I find it hard to believe, but only in the last 5 or 10 years did the museum in Cremona, Italy, where famed violinmaker Antonio Stradivari was born in 1644, receive the first violin that Stradivari ever made. To honor the occasion, Sonus Faber loudspeakers has issued Il Cremonese ($45,000/pair), whose price is far lower than that violin. An extension of Sonus Faber's Cremona and Stradivarius series, Il Cremonese incorporates technology from the company's higher-level models. Paolo Tezzon custom-designed all drivers to achieve greater accuracy and coherency.
Through Audio Research electronics and Shunyata cabling and power treatment, the sound on Ivan Fischer's R2D4 recording of Mahler Symphony 9 (Channel Classics SACD) included excellent low bass and violins that sounded lovely. I would never have expected such fine string sound in such a small space, especially given that the speakers were flown in at the last minute to replace a damaged-in-shipment pair, and were not adequately broken in.
