Aerial 10T owners..poll/question

My room placement of my 10Ts doesn't apply to you, as I used unconventional Michael Green Pressure Zone Controllers so I could space the four 10Ts pretty much 12 feet away from each other in pretty much a square/rectangular forumation, or shall we say circle at 2,4,8, and 10 o'clock, yet I adjusted the PZCs to have wonderful phantom center imaging.

But you want the 10Ts at least 3-4 feet out from the back and side walls normally, unless you've got PZCs.


Biwiring does sound better - I ABed with both Kimber Cable initially, then Transparent cabling. However, there's a newer kid on the block with real reasonable prices, and reports are outstanding with Aerials - Harmonic Tech. If I was buying new, that's how I'd go. There are similar reports on the Harmonic Tech interconnects as well(But I would in any event keep my special Bybee/Meitner balanced interconnects). No doubt Mark Davis will get here shortly and give you the full rundown.


I felt that Audiopoints under the 10Ts improve the sound more than just the supplied metal "spikes". I haven't tried anything else. I do use the custom Sound Anchor stands.


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Steve Bruzonsky

about placement- youll want the ability to give them some space all around.


about stands- I think it depends on what kind of floor you have, if its a floor that will resonate, Id think the stands would help.


about cables- after doing many comparisons here is what Ive found: its all hype- get well constructed cables, thats all you need. however I fell prey to the marketing hype before I learned this and I have monster m2.4 biwire cables- I have 15 foot runs. they sound fine.


about the switch- how come? Eric, you had said that you just dont like the look of the 10ts- nothing wrong with that- are you that dissatisfied with the 7s? Before you pull the trigger on the 10ts maybe you should check around for other speakers, dont get me wrong, I dont want to talk you out of the 10ts, but at the same time, since you seemed resistant to them before, what gives?


- Jerry

Eric:


I am always messing with my system, well not always, I don't have this disease as bad as Steve http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif . . .but pretty close.


I have never been tempted to swap out the 10T's.


The stands and spikes make a big difference in our room.


I am conflicted on cable. Recently put in some Canare biwire cable that sounded good and was cheap. But, recently was playing around with Richard Gray and Power Plant devices and found that power cords make a difference in our system. I think the power cords are better not just different.


So, I don't know what to think about speaker cables. My mind is now trying to tell me that if the better power cords work . . .


We have some Tara master gen 2 speaker wire and I A/B ed it with my wife (Rose has better ears) and she picked the Canare wire every time without knowing what it was. Yet this power cord thing has me confused.


We have found that blind testing with Rose helps to narrow the variables when we are testing stuff. We have discovered that different is not always better.


We are beginning the process of either constructing a new room and radically treating our existing room. I have done enough reading to think that room treatment is real and something one needs to do to get to a better lsitening environment.


So placement is relative to any room sitiations and or treatement you might be contemplating.


While listening to other speakers always helps, I don't think there is another company that comes close to Aerial when you consider all of the speakers. If you do HT , to me it's a no brainer.


Chuck


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Chuck Traywick

Kitty Hawk, NC

I just upgraded my amp to the new Krell FPB300 and I feel I need "more" speaker to justify the amp. I felt the bass on the 7B's was very good, but didn't go low enough without a sub. My Krell HTS does not have the ability to route LFE to a sub on stereo music, only on DD and DTS, so I was losing some low freq. information because the 7B's couldn't play that low. Even if it could route the LF, I still prefer a more full range speaker. The 10T's isolate the treble and mid in the head, from the rest of the cabinet, while the 7B's contain everything in the same cabinet. The room is not very large so the 7B's played plenty loud. Jerry, I still think the 10T's are butt ugly but, with the rosewood laminate, maybe it can blend in. Still up in the air on speaker cable. keep on posting, I read and print out everyones responses..thanks

Jerry:


Good suggestion. You may not feel the need to upgrade if you added the sub.




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Chuck Traywick

Kitty Hawk, NC

I have the 10ts, and I found very early that I wanted a subwoofer with them. In my view, you need a sub for movies and music. The point can be argued, I suppose, but once you listen to a system with a sub it's really hard to go back without one.


As for cabling, I'm in the same boat as others. I spent a good piece of change on Nordost Red Dawn bi-wired speaker cables, and I really can't tell you whether the cables make a difference, or the bi-wiring. I'm beginning to believe the worst about cables.


I have not heard the Aerial sub. I've heard a lot of good ones, though, and I won't pitch the particular brand I own, inasmuch as owners have a tendency to sing the praises of the equipment they bought, but I believe you'll find a number of subwoofers that will integrate exceedingly well with the Aerials. This happens to be a particularly Aerial-oriented board, but don't get swept up by the owner-hype that all of us have engaged in from time to time.


I also think you should do your darndest to a/b your current Aerials against the 10ts. You may find that you're just fine with what you've got. The suggestion to add a sub is a good one, I think, and you should do your best to audition several, rather than deciding on a different basis.



Nick


[This message has been edited by Nicholas (edited July 22, 2000).]

Chuck:


"We are beginning the process of either constructing a new room and radically treating our existing room. I have done enough reading to think that room treatment is real and something one needs to do to get to a better lsitening environment."


From an engineer's point of view, there's ZERO doubt about this. Room acoustics and its effects on sound is easily measurable and quantifiable. Speaker cables, however, are an entirely different matter. All listening tests aside, there is very little measurable difference between the impedance at different sound frequencies on Mark Levinson $1000/meter cable and $1/ft 10 gauge Monster Cable. It's true that "skin effects" and other weird electricity phenomena do occur at very high frequencies (100kHz and above), but these effects are not pertinent to sound frequencies in the 20Hz - 20kHz range.


Do you have some back issues of Stereophile Guide to Home Theater? There is an excellent series of articles on room acoustics and treatments in the most recent issues by Russ Herschelmann.

Eric,

IMHO, your best "tweaks" are:


room/ room treatment


good source equipment


for that purpose, the 10ts are great speakers.


- Jerry

Dave:


Glad to hear that. We have contracted with Dennis Erskine to design the room. I am pleased with his work so far. he has been flexible with us while we get our stuff together.


It is complex even though it is not a large construction project. For example, Dennis has already made some construction suggestions. Like the flooring, he recommends 3/4 plywood covered with 30# felt then a layer of 1/2" of plywood again covered with 30# felt and then 3/4" plywood again.


The guy whose company is doing most of the work is coming by Tuesday (I think, this is the Outer Banks, so you never knwo http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif ) and we will gingerly tell him that certain things we will want to do.


FOr example, how the walls are filled and what type of adhensive is used on the drywall.


I have read most of Russ herschelmanns articles. It appears that Dennis is very capable in this area.


I'm excited because I think we can get dramatic improvement.




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Chuck Traywick

Kitty Hawk, NC

Congratulations on your decision to get the 10Ts -- simply superb speakers IMO -- and yes, I'm biased.

Quote:
I think you are NOT familiar with the benefits of a *very musical sub*, if you want to use it for movies only. The Aerial Acoustics SW-12, my favorite purchase and best piece of equipment I ever bought to date, adds an incredible amount of information to the 10Ts for both music and movies -- and the music is perfectly clean, natural, and simply musical. I was shocked to hear how much low level information I was missing with the 10Ts -- -6db at 19-22Hz, -2db at 28Hz. Do not underestimate the amount of information you are missing without the SW-12 -- I made this mistake in the beginning.


7B + SW-12 is still a compromise -- I've spent quite some time listening to this configuration. The midrange is severly anemic compared to the 10Ts. The sound is less "round", less smooth, less detailed, and not nearly as transparent. I'd start with the 10Ts and add an SW-12 as soon as possible. You will not regret it. Read the archives on this forum about it.


Back to your original questions: I did extensive cable testing and found that Harmonic Technology cables significantly improved the soundstage of my system. Almost everyone who has critically listened to my system has agreed. Substantial improvement on noise floor as well. Much smoother sound -- all around. Let me remind you that I'm a MSE/BSE in EECS -- and I used to be very much anti-cables. After spending a long time demoing cables from two states worth of audio stores, I decided to take the plunge and purchase the Harmonic Technology cables. Recommended highly with the 10Ts.


But then again, I much prefer the Classe amps to the Krell FPBs on the 10Ts.


As far as other tweaks, I agree with the others that the custom sound anchor stands are a must -- the bass in substantially tighter with them in my system.


On Bi-wire vs. single-wire, this is one of the few cable issues that is backed up with a good technical foundation. I get the best of both worlds -- I run shotgun Pro-11, which effectively gives me external bi-wire. This configuration is preferred over the Harmonic Tech Pro9+ by many, including the President. Greg Weaver prefers the Pro9+.


I haven't changed the spikes yet.


Re: Room, of course, this is going to have a substantial impact. Too much to discuss here. Do not put the 10Ts in a small room. My 4000 cubic ft. room (this will change to 8000+ in the future) is not optimal. I found that I greatly prefer the long wall config (ala. Dunlavy).


Re: Placement. This is a ported design and should be placed away from walls. Adjust the dist. between the speakers as far as possible as long as the center image is still that -- and doesn't lose its focus. There was a thread on this forum not too long ago on speaker placement -- and various mathodologies were discussed.


The only other tweak that may be interesting would be to put Harmonic Tech wiring inside the speakers, instead of the multi-stranded 6 9's copper that you will find at varying thicknesses.



Enjoy!


Regards, Mark




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Mark C. Davis

[email protected]