Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage vs. Memento
 

Interesting thread on Guarneri Homage vs Guarneri Memento on Audiogon.

There are some pretty opinionated people on both side of the debate (and some interesting details on the drivers used in both). For me, the take-away from taking into account all the (pretty obvious) biases in the posts, is that like the difference between the Cremona and Cremona Ms, the Memento sound more modern (i.e. more extension/detail/refinement) while the older Homage sound warmer and more romantic.

I haven't had an opportunity to hear the Memento - let alone hear it on my system, has anyone in here had a chance to hear both the Homage and Memento in identical or similar systems/rooms?

Alberto

Interesting debate. A little too much emotions from both camps but that is typical of A'Gon. :D

Likewise Alberto, I have not heard the GH's in my system. What I've discovered about my GM's is that just when you think you know everything about them, you really don't. I've made some system changes over the recent months as you know. The GM's have allowed me to hear all the little differences along the way. They sound quite a bit different with the 501s vs M1.2s, they sound different with the C500P vs LL2D or Ayre KX-R. So are they more or less neutral to allow that kind of an audible difference and discovery? Perhaps... Can they sound a little hard and edgy when the recording is total crap? Sure. Can they sound simply gorgeous when the recording is great? You bet, like very few speakers out there. Can they image like some of the best speakers out there? Absolutely. Can and do they still have that romantic, seductive midrange? Of course they do or I wouldn't have traded my other speakers for them. Do they have airy, sweet, yet extended highs that allow you to hear the shimmer of the high hats with that golden glow and overtones? Yep. Does it matter who made the drivers for which version when Sonus Faber puts an incredible effort into their drivers no matter who they work with? Not to me it doesn't. They all sound great and I can easily live with either version, that I am sure of. :yes:

One other side note, I've heard from a few owners of recent Sonus Faber speakers that they thought the speakers took an enormous amount of time to break in fully. They sound great out of the box but really get into the zone after many hundreds of hours on them. I would now fully agree with that statement as I think my GMs sound even better after what I would guess is in excess of 800 hrs now. The soundstage keeps opening up further and further, the highs are a bit sweeter now and the bass is very different. Had I kept them breaking in further before buying the subs, I don't think I would have jumped on the subs quite as fast as I did. I removed the subs from my system for the past few weeks and I really don't miss them that much. It is difficult to comprehend how those 6 inch drivers load up the room and actually rumble the floor a bit when the recording has that kind of bass on it. Of course my 14x17 room is not overly big for them to handle.

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There is a nice pair of Elipsa's on Audiogon at a pretty reasonable price.

I moved form the Auditors to the GH and it was a major, MAJOR, upgrade. In pictures they look to be very similar, but I'd guess the GH volume is 2x that of the Auditors.

While I loved the Auditors from the first moment, it took me a little longer to fall in love with the GH. I loved, and still love their looks, but as for the sound, they IMMEDIATELY commanded respect, but they were not as forgiving as the Auditors and thus a bit hard to love at first. In a way the Guarneri's "forced" me to upgrade some of my components, cabling and room treatment. This is, BTW, pretty typical of speaker upgrades IMO. Generally speaking, as you go up the line, they become more and more revealing and will manifest any weaknesses in your audio chain.

Right now, the MC501 + SF GH + room treatment sounds amazing and I can say that I love the way it sounds ... but it took me a while, and some upgrades, to get there. I no longer miss the more gentle and forgiving nature of the Auditors.

Alberto

I find the GM's tweeters much more refined over the Auditors by a very wide margin. They are obviously much more linear, extended and airy, yet remain sweet unless the recording is really bad. I also thought the midrange of the Auditors was a little lusher/warmer sounding, the GMs midrange is a bit more neutral but tends to reveal much more on intimate recordings and especially vocals making it that much more refined as well. The GMs are more of a high end speaker all around, no doubt but they are still much more "musical" overall than so many speakers out there by comparison. :music:

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Why don't you try a pair of cremona 3 way floor standing speakers and you will gain 4 woofers (2 each speaker) ?