Amp for Sonus Faber Cremoma M

PKelly1504

You can use tubes for your 2 front speakers and a 3-channel amp for your center and rears. When you listen to 2-channel stereo...just turn on the tube amp. The key you will need to focus on is the difference in setting up your 5.1 digital process to adjust for the different amps. I do not have 5.1 and have never set one up...but imagine a 5.1 processor today should provide you with flexibility to manage the output to each channel to adjust for the power/performance of the 2 different amps.

howver, what it will NOT do...is adjust for the fact you may find the tube amp provides a different sound from your center and rears...which might cause an imbalance...or perhaps you will not notice...you have to try it to hear for yourself. Personally, if liked tubes for my 2-channel, i would stick with that and run SS 3-channel for side/rear.

Hope that helps. good luck.

Hey Lloyd,

Thanks for taking time to respond.

What amps have you used with your SF Speakers?

What do you currently have?

A couple months ago I finally had a chance to listen to a pair of SF Cremona Ms. The experience blew me away. Although I wasn't able to source it from vinyl, the Diana Krall CD (with which I was very familiar) sounded rich, nuanced, detailed, but most of all engaging and compellingly musical. As familiar as I am with this recording (even on vinyl), I was stunned at the retrieval of recording ambience and low level detail. On "All or Nothing At All" this setup tracked Christian McBride's opening bass solo perfectly, clean, fast, harmonically rich, unfailingly musical, and yet completely neutral with no overhang, bloat, or unevenness.

What amp managed to control the Cremona Ms and convey so much dynamics, soundstage, imaging, and low level detail in complete service to the music?

It was a $999 Marantz PM8004 integrated amp. If you think I'm off my nut, check out the TAS review of this amp, which cites the same strengths I mentioned. It also became a 2011 TAS Product of the Year. I was shocked that this amp would do this with a $12.5K speaker. But good sound is where you find it. Given the amps you're considering, I know this amp is probably a little underpowered for what you want, but if the PM8004 worked this well with the Cremona Ms, then something further up Marantz's food chain might be an ideal match, such as the MA-9S2 monoblocks. For a frame of reference, check out Stereophile's review of the now discontinued Marantz SM-11s1 power amp. Particularly pay attention to this amp's square wave response, which is textbook perfect, with near vertical rise time, no overshoot, now rounding of corners, no ripple or settling in.

And that's just what I heard with the modest PM-8004--very low noise floor, excellent speed that didn't call attention to itself, neutrality without sterility, wide bandwidth and excellent dynamics.

I'm used to hearing crazy expensive electronics in demo setups to bring out the best in speakers. I would never have thought a $1K integrated could make $12.5K speakers sound so good had I not heard it for myself, was drawn into the music, and have been haunted by that sound ever since the audition.

Emotiva? hahahaha.

Hi PKelly,

I used to run SF Guarneri with CJ MV60, then SF STrad with MV60...which eventually was upgraded to Gryphon Antileon.

I have listened quite a lot to SF Ellipsa, Cremona, Grand Piano and the earlier generation. In all cases, i found they already had such a beautiful voice (that you can generally hear regardless of most amplification i've tried, to a greater or lesser extent)...that i really was looking for a transparent, powerful amp that could just deliver the signal effortlessly. I found a good quality source running thru a tube preamp and Krell amp was very, very good with the SF Cremona, one of the best times i heard the Cremona.

YMMV. Good luck!