Avalon Indra vs Sonus Faber Cremona M

Karel

This is fun...a kindred spirit. I do pick my wines however, according to Robert Parker...if he likes it, I will not! I do not like molasses and overdone wines...exactly what a lot of CD recordings are like.

I noticed that your speakers have ceramic drivers. The Avalon Indras have them too. What do you think is the difference between ceramic drivers and other materials (like paper, carbon, metal, etc.).

Hi Dbjain,

I have a pair of Avalon Indra and a shindo Giscours preamp.

I first bought a giscours premap (just amazing ;) ) and after I tried to find my speakers.

I listened to : Wilson WP8, Sonus Faber Cremona M, sonu faber stradivari, Verity Audio parsifal, B&w 800d and some others.

(I don't like the sound of sonus faber because it is slow and quite lush.)

For my taste (clarity, speed, tonality, soundstage) the avalon Indra is another league in comparison to the others.

Maybe it can help you in your search ;)

I don't think the Cremona M is slow and lush at all. The old one maybe, but not the M, which to me has much better speed and clarity. I don't know how it compares to the Indra, but seeing the price difference in my country (Indra being more than 3 times as expensive), the Indra better be good! ;-)

I agree that the Cremona M is faster and more transparent than the previous version; ? maybe less euphonic. I kind of liked the old one because of its euphony.

But, I chose the Indras over the Sonus Faber's. In Canada, the price difference is not as high as it is in Europe, and the Indras are in another league over the Sonus'.

I agree with Samuel. I too have listened to about the same speakers and they are not the same.

If Avalon could just make them a full range speaker the Indra would be awesome speaker. I just have a hard time buying a speaker for over $20,000 that does not go below 30 with some good output. Even the Eidolon just need more bass output to compete with Watt Puppy 7, vandersteen 5a and others in the same price class. They sound very much like Kharma 3.2FE to me but with a tad more bass. With a good sub the Indra's would be a keeper. I sold my Eidolon for a pair of Aerial 20T and then I realized how much bass I was really missing. With the Eidolon I was listening to music that suited the speakers not music that I wanted to listen too. If that makes sense.

But the Indra should not be compared to Cremona M since they are twice the price.

The other thing that needs to be noted is that any Avalon needs more room behind the speaker to get this sound then any other speaker I have had. In most homes it's not practical. I needed about 7 feet behind the speaker to get the 3d to kick in. That was right in the middle of the room. With my Watt Puppy 7 and Aerial 20t I needed only 3 feet to get the same 3d sound.