Sonus Faber V's Sonus Faber


What would you chose, if the price was identical between a shop demo pair of S F Guarneri's with a REL Sub and a pair of new S F Cremona's (no Sub) ?

What would be your deciding factor ?
kjgp
Thanks for all of your input and responses.

After listening to both the Guarneri and Cremona, I have chosen the Cremona.

Reasons were many, but mainly as follows;

I can now understand the comments by 213cobra on the other thread “crossovers just don't get out of the way with modest power, especially the Guarneri”, whilst the loudness levels from the Guarneri were never a real problem, I always felt that they wanted more, a kind of listening frustration was apparent, as if the Guarneri was dragging the amp along rather than the amp pushing through the speaker (if that makes any sense), conscious of the size of my room, I could not could not have lived with the increase in loudness levels needed to get passed the crossovers. Also the only Guarneri available at the price quoted to me, were shop demonstration models, accordingly they were available only with the 39” stands, from my seating position it seemed to be too high.

I think that the Guarneri is the better loudspeaker, however having said that, the Cremona’s driven by the 30 watt Jadis mono blocks is a magical combination. Another SF dealer (one who uses Guarneri’s at home) advised me that once I listen to the Jadis / Cremona combination I would realise what the word “synergy” actually means, he was so right.

All I am waiting for now is delivery of the Cremona’s (this Friday) then all I will have to do is break them in!
Well, you did the right thing, even though FOR ME the Guarneri would have been a better choice, its YOU who are buying these, not ME. This underscroes the highly subjective aspect of this hobby and why hearing gear is more important than all the opinions you might elicit here....

Have fun!
Kjgp
Have fun
I did the same choice 1,5 years ago (the same dillema) and having lots of fun with SF Cremona.
Kjgp, Congratulations on new Cremona's! I think you will be very happy with them... Also, I am also glad that my advice regarding Cremona was a good one and that I was wrong about power issue. Those 30w that your JA30 produces sound much more I guess... Jadis JA30/SF Cremona's is very emotional sounding combo... Welcome to the Sonus Faber family! There is SF Clus site, you may find it interesting http://www.sonusfaberclub.com/
Happy listening!
Congrats on your purchase! I will be upgading to Cremonas in the somewhat near future. I have now owned 3 pair of Sonus Fabers and could not be more happy..

Chris