I've had several listening sessions with my new Aerial Acoustics 7B speakers and wanted to report on my impressions. One caveat: I'm not a professional equipment reviewer! 
Environment: My HT/music room is being completely redone so there is plastic painters' sheeting over the entire carpet and more hung from the entryway opening. There are two openings along a wall – cavities for the RPTV and equipment rack. I placed one chair back in the room for the sessions. My room dimensions are smallish at 13 feet - 3 inches long, 11 feet - 3 inches wide and 9 feet - 0 inches high. The speaker faces are 3 feet – 0 inches from the back wall and they are approximately 2 feet – 6 inches from the side walls, with about 10-12 degrees of toe-in. The equipment rack was placed in the center of the rear wall with about 6 inches of clearance from the wall.
Measurements: The 7B's are 46" high (with stands) x 8.5" wide x 15" deep and weigh about 115 pounds each (again, with stands). It's a 3-way, 4-driver design with two 7.1" dia. bass units, one 5.0" mid-range unit and one 1.0" tweeter. Rated sensitivity is 86 dB for 2.8 volts at 1 meter on axis. Impedance is 6 ohms with a minimum of 4 ohms. Mine are finished in Santos Rosewood veneer.
Equipment: The only change in equipment has been the Aerials. I've A/B'd the new speakers back and forth with my old Boston Acoustics VR-35s. As heavy as these puppies are, that is a job! As the VR-35's roll off at about 60 Hz, I used my Velodyne FSR-15 sub with them. It was NOT used with the 7B's.
2 Aerial Acoustics 7B speakers w/isolation stands
Yamaha RX-V1 (flagship) receiver
Sony CDP8-ES CD deck
VansEvers Model 100/114 power conditioner/protector
AudioQuest OpticalOne toslink cable (CD to Yamaha)
MIT Terminator 4 bi-wire speaker cables
6 Vibrapod isolation pucks & a 3/16" thick sheet of glass (CD isolation)
Lovan Classic II rack with steel shot-filled legs
Source Material: Only CD's I feel intimately familiar with were used for these sessions.
Fleetwood Mac – Tusk
Holst – The Planets, Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Michael Gettel – Skywatching
Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon, Meddle
Sarah Brightman – La Luna
Steely Dan – Gaucho
Soundtracks: Blade Runner by Vangelis, Last Man Standing by Ry Cooder and The Falcon & The Snowman by Pat Metheny
The Important Stuff: In comparison with the VR-35's the differences were immediate, apparent and almost all for the better. The most apparent improvement was in the "amount" of music I could hear. The word "revealing" took on a completely new meaning. There was so much more going on in these songs than I had been able to discern before – the audible detail available was staggering! Goose-bumps caused the hairs on my arms to stand straight up, no kidding. The tiniest modulations of an organ tone were right there, and I'd never heard them before. The softest breath on an instrument was there all along too, just waiting on the right speaker. The upper treble wasn't as bright as the -35's but not at the cost of any lost information. It was more natural sounding and didn't leap out of the tweeters. The mid-range was an improvement to die for – guitar and piano were marvelous and carried a new layer of subtly important shadings. The bass was nicely tight and focused with good presence down to 30-35 Hz. I'm guessing there, as I haven't run my 10 Hz sweep tones through the 7B's yet. Another obvious improvement was in feeling the music - literally. These speakers really pressurize the small room I'm in, much more than the -35's and the Velodyne used together. Soundstaging was a mixed bag. The Aerials have a taller and 3-dimensional soundstage revealing a very discernable depth to the placement of the band/orchestra where the -35's had a wider but shorter and 2-dimensional soundstage. One other thing that was very apparent is that these speakers will let you know when you have a poor recording on your hands. One CD not listed above, that had only received play-time in the truck turned out to be a horrible mastering job – very fuzzy sounding on top with noticeable distortion all through several of the tracks on it. I thought for a moment that possibly it was the speaker breaking up, but a quick run through another 9-10 CD's assured me the speaker was fine (whew!). Conclusion? No hiding here. If it's on the disc, it'll be heard. For better or for worse.
Obviously, I like these Aerial 7B's a lot. What isn't obvious is that I like them MORE than I suspected I would once I got them home. Also, keep in mind that these sessions were in my room, which is undergoing major renovation and has no damping materials, paint or anything else to help cushion the sound. I can't wait to get the room finished and see how they sound in a properly conditioned room. I'm planning on posting a couple more updates to this. The first will be for the addition of the Musical Fidelity A3.24 DAC, and the second will be after the room is complete and everything is in its final position with acoustic treatments, etc.
David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater"
Our DVDs on DVD Tracker
Environment: My HT/music room is being completely redone so there is plastic painters' sheeting over the entire carpet and more hung from the entryway opening. There are two openings along a wall – cavities for the RPTV and equipment rack. I placed one chair back in the room for the sessions. My room dimensions are smallish at 13 feet - 3 inches long, 11 feet - 3 inches wide and 9 feet - 0 inches high. The speaker faces are 3 feet – 0 inches from the back wall and they are approximately 2 feet – 6 inches from the side walls, with about 10-12 degrees of toe-in. The equipment rack was placed in the center of the rear wall with about 6 inches of clearance from the wall.
Measurements: The 7B's are 46" high (with stands) x 8.5" wide x 15" deep and weigh about 115 pounds each (again, with stands). It's a 3-way, 4-driver design with two 7.1" dia. bass units, one 5.0" mid-range unit and one 1.0" tweeter. Rated sensitivity is 86 dB for 2.8 volts at 1 meter on axis. Impedance is 6 ohms with a minimum of 4 ohms. Mine are finished in Santos Rosewood veneer.
Equipment: The only change in equipment has been the Aerials. I've A/B'd the new speakers back and forth with my old Boston Acoustics VR-35s. As heavy as these puppies are, that is a job! As the VR-35's roll off at about 60 Hz, I used my Velodyne FSR-15 sub with them. It was NOT used with the 7B's.
2 Aerial Acoustics 7B speakers w/isolation stands
Yamaha RX-V1 (flagship) receiver
Sony CDP8-ES CD deck
VansEvers Model 100/114 power conditioner/protector
AudioQuest OpticalOne toslink cable (CD to Yamaha)
MIT Terminator 4 bi-wire speaker cables
6 Vibrapod isolation pucks & a 3/16" thick sheet of glass (CD isolation)
Lovan Classic II rack with steel shot-filled legs
Source Material: Only CD's I feel intimately familiar with were used for these sessions.
Fleetwood Mac – Tusk
Holst – The Planets, Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Michael Gettel – Skywatching
Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon, Meddle
Sarah Brightman – La Luna
Steely Dan – Gaucho
Soundtracks: Blade Runner by Vangelis, Last Man Standing by Ry Cooder and The Falcon & The Snowman by Pat Metheny
The Important Stuff: In comparison with the VR-35's the differences were immediate, apparent and almost all for the better. The most apparent improvement was in the "amount" of music I could hear. The word "revealing" took on a completely new meaning. There was so much more going on in these songs than I had been able to discern before – the audible detail available was staggering! Goose-bumps caused the hairs on my arms to stand straight up, no kidding. The tiniest modulations of an organ tone were right there, and I'd never heard them before. The softest breath on an instrument was there all along too, just waiting on the right speaker. The upper treble wasn't as bright as the -35's but not at the cost of any lost information. It was more natural sounding and didn't leap out of the tweeters. The mid-range was an improvement to die for – guitar and piano were marvelous and carried a new layer of subtly important shadings. The bass was nicely tight and focused with good presence down to 30-35 Hz. I'm guessing there, as I haven't run my 10 Hz sweep tones through the 7B's yet. Another obvious improvement was in feeling the music - literally. These speakers really pressurize the small room I'm in, much more than the -35's and the Velodyne used together. Soundstaging was a mixed bag. The Aerials have a taller and 3-dimensional soundstage revealing a very discernable depth to the placement of the band/orchestra where the -35's had a wider but shorter and 2-dimensional soundstage. One other thing that was very apparent is that these speakers will let you know when you have a poor recording on your hands. One CD not listed above, that had only received play-time in the truck turned out to be a horrible mastering job – very fuzzy sounding on top with noticeable distortion all through several of the tracks on it. I thought for a moment that possibly it was the speaker breaking up, but a quick run through another 9-10 CD's assured me the speaker was fine (whew!). Conclusion? No hiding here. If it's on the disc, it'll be heard. For better or for worse.
Obviously, I like these Aerial 7B's a lot. What isn't obvious is that I like them MORE than I suspected I would once I got them home. Also, keep in mind that these sessions were in my room, which is undergoing major renovation and has no damping materials, paint or anything else to help cushion the sound. I can't wait to get the room finished and see how they sound in a properly conditioned room. I'm planning on posting a couple more updates to this. The first will be for the addition of the Musical Fidelity A3.24 DAC, and the second will be after the room is complete and everything is in its final position with acoustic treatments, etc.
David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater"
Our DVDs on DVD Tracker
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