B&W Signature 805 vs Sonus Faber Cremona Auditor?

I can't any info on the Cremona Auditors. Where do they fall in the SF lineup? I am looking at the Grand Pianos and even potentially the Cremonas to replace my aging KEFs. Thank you.

The Cremona Auditors fall above the Concerto line in general.. they would be considered a significant step up from the Grand Pianos even given the fact that they are a stand mounted monitor rather than a floorstanding speaker.

After speaking with Bill from Sumiko, I am given to understand that the Cremona Auditor is the finest Franco Serblin design in totality since the Guarneri Homage, which many consider to be the ultimate Sonus speaker despite the greater scope of the Amati Homage. It is simly more in keeping with the "character" that is Sonus Faber.

So, the Cremona line is being positioned as a bridge between the more pedestrian "Concerto Home" series based around the Concertos and Grand Pianos, and the more esoteric "Classic" series based around the Guarneri and Amati Homages, and the classic stand mounted SFs like the Electa Amator II and the Signum.

The Cremona line is a new direction for the company, a new sound from them that is not a regurgitation of another design ethic, but an extension of lessons learned over years of building lute shaped designs.

The Auditor should not be confused as a "lesser" version of the full Cremona... it is a design statement in and of itself, and as such it replaces the Electa Amator and Signum, which are being discontinued as of the Auditor's release.

Just got back from auditioning these two speakers. It was my intention to purchase one of them tonigh, so it was some serious listnening. The setup had an REL strata, wich I also have at home. I started with the SF, I found them very pleasant, good detail, good imaging, good soundstage, nice resolution, but just not quite there for my taste. On harder hitting cuts, it fell flat on it's face, lacking dynamics on attacks. Not a bad thing, this was stevie ray vaughn - sky is crying cut 4. But on other material, like nora jones it seemed to lack intimacy and didn't get me as involved in the performance as I wanted. Again they did nothing really wrong and felt I could listen all day.

Then I swiched to the 805 signatures. Totaly different character. Faster transient response, more dynamic, more intimacy, and better transparency. At higher volumes (I play loud when it's rock, and lower when accoustic like) it reached higher levels without strain (so did the SF). Imaging was very good, but can't say for sure it was better. The guitar at the begining of "wish you were here" was extremely there, while on the SF, it was a bit dulled I felt.

Overall, I would not say the BW are "better", it really is an ultimate comparison and personal choice will be the only factor here, that much different. For reference, the music I played, was; nora jones, neil young, van morrison, stevie ray vaughn, pink floyd, roger waters (amused to death), pretender sing the beatles, Harry connick, eric clapton (unpluged), etc. So I didnt listen to any classical, or pure jazz, wich the boys at the shop hinted the SF do something magical with these.

All that being said, while listening to the 805's, as much as I was enjoying them, I got this feeling that it wasent' good enough....it was close, but I wanted more. Lucky for me they had a pair of 802 that I got for a few bucks more than the 805's so came home with those.

Michel

Yesterday, I was fortunate to be able to listen to the Cremona Auditor's at my local dealer. This dealer has a custom built single-speaker listening room approximately 18'w x 24'l x 12'h i size. The Auditor was being driven by an Audio Research VT-100 MKIII power amplifier with an Audio Research LS25MKII preamplifier using Wasatch cabling. As a result of this listening session, my opinion of this speaker is 180 degrees in opposition to Michel's statement when he said, "On harder hitting cuts, it fell flat on it's face, lacking dynamics on attacks." While I only had enough time to listen for half an hour, I came away feeling that the Auditor may have been the best monitor speaker that I had ever heard. I listened to a compilation disk which included a fabulous version of Nils Lofgren's "Keith Don't Go." This cut has some of the most exciting pop-rock guitar playing I have ever heard. I was able to hear deep into the recording mix and was astonished to hear the amazing dynamic range of the recording as Nils really lets go with his amazing guitar work, as portrayed through the Auditors. Never did I feel that on hard hitting cuts, it fell flat on its face. Quite the opposite, when the going got rough, I was surprised that the dynamic range of this speaker seemed unlimited within the frequency response of a monitor. That's another thing. When I closed my eyes, I could swear that I was listening to a full range speaker, the bass being that good. Perhaps the Audio Research electronics are a great match with this speaker, as it is extremely important to match a speaker to an amp.

I think that maybe the pair of Auditor's Micheal listened to were not broken in yet. When I auditioned the two speakers originally, I did not really listen to rock. However now that I have had the speakers a while I can tell you that the Auditor can do "Rock" music well. I was completely shocked at how loud this speaker will play.

I listened to "Alice in Chains" with these speakers just to see what would happen and I was amazed. The auditors never seemed like they were breaking up or that I had to lower the volume. This little speaker rocks.