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Calling Aerial 20T owners

I just acquired an used pair of 20T V1.

room size is 14 x 18, sources are VPI SSM Ref w/ rim drive, Lyra Skala, Einstein phono, modded Benchmark DAC USB, Einstein pre, BAT 150SE. IC are Audience 24 & Pure Note, speaker wires are Acoustic Zen Hologram II (top) and Audioquest Clear III (bottom). all sit on Grand Prix Audio racks.

due to room size, speakers are 5' from back wall. I had to bi-wire them to remove a bit of bright and edgy top end. not sure if it was the speaker wires or power amp output, I am not getting the "presence" and immediacy like Sonus Faber Amati or Guarneri Memento. I am afraid to use silver speaker cables which will improve the presence, think listening fatigue will set in after 10 min.

want to check with 20T owners:

anyone has success with tube amps?
how far apart do you have them? any toe-in?
how do you move them on carpet? 2-piece construction means I have to take the head unit off every time I want to move a quarter inch.
do you put anything under the speakers? considering some maple block so I can slide them around easily.
Aerial suggests to tilt the speakers up slightly, but after bi-wire I found level sounds better. do you tilt up?

I am happy with the bass response, so I "don't" need more power. but if power will increase upper mid and brings out a bit more presence, snappiness, and immediacy, I will consider a different amp.
semi

Showing 5 responses by semi

semi OP
649 posts
 
Parasound JC1 is on my radar, I just missed one out locally.

I have not heard CAT, but all the reviews and feedback I read are positive except the tube requirement as you pointed out. they produce tremendous amount of heat due to number of tubes use, they don't have XLR input either which will require new investment in IC. between CAT and Parasound, JC1 is the easier route and not too expensive to try.

anyone ever try class D amps on 20T? Rowland is considered class D, but it has analog power supply so it's more of a hybrid.
semi OP
649 posts
 
sounds like the owner's manual does contain some useful info, something I did not get from the dealer. most speakers I owned I don't bother to read the manual as they are quite useless.

so Rowland 304 bi-amp is your amp of choice now? I have only one pair of output from my Einstein, so I can only use 1 amp. I will much rather keep my BAT, I haven't found any solid state to equal BAT midrange and up, in fact no tube amps could compete either. will try to drag my friend's Pass 350.5 over to try though. another person also highly recommends 20T with 304, I think you know whom I am talking about.

I do have the wheels, but I found the sound changed a lot after putting the spikes back on due to ribbon's limited vertical dispersion. owner's manual suggest to sit at tweeter level? before going bi-wire, the sound was on the bright side so I called Aerial and Andrew suggested (and a common practice for them) to tilt it up a little. how little he did not say, but everyone who listened to my system last weekend with bi-wire preferred the sound w/o tilting. I wasn't sitting in the sweet spot to hear w/ and w/o tilting, but presence and immediacy did improve a bit after the speakers are level.
semi OP
649 posts
 
I did try to "do my homework". I spoke to Aerial before committing to buy, another owner had them in the same size room with 2x SW12, and previous owner was using ARC VTM-200. I know they are not tube friendly, but I don't need the lowest bass and thought I could get away with BAT especially if I don't listen loud. I will try solid state just to see what they are capable of, not sure what I will do next regardless of the outcome.

I know I still have lots of work to do in order to optimize the positioning, will see if I can dial them to the sound I prefer but then Aerial will not sound like Sonus Faber for one...
semi OP
649 posts
 
thanks to all of your input, I will continue to optimize my system while locating a powerful solid state to experiment. if solid state is the answer, not sure what I will do though...
semi OP
649 posts
 
some update about the sound after some tuning.

I plugged up the bass module ports, move the speakers closer to the back wall by 6" or so, still slight toe-in. both top and bottom dials are set at "0", I have a pretty coherent sound now. image and focus were both more dense and weightier, top end sounds smoother due to fuller upper mid, bass tightened up and free the slight smearing of lower mid. overall a very positive improvement. speakers are not tilted up any more, after changing to bi-wire I do not feel the need to tone down the top end.

will probably need another few weeks to play with positioning, they are on casters now and I am sure sound will change again once they go back on spikes. but I now have much more faith in the 150SE + 20T combo, I thought one of them will have to go during the first week.

next step is to mod my BAT to further improve bass response. but as of now the bass is tuneful and abundant.
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