Paradigm S8 vs. Sonus Faber Cremona M

The Revel Ultima Salon is a $22,000.00 speaker and the Paradigm S8 is $8,000.00 is hardly a similar price point.

Again it depends on the setup what might be magic with the Salon's might be too hot for the S8s.

Just because both speakers use Beryillium tweeters doesn't mean that they should sound the same, Usher Audio and B&W both use Diamond Tweeters does that mean that they sound similar? Or KEF and PSB both use Titanium does that also mean they sound the same?

Too many reviewers love the S8 and S6's for them to be anything other than great speakers, however if they have a hot tweeter than the choice of cabling, electronics and source, components must be used to balance them out.

This is an art and sometimes to make a particular product come alive it does require just the right pairing.

In my area there aren't any good dealers showing the speakers the only dealer that had them was a large chain now gone that tried to imagine they were high end, they often had them setup with Anthem gear using shitty Monster Cabling and Power conditioning in a giant room with a speaker selector and 25 other pairs of speakers! I doubt most real audiophiles would be blown away by that setup.

If I was your salesman and I could sell as $22k pair of Revels, over an $8k pair of Pardigms would I necessarily want to work with the S8's to make them shine?

Now I am not saying the Revels' aren't better speakers but that is a lot of coin difference between them.

the revels do not use a berryllium tweeter

The Revels and Paradigms were at different stores. And the Paradigms were hooked up to the same nice Classe stuff that was also used with their B&W 802s, so neither were they being shortchanged gear-wise nor was the dealer setting me up to go for the more expensive speaker by using garbage gear on the Paradigms. Maybe they need better front end matching - but they certainly don't need to come any more alive, they need to be calmed down!

And yes, I am of course aware of the price difference, which I think dovetails not only with with my observations about what I heard but also my confusion as to how a reviewer could put them in the same league as the big boys.

"I have heard of Krell, Ayre and Bryston, is that what I should be looking for?"

Those brands offer very different types of sound, especially Ayre compared with the other 2. What kind of sound do you like? The warm, lush, silky, romantic? Or the cooler, clean, dynamic, extra-detailed, slamming, rockin' kind? Not that those are all necessarily opposites, but things tend to group that way.

What are your musical tastes?

If you're willing to put down MC601 kind of coin and am looking to Sonus Faber for speakers, I suggest you aim higher at Elipsas, Amatis, or Guarneris. How big is your room?