Sonus Faber Cremona M vs Verity Audio Parsifal

Garebear...I have heard the Parsifal Ovations a few times and the Cremona M once. If Davt is correct int hat there is not much difference between the Encores and the Ovations, than my reco would be to go for the Encores. Great speakers. Highly resolving yet musical. Tonal balance is neutral and a lot of extension on both ends of the frequency spectrum. I found the Cremona Ms to be midrange oriented and the overall balance on the warm side of neutral, which dulled the sound a bit. Also, it may have been the speaker placement/room in which I heard them, but the bottom end exhibited one note, undifferentiated bass and some boominess. Also, not that price is reflective of sound quality necessarily, but these speakers are in completely different price brackets (new) and as such you are buying a better speaker design overall with the Parisfals as compared to the Cremona Ms. Again, YMMV and like anything else you should hear them and compare them yourself, but my reco would be the Parsifals all other things being equal.

I am curious what will you be using to drive them?

G...bear don't you own the SF Cremona Ms?

Good comparision. Wonder what the advantages are for SF Cremona M single enclosure compared to VA Parsifal two seperate enclosures?

Plan on a bit more extended highs with the VA Parsifal at 50kHz compared to 30kHz for SF Cremona M. Both manufactuers use Scan-Speak tweeters and also encorporate ported enclosure.

Think I still go with the Cremona M.

Do you prefer Cardboard or Flight Cases?

I own Cremonas (pre-M) and Parsifal/Encores. My take:

These are two very different animals.

The Verity has a notable hump in the mid/upper bass and a falling response from there right up thru the entire band. The result is warm and musical, if not the last word in strict neutrality. Add in wonderful imaging/staging and a very revealing mid-band and you've got a great mix - it shows off a lot of what you want to hear in a great recording while sounding much better than it has any right to with less great (particularly those tipped up sizzlers that I seem to own a ton of, i.e. a lot of pop and rock) recordings.

The Cremona is not typical old school SF, the description of which which might not sound too different from my description of the Verity, above. (I also own SF Minuettos, which do have the bass hump, falling response thing going on.) The Cremona has notably more energy in the presence region and scores very highly on the macro-dynamic front. It's also a bit tighter in the bass. IME, it's not lean or hard sounding, but it is less forgiving than the Verity. OTOH, it's a bit more dramatic sounding on large scale music.

BTW, I can't comment on the M version, since I've never had one in my system for comparison.

I like both speakers a lot. On jazz and acoustic (particularly vocal) music, the Verity is an amazingly satisfying speaker. On larger scale music, the best recordings may not sound their very best, but they will usually sound very, very good. Overall, I prefer it to the Cremona - but this comparison will see all kinds of conclusions, depending on the individual listener's personal priority.

Good Luck,

Marty

PS The S/F is IMHO a significantly better looking beast. In my contemporary living room, it's coupled with a Pathos Classic One/Digit combo to make a wonderful contemporary Italian decor statement. Sounds pretty good, too.....

Martyki - Off topic. I have a Pathos Classic One driving original SF Concertos, which I like very much. I have tried it with my original Cremona with less success. To me, it is very nice but just does not have enough to bring out the best in the Cremona. I have not tried dual Classic Ones. I have a Cary SLP-05 and a Levinson 432 driving mine (obviously more money) and I think it does a much better job - more dynamic with better base. So, you may be able to get more out of your Cremona if you are willing to pay the price. I do like a tube pre with the Cremona. I agree on the look - a Pathos/Cremona combo is stunning.

The Cremona M was designed to be more linear and more detailed than the original Cremona. This makes it less "colored", but to me it also makes it somewhat cold and lifeless.

Dtc,

I've used my Cremonas with nearly a dozen different amps (Krell, Odyssey, ARC, Prima Luna, Cary, and several others). I'd agree that the Pathos limits the max effective SPL of the Cremona relative to the higher power SS units. However, I really like it for the moderate listening levels it sees in its current installation. It strikes me as better sounding than most, right up until the SPL reaches the point where it's worse sounding than some. In my circumstance (partially dictated by WAF issues), the Pathos is the best choice.

I do agree that, if it were my main speaker in my listening room, I'd probably go for something with a little more grunt (per your observation).

Marty