Sonus Faber Cremona Auditors - Room Size


Hi,

I liked the way SF Cremona Auditors present music. I like totem sound as well. But SF Cremona Auditors sounded a bit better to my taste. But I have a doubt whether such a small monitor with 6" woofer can fill a 20 x 20 room with music or not. The other options I like are SF Grand Piano Domus (a lot more than I want to pay), Totem Forest and Totem Hawk. Can you please let me know how will cremna auditor perform in a 20 x 20 room. I am thinking of pairing SF (both GP and Cremona Auditor) with cary SLI 80.

Grakesh
grakesh
If you use a REL sub to give it more weight, that might stretch the capability of the Auditor with regard to room size.
Art
To my knowledge and in my experience, Sonus Faber speakers actually work better with higher ceilings, but probably not with 18ft ceilings in mind (wow that's high). I think it comes down to speaker positioning and how far you're willing to go to make it work. If you're going to have the speakers placed close to the walls and your listening position way out in the back, I would say no it wouldn't work so well.

I think it'll work better if you treat the room as if it's a much smaller room. Obviously you have to set up the speakers properly. But I think you might want to set it up using more common distances such as having them 8-9ft apart, 3-6ft from the side walls (not equal of course). But more importantly, you probably want to have the listening position much closer, near the center of the room rather than 1/3 into the room from the back. Even with other speakers, you might be better off dividing up the space in your room rather than utilizing the entire space. I'll let others with more direct experience to comment.
The Cremona Auditor can successfully drive a 20' x 20' x 8' room. However, despite their 90db/w/m efficiency rating, they need power to sound unconstricted and assertive. Also, being 4 ohm speakers, Auditors do not put most solid state amps in their best sound zone. McIntosh autoformer amps are particularly synergistic with Cremonas and Cremona Auditors. The MA6900 integrated sounds sensational on Auditors and in this case I make a rare recommendation of this amp over the Cary SLI80. A good preamp with a Mac MC252 or MC402 is even better, but that might exceed your space and funds.

If you choose to later add a subwoofer, be careful. Most subwoofers are too slow to mate well with that fast little cone in the Auditor. The Zu Method is an excellent match.

Phil
Hi,

Which of the following options would you recommend for my 20 x 20 x 18 room for 2 channel set-up?

1. SF Cremona Auditor with REL Subwoofer

2. SF Grand Piano Domus

I am planning on using Cary SLI-80 as my integrated amp. Would you recommend Plinius 9200 SS Integrated amp (200 watts/ch ) over Cary SLI-80 for driving SF Cremona Auditor (or) Grand Piano Domus ?

Thanks
Grakesh
Newmonac,

You are saying cremona Auditors did not cut it for you in your bigger room..Can you tell me what size room you are referring to ? Can you let me know what you saw in terms of performance that drove you away from cremona auditors in a bigger room with higher roof ?

Thanks
Grakesh