My Hifi Set

Part 2: updated as of August 2004

The impossible has happened... Annemarie has given her blessings!

This weekend I went to Germany to buy my ultimate speakers: Sonus Faber Cremona (floorstanding) speakers. I have listened to Sonus Faber in the past and it's slightly warm sound pleased me a lot. Apart from that I like pieces of art and the massive wooden cabinet is just that which pleases not only my ears but my eyes also. Sonus Faber was on my wishlist but was simply too expensive to buy.

So I decided to watch internet and other marketplaces where people sell second hand stuff, like ebay. But such equipment is rare in the Netherlands and our Dutch ebay.nl site is a joke, so where to find a reasonable priced pair of loudspeakers?

Well, the German ebay.de site is very large and contains many more items than our Dutch site. After a wile I found a pair of "new" Cremona's that were traded in after two weeks by someone for new B&W Nautilus speakers.

Why Speakers

As you can read on page 2, new speakers were initially not on my wish-list. Like many people I like to focus too on nice CD players and big amps and initially I thought that I would benefit most if I would buy another big'n'better amp.

But after a while it became clear that, and it was confirmed immediately by listening to two pairs of speakers side by side, that speakers make a bigger difference in sound than ANYTHING else in your sound chain. Meybe the only exception is the cartridge in your turntable but apart from that anyone will be able to spot difference in speakers but hardly anyone would distinguish two amps of 2000 EURO that easy.

Well, look for yourself.

De opstelling is niet eens echt gewijzigd ten opzichten van de situatie met de Elacs. In de winter zetten we de bank nog wel eens voor het raam, en in de zomer de opstelling zoals op de foto (kun je gemakkelijke naar buiten).

On the second page you'll find the rest of my set ...

© Maarten&Annemarie, Augustus 2001-2004