B&W N803 VS Sonus Faber Cremona

Two very different speakers. I agree with Bigkidz on the generalities. If you feel that your current setup needs warmth, the SF and McIntosh will do it. If you feel it is fine, then stick with B&W. Chances are, if you like one speaker, you won't like the other. Good luck! Arthur

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. we originally auditioned the SF, my wife loves them; but due to our budget, we settled with the n805. It just recently that we wanted to upgrade, we auditioned the SF again over the weekend, they sounded excellent w/the above musics, we will most likely go with the SF. Besides the Mac, just wondering what type of integrated that is a good pair with the mac??? again, thx everyone in advance. Ken

The SF love power. Most of the time I have seen them paired with larger Krell mono blocks.

Good choice with the Cremonas. I was very close to buying them a while back. Vocal jazz sounds wonderful through these speakers and it might be cliche, but Italian speakers playing opera kind of adds to the effect. The Cremonas are just enjoyable to listen to if you're not looking for a studio sound. And with your wife loving the Cremonas it's a no brainer.

I think the Cremona's bass drivers do need to be controlled but you really don't need that much power. I never got the impression that the Cremonas are that fussy with amps. I've heard them mainly with Classe Omega monoblocks as I had Bryston amps at that time and they sounded great with lots of detail. I probably would go with a warmer tube sound though. Have you considered the Guarneris as well?

Hi, just a few hints from a music lover (played piano for about 10 years as well as violin). I´ve been at the same stage a few month ago. Forget the B&W (awfull speakers - this has nothing to do with natural sound reproduction).

During my search for the "perfect" speaker (up to € 7.500 - must be around US $ 9.000,00) I auditionned a lot of speakers, e.g. Magnepan MG 3.6, Audio Physic Virgo III / Avanti III, Thiel CS 2.4 / CS 6, Revel Performa F 32 / F 50, Dynaudio S 3.4 / S 5.4, Sonus Faber Cremona (beautifull finish, very sweet and nice sounding, but a bit slow), ACapella Monitors, Avalon Symbol, Audioplan Konzert, ... but the best by far have been Ayon Audio Seagull Ceramique (about € 7.000,00) and the much more expensive Audioplan (€ 9.800,00).
These two speakers are awsome. Finally I bought the Ayon - they have a great and very reliable service too.
My system now consists of: Jeff Rowland Concentra II (modified by Knopf) run with Electraglide Mini Khan Plus; Shunyta Phoenix single wire speaker cable; Shunyata Aries interconnect / Tara Labs Air 1 interconnetc and Jena Labs Symphony Ultra RCA, Wadia 861b with GNS mods and a Transrotor Fat Bob S with Lyra Argo.
A GREAT sounding system - thanks to the Ayon speakers.