Just checked out the website for the Wellfloats. Pretty sophisticated technology. I wonder how these compare to the Centerstage footers?
The Aurora's are coming.
- Thread starter Willgolf
- Start date
In response to numerous people asking me how I ended up with the Auroras, I will chronicle a little of my story.
I have only been an audio lover for the last 9 years. I started with B&W, then Wilson Audio, Sonus Faber and then I sold my house about 4-5 years ago and the new owners demanded my two-channel system . The good news is I got to start fresh. I made a lot of mistakes in the last 5 years but have learned a ton from WBF members. I started a thread during that search titled---
In further discussions with many people, they felt I was missing the heartbeat of a system which is the Preamp. I was tired of hearing these comments so I decided to explore Preamps. The Aries Cerat dealer in Sacremento, Ca. invited me to his house to demo the Ageto. So my wife and I flew there and spent a day listening to all of his systems. He has 8-9 systems in his house that I would say are all valued at well over $350k each.
I had no intention of buying another speaker. I was strictly going there to listen to Pre amps. We went through a process of going room by room. I was amazed at the SQ of his first system. It just got better from there. I was able to really get a good feeling for each one of his systems and how they sounded. We finally got to the Aries Cerat system. It was in a very large room. I was in there for a minute and I could tell something was different. The sound captured my brain. He has the Aurora speakers in this room. The Auroras were not the most expensive speaker that he had but they were the absolute best sounding. I was enthralled with the density of the sound. It was transformational. I am not good with the audio jargon but what I heard was the absolute best sound from an acoustically perfect auditorium and the I was seated in row 10 center stage Symphony Hall. (the room itself was just ordinary). The level of detail, vocals, and bass were so crystal clear and musical. They were dynamic and smooth but not in your face. They were the type of speaker that worked with all genre of music. They were just better than all of his other systems.
So, now I am upset with myself. I came to demo just the Preamps and I knew despite how much I loved the Viking Acoustic Speakers, I would forever wonder, what if.
Damn, my wife was upset. She did not like the look of the Aurora and loved how the Viking speakers fit in our house. I knew I was in trouble. We got back to the hotel room and she said to me, your going to buy those speakers aren't you? I was screwed.
Over the next couple of weeks, the dealer and I discussed ways that I could make it happen. He had to take my equipment in trade. I have never spent this kind of money on a system. However, I am 69, I am functionally blind ( in the last 3 years), I have a brain tumor, I had rotator cuff and, knee replacement surgery this past year and I worked damn hard to achieve what I have. I thought wtf, you only live once, enjoy life. I can't drive so music is very important to me. I ordered the Ageto, and Aurora and purchased the dealer's Kassandra 2 Ref DAC in trade for my Viking Acoustic and Lampi Horizon plus a boatload of cash. It has taken a full year to get the Auroras so I am excited.
As I have stated, this will be my last system. Even if I wanted the Ithaka DAC it will not fit in my rack.
If anyone in the USA is interested in a super pair of Viking Acoustic Grande Voix speakers, you should consider buying them. My only hope is they go to a good home. I really do not own them anymore but I have a vested interest.
My wife still loves me and it has cost me a lot of jewelry this year, she gets to heat the pool 12 months a year and I can't say a word. It was 43 degrees today and I am watching the steam come off of the pool. I hope the Auroras are worth it. LOL
That is my story.
Blind Will aka Willgolf
I have only been an audio lover for the last 9 years. I started with B&W, then Wilson Audio, Sonus Faber and then I sold my house about 4-5 years ago and the new owners demanded my two-channel system . The good news is I got to start fresh. I made a lot of mistakes in the last 5 years but have learned a ton from WBF members. I started a thread during that search titled---
Will's Horn Finalists
After an exhaustive cross-country search I ordered the Viking Acoustic Grande Voix Dual horn speakers. My wife loved them and helped to pick them out. I was super happy with my system especially the Grande Voix's. I continued to tinker and after having a few discussions with Robert Do and Robert Neil, I decided to buy the Aries Cerat Essentia mono amps. I had the Lampi Pacific and Horizon and was running the DAC direct. I had a preamp but sold it after going direct. For 2 years, I did not see a need for a preamp.In further discussions with many people, they felt I was missing the heartbeat of a system which is the Preamp. I was tired of hearing these comments so I decided to explore Preamps. The Aries Cerat dealer in Sacremento, Ca. invited me to his house to demo the Ageto. So my wife and I flew there and spent a day listening to all of his systems. He has 8-9 systems in his house that I would say are all valued at well over $350k each.
I had no intention of buying another speaker. I was strictly going there to listen to Pre amps. We went through a process of going room by room. I was amazed at the SQ of his first system. It just got better from there. I was able to really get a good feeling for each one of his systems and how they sounded. We finally got to the Aries Cerat system. It was in a very large room. I was in there for a minute and I could tell something was different. The sound captured my brain. He has the Aurora speakers in this room. The Auroras were not the most expensive speaker that he had but they were the absolute best sounding. I was enthralled with the density of the sound. It was transformational. I am not good with the audio jargon but what I heard was the absolute best sound from an acoustically perfect auditorium and the I was seated in row 10 center stage Symphony Hall. (the room itself was just ordinary). The level of detail, vocals, and bass were so crystal clear and musical. They were dynamic and smooth but not in your face. They were the type of speaker that worked with all genre of music. They were just better than all of his other systems.
So, now I am upset with myself. I came to demo just the Preamps and I knew despite how much I loved the Viking Acoustic Speakers, I would forever wonder, what if.
Damn, my wife was upset. She did not like the look of the Aurora and loved how the Viking speakers fit in our house. I knew I was in trouble. We got back to the hotel room and she said to me, your going to buy those speakers aren't you? I was screwed.
Over the next couple of weeks, the dealer and I discussed ways that I could make it happen. He had to take my equipment in trade. I have never spent this kind of money on a system. However, I am 69, I am functionally blind ( in the last 3 years), I have a brain tumor, I had rotator cuff and, knee replacement surgery this past year and I worked damn hard to achieve what I have. I thought wtf, you only live once, enjoy life. I can't drive so music is very important to me. I ordered the Ageto, and Aurora and purchased the dealer's Kassandra 2 Ref DAC in trade for my Viking Acoustic and Lampi Horizon plus a boatload of cash. It has taken a full year to get the Auroras so I am excited.
As I have stated, this will be my last system. Even if I wanted the Ithaka DAC it will not fit in my rack.
If anyone in the USA is interested in a super pair of Viking Acoustic Grande Voix speakers, you should consider buying them. My only hope is they go to a good home. I really do not own them anymore but I have a vested interest.
My wife still loves me and it has cost me a lot of jewelry this year, she gets to heat the pool 12 months a year and I can't say a word. It was 43 degrees today and I am watching the steam come off of the pool. I hope the Auroras are worth it. LOL
That is my story.
Blind Will aka Willgolf
Congratulations Will,
You must be super excited… the speakers are a fascinating design and you have an innovative speaker and great electronics as well, it’s certainly a great system you have put together there. Look forwards to seeing it all come together for you.
You must be super excited… the speakers are a fascinating design and you have an innovative speaker and great electronics as well, it’s certainly a great system you have put together there. Look forwards to seeing it all come together for you.
Nobody driving the vehicle sitting behind them either!
Really excited to read about the setup and first listening impressions Will.
Will , Your image has me recalling a very similar event that still brings on an attack of the Heebe - Jeebies !
I would urge you not to undertake any unpacking on your own prior to instillation day without some considerable helper(s) involved.
Nobody driving the vehicle sitting behind them either!
Yes, you are right. That is my one-seat scooter that I drive to and from the golf course. Being functionally blind that is the only vehicle my wife will let me drive and there are no major roads.
I would urge you not to undertake any unpacking on your own prior to instillation day without some considerable helper(s) involved.
Yes, I know. I so badly want to take my electrical screwdriver and start undoing crates. But I will patiently wait.
I left a photo of my 30mph scooter that I can't drive until I set up the Aurora's.
Yes, you are right. That is my one-seat scooter that I drive to and from the golf course. Being functionally blind that is the only vehicle my wife will let me drive and there are no major roads.
I would urge you not to undertake any unpacking on your own prior to instillation day without some considerable helper(s) involved.
Yes, I know. I so badly want to take my electrical screwdriver and start undoing crates. But I will patiently wait.
I left a photo of my 30mph scooter that I can't drive until I set up the Aurora's.
Attachments
So you have two things to look forward to! Pretty cool looking scooter you have there Will.
What an interesting process to uncrate the Aurora's and set them up. The dealer, Robert Do flew in from Sacramento to Phoenix last weekend to help set them up. We also had Stavros on stand-by late into the evening his time in case we had any issues. I could not have set them up by myself even with friends without the help of Robert. So thank you Robert!
The first step was uncrating the speaker stands. That was relatively easy. I opted for the upgraded stands. They were on wheels but Stavros provide cone-spiked footers. I was planning on removing the Wheels for the footers. I also purchased 8 Wellfloat isolation pods to fit under the cones.
Well, you will see later that I did not end up using the Wellfloat or the spiked cones due to the positioning of the speakers and the weight of the speakers.
Next, I undid the crate where Stavros supplies a speaker assisting lift mechanism, which allows you to place the speakers with 2 very strong men on the stand. I have a video of the process but I am not sure if the file is too large. One other note, Stavros has engineered these crates so well that damage during shipping is almost impossible.
The crossovers are next. They were in a crate and were about a 24" box. They require three speaker cables going to the actual Speaker. I used QSA Lanedri Ultimatum Infinity cables from the Essnetia to the Crossover and Ultimatum Infinity Jumper cable to the Aurora bass driver along with two QSA Lanedri Gamma Infinity SC to the other drivers.
The QSA speaker cables were 4 AWG and weigh about 20lbs.
Now for the fun part. Unpacking the actual speaker which was really interesting as you had to tilt the crate a certain way and lift it onto the special designed steel gurney that Stavros created. Once that was done we started to remove one side at a time until they were gone.
Hopefully, the next video will show how the speakers are placed on the stand. The speaker itself weighs over 400 lbs.
The first step was uncrating the speaker stands. That was relatively easy. I opted for the upgraded stands. They were on wheels but Stavros provide cone-spiked footers. I was planning on removing the Wheels for the footers. I also purchased 8 Wellfloat isolation pods to fit under the cones.
Well, you will see later that I did not end up using the Wellfloat or the spiked cones due to the positioning of the speakers and the weight of the speakers.
Next, I undid the crate where Stavros supplies a speaker assisting lift mechanism, which allows you to place the speakers with 2 very strong men on the stand. I have a video of the process but I am not sure if the file is too large. One other note, Stavros has engineered these crates so well that damage during shipping is almost impossible.
The crossovers are next. They were in a crate and were about a 24" box. They require three speaker cables going to the actual Speaker. I used QSA Lanedri Ultimatum Infinity cables from the Essnetia to the Crossover and Ultimatum Infinity Jumper cable to the Aurora bass driver along with two QSA Lanedri Gamma Infinity SC to the other drivers.
The QSA speaker cables were 4 AWG and weigh about 20lbs.
Now for the fun part. Unpacking the actual speaker which was really interesting as you had to tilt the crate a certain way and lift it onto the special designed steel gurney that Stavros created. Once that was done we started to remove one side at a time until they were gone.
Hopefully, the next video will show how the speakers are placed on the stand. The speaker itself weighs over 400 lbs.
I am having an issue with my computer so I did not want to lose what I typed before. This is the video of loading the speaker on the stand.
The funny thing is after we got the speaker on the stand we realized it was backward. So my two muscle-bound guys had to lift the speaker off, flip the stand, and then reset it.
From here it was just a matter of moving the speaker on the wheels that it came with to where I needed it to go and then hook up all of the speaker wires. Here is a picture of the back of the speaker.
The final product...
Once we got the speakers positioned we tuned the crossovers to maximize the performance of each driver and tweeter. It is amazing that with the bluetooth option, you can adjust the sound any way you would like it. It is worth the extra csot and is kind of like tube rolling. The tweeter is also adjustable by hand to direct the sound to your liking. We spent the next few hours playing with the measurements and sound imaging before we sat down for any critical listening.
You will remember from the previous post I mentioned the cone footers with the isolation pods. Unfortunately, we were unable to install them. As you can see the speakers are in a corner. (No comments saying they need to be moved out please). This is where they have to be. With theat location, there is no way I can take the speaker off of the stand. We tried propping up one foot at a time to remove the wheel and install the cone but due to the mass weight I did not feel comfortable. So if anyone wants to buy 8 Wellfloat isolation pods I have them new in the box. I asked Stavros if my sound would be compromised and he said it would be very minimal if at all. Stavros also made me a custom acoustic pillow that we put on the rear of the speaker. that made a huge difference in the sound quality given the speakers were in a corner.
I absolutely loved my Viking Acoustic Grande Voiz dual horn speakers and I was nervous when I turned on the Aurora's for the first time. I was floored immediately by how much better the Aurora was. The bass was fast and precise and did not overpower the rest of the speaker. I do think the QSA Lanedri Ultimatum Infinity Jumper Cable helped. The Auroro's provided much more everything than my Vikings did. When I closed my eyes to Freda Rydings live performance her voice just exploded right in front of me while the rest of the instruments surrounded me. Of course, I had to play Anette Askvik Liberty, and when you got to the sax solo it was awe-inspiring. I have had at least 6 pairs of high-end speakers but the Aurora is the best speaker I have owned and I am not sure I have heard any better going to all of the shows.
Between the speaker cables and the Aurora, they are still in the infant stage so I am expecting them to get better as they get broken in.
It has been a long journey for me. It took a year to get the Ageto and the Aurora. I want to thank Stavros and his team for providing me with my final dream system. I also like to thank Lucas Domansky for providing me with the LDMS music server which is extremely important in my system. Colin King provided me my Hijiri cables and Anas Lanedri all of my QSA cables and cords. Finally, Robert Do, the Aries Cerat dealer taught me a lot about how to set up a system, providing me with a fair trade-in value and being there if I had any questions.
I am in seventh heaven and I can now just plain enjoy my music instead of continually looking for the next best component.
The funny thing is after we got the speaker on the stand we realized it was backward. So my two muscle-bound guys had to lift the speaker off, flip the stand, and then reset it.
From here it was just a matter of moving the speaker on the wheels that it came with to where I needed it to go and then hook up all of the speaker wires. Here is a picture of the back of the speaker.
The final product...
Once we got the speakers positioned we tuned the crossovers to maximize the performance of each driver and tweeter. It is amazing that with the bluetooth option, you can adjust the sound any way you would like it. It is worth the extra csot and is kind of like tube rolling. The tweeter is also adjustable by hand to direct the sound to your liking. We spent the next few hours playing with the measurements and sound imaging before we sat down for any critical listening.
You will remember from the previous post I mentioned the cone footers with the isolation pods. Unfortunately, we were unable to install them. As you can see the speakers are in a corner. (No comments saying they need to be moved out please). This is where they have to be. With theat location, there is no way I can take the speaker off of the stand. We tried propping up one foot at a time to remove the wheel and install the cone but due to the mass weight I did not feel comfortable. So if anyone wants to buy 8 Wellfloat isolation pods I have them new in the box. I asked Stavros if my sound would be compromised and he said it would be very minimal if at all. Stavros also made me a custom acoustic pillow that we put on the rear of the speaker. that made a huge difference in the sound quality given the speakers were in a corner.
I absolutely loved my Viking Acoustic Grande Voiz dual horn speakers and I was nervous when I turned on the Aurora's for the first time. I was floored immediately by how much better the Aurora was. The bass was fast and precise and did not overpower the rest of the speaker. I do think the QSA Lanedri Ultimatum Infinity Jumper Cable helped. The Auroro's provided much more everything than my Vikings did. When I closed my eyes to Freda Rydings live performance her voice just exploded right in front of me while the rest of the instruments surrounded me. Of course, I had to play Anette Askvik Liberty, and when you got to the sax solo it was awe-inspiring. I have had at least 6 pairs of high-end speakers but the Aurora is the best speaker I have owned and I am not sure I have heard any better going to all of the shows.
Between the speaker cables and the Aurora, they are still in the infant stage so I am expecting them to get better as they get broken in.
It has been a long journey for me. It took a year to get the Ageto and the Aurora. I want to thank Stavros and his team for providing me with my final dream system. I also like to thank Lucas Domansky for providing me with the LDMS music server which is extremely important in my system. Colin King provided me my Hijiri cables and Anas Lanedri all of my QSA cables and cords. Finally, Robert Do, the Aries Cerat dealer taught me a lot about how to set up a system, providing me with a fair trade-in value and being there if I had any questions.
I am in seventh heaven and I can now just plain enjoy my music instead of continually looking for the next best component.
This system represents a phenomenal project that evidences the skills of the team that helped create and deliver it and the owner's passion for realizing his end-game system. Congratulations to all involved!
Phenomenal is a great word to describe Will’s setup… the speaker is a fascinating design and it looks quite striking and brilliant… congratulations on it all coming together for you Will.
Congratulations, Will! Thank you for chronicling for us the delivery and installation!
Robert is a great dealer!
Robert is a great dealer!
Will, what a beautiful system and installation. Thanks for sharing it with us. Can't wait to hear more after a month or two of break-in and settling.
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