[please excuse my bad English]
Entry level, yeah, but the "baby" weights 67Kg/148lbs !!!!! (and delivers 'only' 25 watts, but atomic watts).
To get back to the
Aries Cerat Symphonia high efficiency horn speakers, I listened to the 1st version (non-LE, don't know the difference BTW).
That's why I wished to at least
mentioned those speakers to
@tima ,
here, as he prompted for suggestions.
But a member privately asked me to expand a little more on that
listening experience with the Symphonia.
What I can say about them lies in the following few points:
-
Brain reclockers... - Huh! I regularly attend to classical concerts, sitting in the best seats, in the best concert halls. Preferably on the very first seats of elevated structures to even avoid the
seat dip (suckout in the 300Hz region due to the energy absorption of bodies and seats). In general, I don't like horns (very dynamic and lifelike, but they
shout, are uneven, non-linear, and sometimes/most-of-the-time they lack of body and naturalness). Needless to say that when I sat in front of the Symphonia, I had
very strong prejudice. The music started, it was a Bach's choral. I was immediately 'shocked' by an extremely disturbing cognitive/psychological phenomenon: what my ear-brain obviously heard
was a choir, singing live in front of me in a concert hall (without the faintest projection or harshness on the
forte). But what my eye-brain saw were two motionless statues in a listening room. My brain just couldn't reconcile those two mutually-exclusive perceptions, and this produced a unique experience. I took me, say, 20 or 30 sec to, kind of, recover from that impressive destabilization. I have never, anywhere, on any system, had such an experience before. And yet, "ultra-high-end" systems, I've heard a lot. Simply put, I did not know that technology in 2020 could reach such a level of music reproduction accuracy. A genuine revelation.
Now, if you were chemist in another life, and are craving for an
analysis, again, is that all lies in the un-analyzable first point. But if you really insist, then here we go (I will stay very superficial though):
-
body and naturalness were perfect, also in the midrange. Hey, I am a Harbeth M30.2 Anniversary user (in a 2nd system, true; and Analysis user in the main one), and M40.x admirer. So you know Harbeth users, and their legendary worship of midrange-naturalness, right? Well, those horns fit the bill perfectly, and much more: world-class expressiveness and transparency which is second to none
- the
treble is first-class, and wonderfully integrated to the midrange (at least subjectively; I haven't seen any measurements). The Raal ribbon tweeter used is the best in the world, specs-wise (I know it because it had been chosen by an Belgian acoustician engineer for a crazy project of a 120L 96dB Corian loudspeaker; it will stay a prototype, forever; but he chosed the tweeter with the best specifications he could find). But with the Symphonia, Aries Cerat goes probably beyond what the
on-the-shelf specifications of the tweeter can deliver, by designing and manufacturing their own little 'horn' for the tweeter ! (amazing
very short video of that manufacture process -
picture of the final product).
- the
bass is fast and taut, without preventing the cello from natural bloom.
The room was nevertheless a bit too short to let the bass fully expand naturally. So honestly, I cannot really say how deep the Symphonia will go in the bass (and as I don't suffer from scatological nevrotic obsession for ultra-deep bass, I do not really care - as long as cello is ok, I am happy). Anyway, every system today can happily be complemented with a very good actively and digitally room-EQ'd dedicated subwoofer, with digital correction
in the bass only (DO NOT wreck the magnificent mid&treble of such a true high-end system by trying to
full-range room-EQ it !! -
that discussion seems to be now closed on the HUG, membership required, I'm afraid)
But enough analysis, because they sound like a big, orchestral or choral, instrument, as a whole. Incredibly realistic.
Set up?
Now, is it "easy" to make them sing? I have no idea, honestly.
It was a full Aries Cerat system, in a well designed room (though a bit too short, as said), with SMT diffusers on wall and ceiling.
So, is it necessary to have Aries Cerat gear from top to bottom to make them sing? No idea.
Is it essential to have a dedicated well-designed room to achieve
that level of realism, or 'lifelikeness'? Again, no idea.
All I know is that this system (listening room-electronics-speakers) achieves what others can only aspire to approach. And experience shows that the latter are not the cheapest (!).
An additional category should be created to encompass such sonic achievements (this is not 'just' high-end, it is obviously something else).
Plato* divided the Universe into
sub-lunar world (beneath the Moon's orbit, human world made of ephemeral imperfection) and
supra-lunar world (beyond the Moon's orbit, world of Ideas, Gods and perfection). I don't know in which category I would classify this system, really.
*not sure that
@tima will appreciate this dualism, because his avatar is a portrait of ... Emmanuel Kant, who precisely produced a synthesis of traditional Platonic dualism! ;-)
I'm sure he will offer us a better approach than mine...when he has listened to the Symphonia ;-)