[Review] Aurousal A1 speakers

Aurousal A1 speakers

Had these now four days on demo so here is my little review. Been looking for new speakers for awhile and when Zanash said why not try these as he had heard them at the Heathrow show.

They are well made and fit looks very acceptable and about the size of my old speakers, the Epos Es11's. At first hearing i thought they sounded flat at the top but over time i came to the assumption this was incorrect, as what i was hearing was the instrument and not something added on. Some may not like this but for me it sounds right. Singers sound very clear with that emotion in the voice and without that sibilance. You still get the shsh when they sing the s's but it never graters your ears or rolls in your head. Sorry cant explain it any better, hope you understand. Mid range is sublime giving a palpable and realistic feel to instruments. Bass is sufficient for this size of enclosure without being boomy and bloated. Not as good as some floorstanders i heard but it makes me wonder if they made one they could be very well worth a listen as well. Very good depth and soundstage also comes to mind.

The Jordan driver is used in this speaker so perhaps if you are good at woodwork you could take on the project as no crossover is required. To me they offer a price per perfomance other speakers i listened to recently didnt provide. These were in the region of £800 to £1650. If your budget is less than £500 then do try these. At the moment i am going to try a few more speakers ie the Neat Momentum 3i and possibly some Wilmslow Audio speakers which should give these a run for the money.

I have tried to explain the best i can and hope it helps. Jim

 

I have to say the Mr sukebe and myself really thought these were special for the price ....when we heard them at the last heathrow show.

how long have you got them for ?

 

Just for another day. He may pick them up tonight. Jim.

 

I heard these at the Heathrow Show yesterday (22 Sept). They were one of the Best of Show IMO and a friend who was with me agreed.

Open, detailed and so ALIVE!

They put other speakers at many times the price to shame, IMO.

Downsides? Yup. Quite coloured - the female vocalist on the CD I took along had quite a different timbre to her voice than I usually hear, but still quite believable. But tbh, so what? - you don't often get this level of musical communication in speakers at any price.

Bass was great for the size of cabinet - deep and controlled.

Must admit I wonder what they would be like if you got two pairs and "stacked" them ...

I liked these a lot!!

 

I'll back up the comments already here. I really rated them last year, one of the highlights of the show, and for the dosh, ace.

 

I will add that while I have not heard the jordan driver, I have at the moment a pair of Fostex 103's in a small rlh, and they are fantastic, so good in fact that I was spurred on to build some rather ahem..larger ones using the FE206 (modified). There is something that single FR drivers do that I feel others just cannot communicate, I don't know what you would call it? emotion? feeling? i don't know. Maybe it is the lack of a crossover that helps it reveal the music better? I have now completely forgotton this 20-20k ruler flat response rubbish as mostly marketing hype, and instead just enjoy the music!

 

I picked up a pair of omega TS3r s a while back (discontinued now - similar design but smaller fostex driver. Takes a while to get used to the change in presentation from a typical 2 way but works a treat with a Rel stentor filling in the lower end . Startling speed and dynamics for the size - using a 30w tripath amp. Got them originally for a second sytem but now use them as my main spkrs even though they cost a fraction of others available.

 

Another viewpoint; your own speakers are coloured and the Arousal are fairly neutral. No crossover in the midrange does sound different. You've gotten used to your system and use it as the benchmark so its hardly a strange idea if other systems sound different.

 

To be fair, thin cones do allow reflections from inside the cabinet to pass back out more easily, and I often find full range single driver speakers have a bit of a chesty sound to them.

 

I dont understand the coloured sound myself as you really dont know what the original instrument or voice sounds like. So to me its just guess work on peoples part. Tenson the jordon drivers dont sound chesty at all, in fact they are the most engaging and open speakers i have heard. You have built speakers so give these a try in your next project.

 

I'm not a fan of full range drivers. Though the Jordons do look like the better of those out there.

 

period. haven't hear arousals but i know what wonders some properly implemented FRs can do in a good cabinet. fostex fe167e in a simple TQWT cab (total value not more than 250 quid) powered with altmann BYOB (500 quid) or t-amp (40 quid) completely rolled over my ex-ATC 20A (4000 quid) in most of the elements, except for the dynamic headroom.

 

I'm not a fan of full range drivers but the Jordan JX92S along with the CSS FR125S are ones I'm happy to listen to. No such chesty colouration whatsoever and like you say, open and wonderfully coherent.

I heard the Jordans in a mass loaded quarter wave transmission line at last years DIY meet. Its the first time I've gone "wow" after hearing a full range.

 

Going of topic but it is my thread, what do you think of the Altman dac Anubisgrau. What have you compared it to, if you have of course and is it worth the money?

 

as this is your thread i will answer in public otherwise i would PM you.

i like it, so far it's a sure keeper for the price ( i got it almost a year ago).

bad sides - everything about maintainance, car battery, open board etc. my system is used by my wife too and we have 3 cats. haven't fried any of them yet - but would feel happier to finally case the car battery. if i decide to get rid of it, it would be only because of the convenience of use, not because of the sound.

a plain DAC can live almost a month on a single charge of red optima or exide maxxima. however with a BYOB amp on, my aged exide battery is empty in under a week.

i can live with a car battery in my living room but can imagine this to be a deal breaker for many.



good sides:

everything about the way it sounds and communicates the music.

it sounds rather transparent for a NOS dac, while keeping all the benefits of NOS sound. still, for a transparency freaks it's worth mentioning there could be a final tad of upper frequencies transparency missing - as long as you are not into forensic listening, nothing to worry about IMHO.

it's supremely musical and have a feel of absolute rightness about it.

i refuse to think about it as an analogue sounding unit. to my ears, it doesn't sound analogue, it doesn't sound digital, it sounds right.

i believe it would also appeal to PRaT lovers - it has fantastic deep and fast bass. however it doesn't stand out from the whole picture - the sound is as coherent and integrated as it can be.

the best virtue is that you actually stop listening to any fake sound attributes the audiophiles are usually obsessed with.

you don't think about imagery, soundstage, 3D blah blah - the music just flows in your room...

if obsessed with a hyperdetailed, more clinical digital, a sound of upsampling DACs or similar, probably it might not be for you.

with JISCO option on, you can feed it with any transport you like. right now i'm using a 20 quid supermarket no name DVD player and it sounds just as good as with a 1000 quid CD player i used it before. actually possibly even better.


some of the DACs i compared it with

worse

pedja rogic 1543 DAC - clearly worse, less resolution
pre-aya I (pedja rogic SOTA 1541 DAC) - very close, altmann wins on resolution
benchmark - very different sound, couldn't live an hour with it.
a number of cheaper NOS DACs or very good local DIYs.

possibly better
twin DAC - again very close, i wasn't that focused on DACs in that session but on reflection i felt it had an edge due to a slightly more air/transparency in the tops while retaining a similar musicality.

clearly better
crazy T - the best microdynamics i've heard from a digital, a really ultimate device - unfortunately limited to PC playback with wav files only.

there are surely better DACs out there, audio note or similar NOS, however you'll need to pay a lot to better it, or to be very good with solder, IMHO.

hope this helps.

 

Thanks, gives me food for thought. Yes the drawback is the battery and the open case.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Audiophile-stand-mount-speakers_W0QQitemZ230229762656QQcmdZViewItem

No bids yet. If they go for somewhere near that someone will get a great deal.

 

i have to correct myself here

just learned that a version of pedja rogic AYA DAC i listened was an early, pre-AYA I - not assembled by the man himself.... cetrtainly not the current AYA II so pls disregard my above views

apologies to pedja and everyone concerned, i stand corrected