Legacy AERIS Review - page 6
I have several recordings of the organ including the video of myself, but I called up the “Magic!” cd
of Peter Conte playing the Wanamaker. The paintings on the wall began to vibrate noisily and the
chair I was sitting in felt like one of those vibrating chairs you see in Sharper Image. And this was at
moderate volume. The room was solidly pressurized. Now THAT is a wave launcher! It wasn’t just
about the quantity of low frequencies, but the quality as well. I’ve simply never heard bass this
deep with such accurate pitch, texture, unbridled, effortless POWER. The grand scale of that
massive pipe organ was inhabiting my listening room!
One of the biggest challenges for any speaker designer is to
overcome the enclosure or the baffle as it’s referred to in audio
speak. The laws of physics dictate that when energy is produced
it can’t just be smothered or eliminated; that has to go
somewhere. Most speakers are built with MDF and stuffed with
some type of acoustic filler. Still, the cabinet will vibrate
causing colorations, distortion and all kinds of other nasties. I’ve
seen speakers made out of steel, aluminum, Corian and even
granite. They can mask the problem but not eliminate it.
Another way to deal with cabinet interaction is to just not have
one in the first place. It’s called open baffle, not a new concept
either, we've reviewd many of them. You can see the grill
material at the sides and back of the "open" speaker cabinet at
left. If it’s done right, nothing does imaging and sound staging
better. If it’s done right…and Bill does it right. The woofers are
in a sealed, separate chamber, but everything else is baffleless.
I’ve never heard such an airy, open almost limitless soundstage.
Nothing ever sounded like it was coming from a box.