditional sonus faber sound.
in my listening experience, i thought that they didn't have the "soft" sound that i associate with the sonus faber brand, but they still had a family resemblance. the auditors really excelled on a couple jazz discs i checked out. horns sounded beautiful, full bodied, and there was a nice luxurious and sensuous element to the sound. however, when i tried some rock discs, those qualities didn't sound right to my ears for my tastes. |
I heard a pair of Cremona Auditors last april at a local hi-shop and they sounded great driven by an entry level naim intergrated amp. I don't remember the amp's model number. At the time I thought the Auditors were one of the most musically involving and refined monitors I had ever heard, and promptly purchased a pair. Unfortunately the dealer failed to mention that the Auditors require exact precise room placment to sound their best, and I was never able to get them to sound as they did in the showroom. The dealer also told me they needed about 300 or more hours burn-in time, as opposed to Summiko distribution's suggestion of just 25 hours. I spent the next three months burning them in, and at 250+ hours and the Auditors went from sounding warm and dull to overly bright and etchy. No matter where I placed them in my listening room they sounded dreadful, and I promptly got rid of them. However to be fair and honest I suspect that my equitment, (consisting of a Musical Fidelity AC3r Pre-amp/B&K Sonata series EX330 amp/Theta pearl transport/Aragon D2A2 mkII Da converter), were either a complete mismatch or not refined enough to have been used with the Cremona Auditors. unfortunatly I will never know what went wrong. but I must also stress that I had used the same Equitment successfully with a pair of Platinum Audio solo's a few years ago.
PS. I also used Cardas cross and micro-twin interconnects as well as Analysis Plus Oval Nine speaker cable and wonder if they were the cause of my difficulty. Any comments would be greatly Appreciated. Thanks! |
Thanks for the replies. Any other Auditor owners out there? |
I went into a Magnolia Audio store and wanted to hear the Auditor. I was really disappointed with the small soundstage and rather veiled sound. However, it had interesting imaging which was set back behind the speakers like listening to music way back in a concert hall. Also the speakers were a lot smaller than I thought. To be fair, this store has very mediocre sounding electronics. I was listening to a Krell 120 watt integrated amp. The sound had absolutely no liquidity and sounded flat. There were two Martin Logan speakers in the room that absolutely blew them away (In my opinion), the Aeon and Ascent. However, I was really glad to get home and listen to my system which is multiple times better sounding than anything in that store. (Again, I blame the electronics!)
The store is beautiful...however, it's just a Best Buy with nicer stuff.
Ernie. |
There are lots of Auditor owners out there, but they are just ignoring you.
I own several pairs of SF speakers, Auditor is one of my favorite. Compare to EA1, it's more neutral on top and mid, but can't compete with bass in weight. I still like EA1 for string music, I have been brain washed by Dynaudio Esotar for way too long I find anything else not as seductive.
Image wise, it's one of the best on earth with huge soundstage width and depth. But I will warn you in advance you need to drive them with lots of power if you plan to use them in large room. In my 14x18 room, my BAT VK-75SE does run out of steam on 4 ohm tab. Adding a sub will definitely help here.
Also, if you don't use OEM stands, do tilt them back as much as you could to tame the slightly aggressive top end. |
I have one pair driven by the Krell 400xi integrated. Happy with the sound. My advice is bring some CDs which you are very familar with and play them through these speakers. |
