Do you need to run them in?
No you don't. The materials and tolerances are such that nothing significantly changes from new. 'Running in' is a common misconception with many products, particularly electronics. It's more often than not the human perception that adjusts.
What stands do you recommend?
The important aspect of stands is that they should raise the driver to ear height and not introduce resonances. Just apply common sense. We use Atacama. They certainly look good in hammerite grey and can be weighted.
Can you bi-amp them?
No you can't - there is only a single driver/coil and no coil interactions, reactances or impedance effects to worry about.
What is the best positioning for Stereo?
Equidistant from listener as each other and toed in so the centre axes cross about 1.5 feet in front of the centre of the listener area - this gives optimum centre imaging over a wide area. Placing next to the wall gives a slightly cleaner bass image. Room resonances must be taken into account as with any speaker - for small/medium width rooms ideally avoid listening less than 3 feet from a rear wall as the room resonance associated with the room width will be over prominent at this location.
Does the toe-in positioning effect treble performance?
This has been accounted for in the design - the on-axis response gently rises towards 20KHz. Like with all speakers, pre-amp equalisation is useful for optimum adjustment according to room/brightness preferences or if speakers are not at the optimum height or toe-in. Horizontal positioning is very flexible.
The Aurousal VS has built-in treble adjustment, which also alters the dispersion so allowing extremely fine customisation.
What amplification is recommended?
Minimum is 20W RMS per driver per channel, but the excellent transient response (particularly bass) is optimally fed by double this, with good peak delivery. They are in other respects very flexible and easy to drive, with a relatively flat impedance curve and no crossover to interact with the amp. Don't forget the effect of the room - this will often override the effect of the amp, particularly in the bass and to some extent treble.
How should I position for surround sound?
The toe-in of stereo pair can be reduced. Centre should be same height as stereo pair if possible, if not then angle it toward the listener.
How does the sound compare with what I am used to?
It is important that comparisons are made with high-end coherent sources - electrostatics or quality headphones. A common mistake is to use a conventional multi-way speaker as reference, as this is the sound we have become most accustomed to. Our reference point is live, unamplified acoustic music without any speaker in the chain - it is the speaker which is by far the weakest link in the audio reproduction chain and where 99% of audible anomalies occur.
The length of thin wire and reactance introduced by the average speaker coil and crossover circuit completely swamps any effect of changing the cables for something more expensive, for instance and typical speaker distortion is over 100 times even the most basic amplifier spec, and these are just two examples!
If set up correctly, the first thing you will notice about Aurousal is the remarkably realistic imaging with true separation of instruments, giving a full 3D soundstage. If not set up correctly then imaging will still be good but not so impressive. This can easily be tested.
The next difference will be the sound of cymbals and hi-hat. The top end will seem a bit laid back at first as what you are hearing is a truly coherent source. The highest frequencies are not detached and fired from a separate source with differing spatial and phase characteristics, so drawing the attention. Here, all the lower harmonics are still integral to the sound and what you hear is a fuller and cleaner harmonic structure. You can test this by going into a music shop and striking a cymbal or hi-hat. You will get a rich, musical sound, full of natural beauty. This is quite different from the sharpened sound we have become accustomed to from conventional reproduction.
Not with the Aurousals – you get all the musical distinctiveness that draws you into prolonged listening. Instruments sound like the original and what’s more, have a distinct location. Test this by listening to a well recorded piece with a 'small' source such as triangle or flute. This will seem to 'appear' at a location behind the plane of the speakers, the distance behind the plane dictated by the recording ambience.
The next thing that you will notice is that there is a very detailed and ‘open’ clarity across the whole frequency range. The low-level original recording ambience is not lost. Normally this is filtered out to some degree, giving the first impression of clarity. Bass and treble is then typically highlighted to compensate and ambience is re-introduced by wide dispertion, creating ‘room effect’ or a degree of resonance. Not here – you get a neutral and minimally altered sound that conveys the realistic nature of the music. The way to test this is to play the speakers at extremely low volume levels – all the original detail is still preserved, including timing and micro-dynamics.
An additional layer of 'room effect' can be introduced with the VS, if so desired but the core image is still present as a focussed layer, and this is not effected.
The difference between recordings, including emotive and soundstaging information is relayed fully and the speaker signature is remarkably neutral. There is also no need for acoustic damping around the room as room reflections are minimal. A solely wide-dispersion source can only give realistic imaging in an anechoic chamber.
What if I need subwoofer levels and depth of bass?
Bass is well-controlled and fast, with very impressive extension for the cabinet size. The design is for correct and realistic in-room tonal balance.
The Aurousal VS bass quality exceeds that of combining with any sub we have tried as it is fully integrated and in-room capability is effectively subsonic (below 20Hz for a room with subsonic resonant capability). Also, whereas a single source subwoofer will react with the room to give an exaggerated array of simple room nodes (peaks/troughs), the use of two sources provides much more complex interactions, tending to even out the extremes. The effect of this at a room location is many small ripples in response curve with changing frequency as opposed to fewer but much larger waves with a sub. Speaker positioning is also much less critical for this reason.
Will the VS work well in a small room?
Yes it will, but it will work best with at least 1m listening distance. This problem arises when the room resonance is above the lower cut-off limit of a speaker. The lower cut-off can be raised substantially by plugging the port so the room resonance extends response rather than adds a peak. The bass will still be of excellent quality. A foam plug can be used for intermediate adjustment. The same adjustment can be used on the A1.
How wide is the listening area?
There is a definite 'optimum listening' area for treble as with most serious 'imaging' speakers. This is reasonably broad, spanning an area nearly equal to the distance between speakers in normal stereo use. There is unique capability for a wider than normal focused soundstage by using greater speaker separation (still maintaining accurate centre imaging) if toe-in and treble are increased accordingly. The A1's will not fill a room with uniform sound as they have been designed for optimal imaging, which relies on left-right cues and minimal 'room effect'. The VS can be adjusted for a wider listening area by use of the customisable HF, but purists may still prefer the HF switched off.
How do I achieve a 'headphone effect'?
Reduce the toe-in, giving maximum left-right focus, over-emphasised channel separation and reduced centre spacial focusing.
What about in-wall installations?
The speakers can be set into the wall, forward facing - particularly for surround sound implementations. In stereo mode the speakers can be closer together than usual to maintain centre imaging. Treble should be adjusted accordingly.
What about vertically stacking?
Vertical stacking gives the advantage of multiplying the power capability and depth of audience coverage. An example is to stack 4 A1 units on their side, drivers aligned vertically so listening height is at roughly the centre between the two. Any number can be stacked but we recommend 4, or 9 for ease of impedance adjustment - they are run as a series of parallel arrays.
A stack of 4 A1's will maintain the excellent imaging to the back of a small concert hall, giving a stage performance of unbeatable realism (a subwoofer may also be required, depending on source).
For normal domestic environments where full bass is required then the VS offers a better solution than A1/subwoofer combination, both in quality and uniformity of bass response. The VS will out-perform 2 stacked A1's as the cabinet design has been optimally tuned for a 2-driver array.
Please email us for further details on information@aurousal.com.
