Aerial Speakers for Music and HT

I am a big fan of the Aerial line. I have enjoyed three different models and all of them performed well. I'm currently using LR5s, CC5, SR3s, and two SW12s. The 10ts are a little more musical but the LR5s are very fast and placement friendly. I think two things need to considered when looking at Aerial. They need power and allot of it, Classe and Theta match up very well. These speakers take longer to break in than any others I have known. They sound terrible new, good at fifty hours, and great at about 150 hours. The attention to detail, cabinet construction and finish are second to none. You can call Aerial and speak to Mike Kelly (owner) and he will answer any question you come up, he is a true gentleman.

Good Luck
Ken

I own 10t's. Prior to purchase I listened to many speakers to an upper limit of about 20K pricewise. I bought the 10t's, which I feel are the greatest value today at their price point. Since purchase I have no regrets. The 10t's are a mirror of the components in front of them. I'm running a BAT VK50SE tube pre into a pair of Levinson 33H monoblocks. Sourch is a Sony SCD777ES with a Sonic Frontiers SFD2 MKII tube dac. Cables are Transparent and Nordost. At this time I'm completely satisfied with the system's performance. For me, that's tough, as it always appear that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. I've listened to lots of other systems, different than mine, yes! Better, I think not.

beemer

I have owned the 7b amd currently own the 10T models...The mid and tweeter sound of these two speakers were very much alike...nicely detailed but not harsh, maybe slightly laid back and friendly to perhaps not as nice recordings...the 10T bass is far deeper than the 7b and for my taste a big improvement. Some say the bass is a little too generious...placement is critical...they need power behind them and a large enough room to get them away from the back wall, over 32" or more...
hope this helps
Russ

Tmoore, Check the Classified about a week back. I seen the model 8's and a CC3 all in black wood grain for 4000.00.
If I had the room for these speakers I would think about this offer. Jason

It's been my experience, as one having been an avid audiophile and Home theater enthusiest for years(not to mention custom home theater architect by trade), that speakers like the Aerials(models will varry a tad) are more suited for the likes of more modest music listening chores!...sorry guy's.
If you're a fan of instrumentals, vocals, and lighter dubty sound reproduction, then I think with the right gear you'd be pleased with some of these types of Delicate Dainty for sound. If you're into the more demanding hard hitting rock/R&B/percussion, and especially Digital Dynamic movie playback through these kinds of monitors, I think you're going to be less than enamored! Speakers like the Aerials are really music speakers by design. They are first and formost designed to the reproduction of music. When it comes to reproducing ultra hard hitting dynamics, like what you get back from DD/DTS movie tracks, they really aren't in the right neighborhood.
Aerials, as a lot of audiophilia out there, are low sensitivity, lower effeciency, non diappolito designed(mostly) hardware, that are less dynamically inept and nible, than what's optimdally desired for attributes of a truely top flight HT speaker! These speakers are the antithesis of what a good THX type speaker in a top flight theater has to offer. Yes, I'm into refined sound myself. But when it comes to playing back movie tracks of the likes of Lord of the Rings, you can bet that something like your standard Aerial speakers won't be up to properly handling the job with anything resembling impressive!!!
This is the VERY reason that so so so many Stereophile/audiophile reviewers and writers out there have SEPARATE music systems than their HT Systems!..different animal really.(if you notice in Stereophile GHT, the reviewers all have dedicated HT rigs, separate!) While your standard monitor speakers are capable of handling less demanding music information, reproducing explosions, dinosour stomps, grennade detonnations, and tidlewaves are chores for usually diffent animals!
High sensitivity, high effeciency, more focussed, hard hitting, even active or powered type speakers work so so so much better, even at lower volumes, for movie reproduction! There's a very good reason that People like Lucas Film mix scores on ultra high sensitivity(active!!) monitors that they do!! They work!!! (Hey, there's a guy on Audiogon selling a pair of active M&K powered ThX monitors currently, that would be infintitly better for movies with a good powered sub!..trust me!)
While you're old classical vocal and instrumentals might play well on what you're looking at in some speakers, you will be left rather flat and uninspired with what those same speakers will give you back on a good movie in Dolby D.
Hey, if there was someway you could turn those same Aerials in to "active" speakers, and get some more power and finnese out of em, you might have something for movies. Hummmmmm.....
My suggestion, to anyone who's considering spending quite a bit of money on more high end sounding gear for HT dubties, and is serious about more realistic/accurate reproduction of what was mixed in the studio (movies here..), is for them to go pay Lucas Film's "Thunder Ranch" a visit! I think you'll never be satisfied with standard hi-fi gear again for movies! Good Luck