I've owned a couple pairs of Aerius i's and for $2K (back then) they were and are a steal. Some say the Aerius was the best hybrid speaker ML ever offered.
Mine were $1300 demo. partnered withe premier 11a and pv 12 from CJ. I am not sure they could take on the Summit, but they gave the rest of the line a run for the money.
Mine were $1300 demo. partnered withe premier 11a and pv 12 from CJ. I am not sure they could take on the Summit, but they gave the rest of the line a run for the money.
Having owned Quests, reQuests, Prodigys and now Summits-and being quite familiar with the Aerius--I'd have to say the latter couldn't touch the former four speakers. That's not to diss the Aerius-it was a great little speaker for the money - but it had several rather significant issues. First and most foremost, the Aerius had rather limited dynamics and when pushed, became very forward and bright sounding. Two, the speaker had rather limited low end extension. Lastly, the mating of the two drivers was nowhere as good as with the other speakers.
I also couldn't cotton to, despite my colleagues unanimous ravings, the sound of the Apogee Stage at the time either I remember hearing the Stage when its was debuted at the now long defunct Chicago CES and remarking to Jason, that I felt like I was listening to the Lilliputian Symphony Orchestra eg I felt like I was always looking down at the orchestra from the balcony. Notice that soon after, Jason came out with a stand to put under the Stage; that IMHO still didn't solve the problem