Sonus Faber Concerto & Concertino


I know these are no longer in production and that there are two versions, the most recent being the Home. Can anyone who does or has owned them give me general impressions? How about specific differences btw the two versions? How easy are they to drive? If you sold them, what did you get that you like better?

Also, it'd be interesting to explain what kind of presentation you seek - "musical" or "accurate"? And, anybody buy Sonus Faber based pretty much on looks? I'm almost willing to at this point, along with Opera.
tomryan
I have owned both the Concertinos and Concertos. I had such great results with the Concertinos I mistakenly upgraded to the Concertos just looking for a fuller sound. This ended up being a mistake. The Concertinos are truly a wonderful speaker and are capable of some real magic when properly paired. ( I was using an Electrocompaniet ECI-3 and a Sony XA7ES for my source via a Balanced Connection)

I ended up selling my Concertos and now own Grand Pianos and could not be more happy. They remind me more of the Concertinos but a much bigger version of them. As far as harsh and grainy, I have NEVER heard a Sonus Faber speaker sound that way. Must be a terrible match of equipment. The Concertinos are a wonderful speaker. Good luck!

Chris
I have owned the Concertinos, Concertos, and Grand Pianos Home edition. I now use a First Sound Pre Amp, Cary Amp, Sim Audio Eclipse CD. Most of the time I had all three of these speakers I was between equipment and owned only a Pioneer Elite Reciever. It was the top of the line reciever but still that was all I had. It was enough to sell me on this brand then and today I am trying to choose between the new Grand Pianos which are a three way and the new Cremonas. While to me they are more musical than accurate it is neither of those qualities that I find the most appealing. To me they have that X factor that goes beyond a good sound and great looking cabinet and really draws you in and interacts with you. I have heard some speakers that honestly were a better product and I would still choose my Grand Pianos over them because they lacked personality. I sum it up like this. I would rather go to a restauraunt that had great food and a great ambiance than one with pefect food that lacked personality. Sonus Faber just has a lot of charisma to me.
and who can judge accuracy between this or that ? It all depends on the WHOLE system.
I hear Sonus don't have accuracy.......a friend of mine with Dali big Euphonia with twin 8" woofers , came to my house and left impressed for how clean and dynamic my Cremonas where with the twin 6.5" woofers. We both never heard in his system (which has very good electronics) so powerfull bass and slam. So......let's not generalize so easy.

btw the new Grand piano is very good and the program was the oldboy ost and dreamtheater and not just violins or guitars.
I have heard the Cremonas at a local dealer and they sound beautifully musical. They don't have any Concertos or Concertinas but I sure do see a lot of these speakers for sale on the site here.
Dear Tomryan,
right now there are 2pairs of Cremona floorstanders in the whole Audiogon classifieds. I don't think it's a significant sample.

But my point is other, take care the system synergy and see your hi-fi-end adventure as a whole system with the right ingredients and tuning, room also.

For example when I had Cardas speaker cables on Cremona , the whole universe was booming in my house, it wasn't the right for them so simple. Experiment first and then judge it.
The Cremona line will please all the musiclovers IMHO and if you take care of it it will please a lot all the others too IMHO.