I owned the Model 5s (wonderful speakers, by the way), which only go down to about 70hz. I called Aerial and spoke with Michael Kelly to discuss how to extract a bit more of the lowest octaves from them.
During our conversation, he told me that the BEST speaker in the Aerial lineup (as far as imaging and overall musicality are concerned) is the Model 6. He said that, while this would be very unusual, the best setup would not be the 10T, but instead the Model 6 paired with their subwoofer. He did caution against using just "any" subwoofer as most so-called subwoofers do not truly extend deep enough to be considered subwoofers. It's very unlikely that a consumer would buy a $3,000 speaker and pair it with a (almost) $4,000 subwoofer. For that kinda' jack, they'll just go for the 10T. But it does make you stop and think. (I feel the same way about the Revel Gems with the Revel sub instead of the Salons.)
Anyway, I thought it was interesting. I've listened to the 6 as well as the 7 and felt that the 6 was more musical overall. Even still - I liked the Model 5 the best. The new 5B has been re-designed to accomodate multi-use duty in HT applications - higher sensitivity, higher SPL capability. It's a sad sign of the times.
During our conversation, he told me that the BEST speaker in the Aerial lineup (as far as imaging and overall musicality are concerned) is the Model 6. He said that, while this would be very unusual, the best setup would not be the 10T, but instead the Model 6 paired with their subwoofer. He did caution against using just "any" subwoofer as most so-called subwoofers do not truly extend deep enough to be considered subwoofers. It's very unlikely that a consumer would buy a $3,000 speaker and pair it with a (almost) $4,000 subwoofer. For that kinda' jack, they'll just go for the 10T. But it does make you stop and think. (I feel the same way about the Revel Gems with the Revel sub instead of the Salons.)
Anyway, I thought it was interesting. I've listened to the 6 as well as the 7 and felt that the 6 was more musical overall. Even still - I liked the Model 5 the best. The new 5B has been re-designed to accomodate multi-use duty in HT applications - higher sensitivity, higher SPL capability. It's a sad sign of the times.